Hi! My child was accepted to MSM precollege for classical voice. Can anyone share any insight on the program? Is it rigorous and value additive if they already study with a good private teacher? We’re trying to evaluate if the time commitment makes sense. They also play an instrument and a competitive sport and are at an academically rigorous school and we’d have to commute to NYC every weekend. Child wants to dual major in music but probably not headed in the conservatory direction.
How long is the commute…and will it interfere with other music ECs the kid is already doing!
The commute is only an hour and a half but requires a parent to give up the whole Saturday and we have other children. They’re in local youth chorus and would need to give up school choral groups and productions (play/musical) so they have time for homework and their varsity sport.
So….three hours of just commuting?
I would suggest your student discuss this with their private voice teacher. It sounds like this student wants to do a BA in Music…not a performance degree.
Also, does this student want to give up the local ECs? That’s an important question.
Both of my kids were in a Precollege orchestra and wind ensemble, and it met all day on Sunday…a 50 minute drive each way. BUT they didn’t have to give up auditioned local chorus, any school ensembles, or participation in community or school musicals. Or either of the two each private music lessons they both took (primary instrument and piano each)
And one is now a freelance musician.
In hindsight attendance at a precollege seems to be valued by elite colleges. The music supplement submitted for a BA in music or in anything else, will include a resume that details activities like precollege. Sometimes students do a lot of theory/solfege and even music history. Supplement will be video/recording, resume, letters of recommendation for music.
My kid now has a doctorate and works in the field. We could not afford 4 years of precollege at the time so my kid did it junior and senior years, And did one summer program, 6 weeks, between junior and senior years. Along with lessons, alll of this seemed to help a lot in getting into a college they wanted. But this was an after effect. At that point, they were hungry to develop musically and it made them happy.
Midway through high school it seemed they wanted to focus on music: it was their preferred time to choose due to time (and money) constraints. Music kid continued to do theater until junior year. And school music ensembles/band. For the two years they attended precollege conservatory, they stopped all sports, all school music and focused on the precollege programs and lessons, adding piano.
Voice lessons, instrument lessons, a competitive sport, rigorous school sound like a huge amount on one plate. Down time and relaxing with friends is important too. Senior year is stressful. It is so hard to make these decisions at such a young age. But it would seem something has to give. If he loves music, precollege is a great experience.
You and your son might want to read the Double Degree Dilemma essay in the Read Me section here in the music major forum. It is not really about double degrees. It uses hypothetical individuals to explore ways to pursue music. I always add the option of doing a BA in music OR something else and continuing with lessons and performance, often for credit. (And voice is a little different due to the later development involved…)
2 Likes
My children were both MSM precollege students on classical instruments. They both found the experience helpful in terms of their advancement and exceptionally helpful for admissions (my younger one especially who attends a top LAC). Would be happy to discuss in PM. We had about a 40 minute commute each way and would sometimes wait with them and other times do two round trips (at one point they had days that went from 9-5). They gave up most of their other activities for this because not only was a full day used for the program, but the amount of practice and homework made other activities challenging. We do know of other kids who continued competitive sports and my older one was able to continue performing in high school plays and musicals, but the schedule became very very challenging at the end of the year. Both kids value their time there and would have chosen it again.
2 Likes
A pre college program like MSM can be a very valuable experience for a number of reasons (and yes, it is a very good program from my knowledge of it). One of the things it does is give a potential music student a taste of what going to music school is like on the college level, someone described it as conservatory in a day and that is a good description. I can’t talk about voice, my son was/is a violinist, but there is a lot of value there. Just being around other kids who are musically inclined , into it, is huge, you get to see the levels of ability, kids meet other kids like themselves and see how it makes them feel. You also get exposed to people in music , in your D’s case singers, who can give insight (they often have master classes and the like, as well as people on faculty).
Kids take music theory and ear training, and the student gets to understand music better.
Kids also make friends that they end up keeping in contact with, it is the start of networking that is a huge part of the music world.
Parents interact to a certain extent to (fellow sufferers?) and you get to hear things about the broader world, lot of times parents there have had multiple kids go through music, so they have picked up insights.
Overall you get a feeling for the music world, especially in your area of interest, and that is valuable.
And yeah, going to a prep program like that and showing a serious interest in music can help if you are going to the elite college route (I can’t speak for voice, definitely with instrumental music).
That said there is a cost to going to a program like that. I know very well the saturday’s tied up in that, it is a commitment, time, cost, cost of driving there and parking (as a parent). In theory it is an excuse to be in NYC and do things, but it can be draining.
Lot depends on what your daughter’s interests are, too. For one thing, likely she will have to give up her current teacher, usually when you go to a prep program you study with a teacher there as your primary teacher, and generally sharing with another teacher is not the norm. So it likely could mean moving on from her current teacher, which she may not want to do.
It could mean moving on from other activities (and I am going to be careful here, because voice is different than instrumental music, especially stringed instruments. With them, the amount of practice required with high levels of music student is a lot of time each day). If her sports and the chorus and musicals are important to her, then it may be wise not to do pre college at MSM.
I can tell you definitely that going to a program like MSM has a lot of benefits, especially if the student is trying to figure out if they want to pursue music, if being immersed in it tells them they want something different, that is huge (and lot of kids do the pre college programs and then do other things, prob 50% or more. )It can give a lot of insights for both the students and parents, too. But if she would miss the other activities, feel like she has lost something valuable, then staying the course with what she is doing makes sense. In the end it is what drives the student, what makes them motivated, that matters. It is much like music schools, some kids want to be at a stand alone music school, others prefer one in a university.
If her current teacher is good, and is knowledgeable about the voice world, can guide her when the time to come to going to music school for voice (or not), then choosing to stay with the current situation should be a perfectly valid option. I always described doing things in music before music school admission as a series of things that might (or might not) give you an edge in terms of getting into a program and doing well. A pre college program like MSM gives you an edge IMO, doing summer music festivals can give you an edge, having performance opportunities gives you an edge. But obviously where time and finances tend to be limited,in the end you cannot acquire it all, so it comes down to what works for the student (and yeah, that isn’t easy).
In the end I would recommend thinking about doing MSM, weighing out the positives (as you and your D see it), the negatives, and make a decision based on the logic but also on her/your instincts.