NU School of Music

lorelei2702
Thu, 10 Mar 2005 18:35:19 +0000

Minimum BM requirements in theory include four semesters of theory, with concurrent ear training course, sometimes (conservatories) there is another parallel course, too; plus form and analysis, sometimes counterpoint, orchestration, conducting, and at least three to four semesters of music history/literature, often more. Look at the BM curriculums at major vocal performance graduate schools to see what their requirements are. The language requirements can be a problem, usually a year of each is required. Diction requirements are additional. My daughter was getting second degree in foreign languages, and she still had to take diction (did it in summer school at home with very qualified colleague, cleared it with her university). Look at NASM requirements for Bachelor of Music in vocal performance, that should provide core information to anchor the curriculum, but each school varies according to their faculty curriculum decisions.

I would note that when Juilliard does undergraduate voice auditions, first they prescreen, then they cut the list roughly to 1/4, they invite that 25% to audition in person, then at the end of each session (morning, etc.) they invite some to callbacks, which consists solely of theory exams. Clearly once they have their list, the theory background is a tie-breaker. In the olden days, a good coach could drill it into a body (singer) with a wonderful voice; now noone will bother, the pace is too fast. At the same time, there are numerous singers making their living, who have NO degrees in voice, some not even in music. If the voice is good, well trained, the stage ability is there, languages, musicianship, AND if the voice type is rare, anything is possible. For a soprano, unless she is a dramatic soprano of wondrous timbre and convincing body type, it is not going to happen.