Hi! I know your kiddo has been wrestling with his decision. If you were looking to interject more chaos into this process … Colburn just announced a last-minute opening in the tenor trombone studio. They are taking prescreens right now!
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Now you have me intrigued. Why did they not have a waitlist?
No clue! Just saw it on Instagram!
Because this year Colburn had “no openings” for tenor trombone during the traditional audition process. So there were no trombone applicants thus also no waitlist. David Rejano had a last minute shift in his studio and has an opening for fall. It might be because one of his students won the spot with Richmond Symphony in early fall.
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Thank you so much! My son saw the news about the Colburn opening on that professor’s Instagram today during school (ahh, school). He texted me about the crazy timing of it, but he has made a decision to attend elsewhere that he feels great about. I’ll share after tomorrow passes; we are just letting the dust settle.
It will be interesting to see who goes for that late-breaking opportunity. His audition season pals all over the country are chatting about it today. I hope they are careful and don’t burn bridges, since most have committed.
One thing that occurred to me for people reading this for next year, is to take trial lessons everywhere you could possibly imagine going, even if there is not supposed to be an opening there. Anything can (and clearly does) happen! Someone who has had a trial lesson with this professor will be poised to pounce on that opportunity.
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Exactly. My son had known for a long time that there wasn’t supposed to be an opening this year. For that reason, he didn’t do a trial lesson there, imagining it was pointless.
It will be interesting to see if the two recent Curtis recruits stay committed, or if this tempts either of them. In some ways, what better time for a person to audition for Colburn, than when Curtis has just taken two phenoms off the market.
I would bet a talented masters / artist diploma level person will get the spot, but who knows; obviously there are rumors so we all get to wait until June to hear what comes of it.
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Interesting. This is why Curtis has a waitlist if a current student has even a promising professional audition in the works.
Agree that it seems likely an AD or MM level candidate will likely get the spot.
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Why do you think MM or AD, out of curiosity? Is it more likely that an accomplished (vs. younger) artist is poised to turn on a dime at this point ? I have heard some people say that these profs like to mold someone for 4 years, but that is speculation.
Only because the teachers at other conservatories are aware of this opening and know if they have a current or former student that doesn’t have a full time orchestra job yet but are very close and could use a bit more polishing for a year or two they’ll encourage them to apply knowing this won’t add to their financial debt and could launch their career. Those players are currently (job) audition prepping full time and are ready to audition for this with short notice. But again it’s anyone’s game that shows up and plays great.
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My caveat is that I really don’t know Colburn or the makeup of that particular studio.
Just basing my opinion on knowing Curtis which is similarly small and with very set studio sizes.
At least at Curtis (for small studios ie. winds and brass) they tend to keep a balance between younger and older musicians. This helps to make sure ensembles are covered adequately with experienced kids. Even though most if not all have a fair amount of orchestra experience, there is a big difference between a 17 year old who has a decent knowledge of repertoire and a 21 year old who could probably step into Tchaik 4 in a concert without missing a note.
But I’m really just guessing, probably like the rest of the trombone world. 
And edited to add; agree with @77mom above, it is a very easy transition for a high level post UG musician.
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Happy May 1st everyone! WE MADE IT!!!
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Just reaching out to thank you for this post which was specifically extremely helpful and also for your other posts which I found a lot of good insight and information. Your contributions to discussions really helped me navigate this year for my student’s jazz piano choices. You have great and accurate info and now that it is May 1 I know your information was especially on point. THANK YOU.
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Anyone out there taking this down to the wire?!?!?!
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Thanks to all on here who have offered advice, support, feedback, suggestions, and just shared their experiences. It’s been a crazy ride with some unexpected twists and turns, but happy to share ours has committed to BU! Tough to turn down a great program, amazing financial support, and the opportunity to be surrounded by (and to be able to study) more than just music. It really is the place where she felt was the best fit, where the students really seemed to be her kind of people, and where she feels like she’ll flourish – plus, the place that most seemed to want her and really work hard to help her be able to attend.
Maybe we’ll see some of you in Boston!
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Congrats and so happy for you guys! See you guys in Boston 
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Sending my empathy! Hoping your musician lands on a choice that feels good. No program is perfect, so definitely grant yourselves some grace.
I’ve been supporting, but not typing. I want to share here today that our Jazz playing student pressed the yes button for Berklee TODAY and accepted the offer for performance track in Piano (primary instrument). We’re moving forward with excitement. On the advice of this site we appealed for more money in the short window April 10 until today. We didn’t even know about any appeal process until this site. After a second inquiry, we were told they would reply to us by May 1 until the end of May. After waiting for the appeal until today, it never came. We took the advice on here and are not letting that be a indication of the greater school vibe which has been great and welcoming. Celebrating now and hoping they still might come through after some other money is released. 
Thank you to those who ran their own race and were so supportive to others by sharing.
Now I will put in my two cents for others in case it will help. Thank you to everyone on this thread, the parents from years past @jazzpianodad @old_music_prnt @tigerlily52 @BeverlyWest and more who check in and weigh in (esp the jazz parents), and for all the specific information and dates. Sharing of when people applied, were accepted, audition experiences were especially helpful even from year’s past.
