Hugs back at you, @sbjdorlo — much appreciated! How does your S handle auditions? I’m awed by the courage of all of these kids, but putting yourself out there when you suffer from anxiety is incredible. Kudos to you for supporting his dream through thick and thin.
A friend in town mentioned to me that her daughter, a MT/theatre hopeful, is applying to sixteen schools. I almost fell over. However, she says that rather than going to each school, her D attends centralized auditions for five or more schools at the same time. There are even walk on auditions where you can try out for lesser known programs while you are there. In some ways, that seems easier, although admit statistics in MT seem even tougher than music.
And as for jazz—yeah, it’s weird. I think that the programs aren’t as established in many cases so everyone is reinventing the wheel. Some are just strange — S dropped one school that didn’t offer any flexibility on his classical pieces, which just seemed over the top as many jazz programs don’t even require them. Requirements have ranged from “show up and play us one song you like” to “play scales and one each blues, bebop and ballad” to four-song prescreens including specific songs followed by five-piece auditions using different songs. S overlaps if possible but just tries to work on one requirement after another.