My high school senior daughter is exploring music performance majors in colleges. We are looking at universities (not conservatories or standalone colleges of music), e.g., UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, U of Washington at Seattle, U of Colorado, UIUC, UW Madison, CMU and so on. Those who might have an older child in any of these schools—or someone who already auditioned last year—could you give an idea of the level of preparation and years of musical training and other accomplishments kids usually have who go to these schools? I see that the audition requirement is very very similar in these schools - 2-4 art songs or arias, in multiple languages. But what level of musicianship do the kids bring in? That will help us gauge the competitiveness of these programs. Thank you.
I would be happy to answer your questions. I have had 3 kids audition for music schools–2 in voice. My oldest voice major has already graduated with her bachelors and masters from IU Jacobs. My youngest begins her bachelors at Jacobs in the fall (she also applied and was accepted to UIUC in your list above). I will message you from here in the next day or two. Doing Father’s Day stuff this afternoon.
I have a kid that recently graduated from one of these in vocal. I will message you when I am at a real keyboard!
Daughter got into UIUC and others for music. She had 4 years of pre-college vocal performance. Audition tapes were videos of her singing with her vocal teacher from pre-college. Happy to give you more info as needed.
S22 auditioned at Oberlin, CMU, and Ithaca for vocal performance. There was some sight singing at each audition and at Oberlin there was a music theory exam solely for placement that is taken online as a separate part of the audition.
Despite having taken theory (Kodaly) for many years in a children’s chorus and AP music theory as a junior in HS, his sight singing skills were mediocre. (he’s a pro now, after two years at Oberlin and in weekly church choirs as a job!).
He was accepted to all three schools. The sight singing portion is low pressure- there are kids who come from all levels and I really believe they just want to know where the student stands at the time of entering college.
Feel free to PM me with any specific questions and I can ask him.
Toi toi toi!