Discussions about school program size, make up and focus I can attest is very accurate on these threads thanks to some wonderful parents. We were completely in the dark and without outside advice, big city resources or music world knowledge when we started all this. Here are a couple nuts and bolts things Im jotting down for others I didn’t know and figured out and am highlighting for the search engine. Others may disagree but this is what we learned that I’m not sure is on here specifically:
WHEN TO VISIT SCHOOLS: Visit as soon as you can. Sophomore or Junior year best. We visited 4/7 of the applied schools and one we didn’t apply to. The school we chose we didn’t visit. Then we had to scramble and it was expensive and stressful. The admitted days are late compared to other schools and leave very little time to visit and decide on top of spring school concert obligations and gigs. We thought we would have time fall senior year and we didn’t due to performance obligations, school, application essays and recording prep. Visiting the school the day you audition isn’t optimal. Kid is focused on audition and it is emotionally and mentally taxing. We did do the school visits then but it wasn’t ideal or accurate. Waiting until admit day was too late in the game to get there when no schools are near to us. So we learned that.
WHAT TO WEAR FOR JAZZ AUDITIONS: as was mentioned last year and was true but I still worried about: Wear clean and neat in the style that your child prefers. A safe bet is good fitting and clean so not distracting. Think pants and sweater, plain clean long sleeve (can be collarless almost everyone was) girls do not need to wear dress or skirt. I saw a couple skirts with looser mid weight tops but most wore neutral pants, clean white tennis shoes or flats. Can reflect your style but dont distract. I also saw some cool street wear vibe to concert blacks (only one or two in the blacks. Definitely minority and seemed more formal but neve wrong if that is your only choice.) Most important they should feel comfortable and ready.
MUSIC APPLICATIONS & ADDING MUSIC FILES TO APPLICATION: You have to turn your application in at LEAST 10 days early because some schools (esp Frost) have a separate link that is sent only after application is processed which can take a week if they are busy. This year there was some site difficulties and the link didn’t come to us. If you don’t get the music files in buy the regular deadline your application will be late and possibly not considered for that deadline. We did not fully understand this and had to switch to regular.
EARLY ACTION APPLICATION JAZZ OPTION: Start now. This summer. ASAP. Pick your four/5 songs and get them practicing. You can polish one and record and move on or do in one recording session as we did. Depends on musician. Point being, we didn’t fully understand how long this process would take (LONG) and even though he had chosen songs the spring before and had them being ready to upload and applications done is a LOT on a busy high school year. I think we missed out on some money by not doing some early action because my student wasn’t ready to record until we had time at Thanksgiving. If you have a student involved in tons of stuff try to record over the summer at least a few of them.
HELP THE STUDENT: It is too much to navigate the first time. What these schools expect is kinda crazy. Let your student work on the music while you can gather/decide how to record, musicians to play with or backing track, lighting and microphones. Let student make all the final decisions after you research.
HOW TO RECORD YOURSELF: We used our school grand piano in the orchestra room. It was well lit and the school let us use their mics on the piano and fed into the camera. We didn’t have a camera. On advice of piano teacher I bought a Q*n-4k Zoom camera which records sound separately for edits and has two inputs for mics. You need a tripod and extension cords. 2 mike stands. One mic on piano and one further back for mix on the other channel. Used this camera all year for perfromances and he will take to college to use. I should have bought years earlier. Do not record on your phone if you can help it. Schools will also have these cameras in the journalism dept. and you may be able to borrow. We used a professional bassist and local college drummer and solo sax for comping element. We paid them. You can use a backing track but for the most elite schools they ask for live musicians. Find them early and upload music so kid can send. They should be working for and talking to the kid but you can admin help/type up.
IN PERSON AUDITIONS: there is a lot of info on this site and online youtube for info and help, where to stay etc. THANK YOU. If you can sift through some of the info and present it to the student it will help them focus on what to expect. Hammer out with them the “why music” interview question and practice it a bit. It was asked almost every time evem if only in small talk. Review the nuts and bolts of Introducing yourself and thanking people. Seems natural but under stress hard to remember for some. We found there was so much info we learned about auditions we needed to be careful when we talked about it and when we didn’t.
UNSOLICITED MUSIC PARENT ADVICE: Be prepared to let them drive and let it happen poorly if it isn’t going the way you know it could be fixed when time is up. As @anotheroboemom helped me remember “try to stay emotionally calm as possible“ and especially if things dont go well. We had a horrible moment at Miami and it ended up it didnt matter. As @bridgemail said “just BELIEVE in your kid they will meet the challenge and find a school/program and go on to have a happy life.” Its pretty clear from all the admit info at the end who knows why one kid gets more money or does or doesn’t get in. Looking at the admit stats page its easy to see its tons of prep then a dice roll. I recommend other new parents look at admittance pages for info but also perspective–so many talented students with wonderful options at every level. Go music kids! I will post our stats there as well for others.
Congratulations to everyone on making decisions and this next step!
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Well…that’s nice, but we committed a couple weeks ago 
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I only asked because I looked at the clock and wondered “Is there anyone out there still weighing their options on the last day?”
But thank you for the kind thoughts.
I hope everyone lands exactly where they want and need to be. I’ll see you all at Lincoln Center in 10 or 15 years! 
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whoops! That’s right! These last few days have been a little bit of a blur. 
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