Please demystify the "Sample lesson" situation

Mezzo_sMama
Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:26:53 +0000

My D is a VP major and she did her sessions during her junior year. She found out that the teacher she hoped to study with had left his position with the school (also her 1st choice) just before audition season. Nevertheless, she applied anyway and found the perfect fit in said teacher’s replacement. After D’s audition there was completed, one of the panel members (the teacher she is with now) followed D out of the room and asked her if she was staying over that night and would she be available to “come back and work with her for a while that evening”? That was her way of determining if a student was able to take correction and apply it with a minimum of fuss, to hear her sing freely and without the constraints of audition rep and if their personalities would mesh. Year 3 begins next week and D adores her teacher!
Only once were we charged for a lesson and that came as a surprise since it that question had gone unanswered before. Just in case, I always sent D off to the lesson with a check in her possession!
A caveat, if I may- some teachers are terrible with e-mail, they just can’t/won’t master it and some have student “helpers” dealing with their electronic correspondence, so be cautious. For each lesson that we went to, I made sure that any correspondence with that school’s department and/or teacher was printed out and in a folder. As luck would have it, at one conservatory, the dept head was in a tizzy and terribly disorganized and had scheduled the lesson on a completely different day! There we were, having driven 400+ miles, and the woman was becoming confrontational with my D, saying that “She (Head) couldn’t be held responsible if students couldn’t keep track of things properly, etc” and was really carrying on in a most inappropriate manner. I heard this from the waiting area and stepped in, handing the woman the copy of the appointment confirmation, which originated from her very own e-mail. She had made the error, writing it down for the wrong day! Mistakes happen, but there was no excuse for her rudeness, which she never apologized for. She was able to locate the teacher and a hasty lesson was cobbled together, but didn’t allow my D any time to warm up at all, which was unsafe. Needless to say, D was not left with a favorable impression of that school!Oh, and that was also the school with the “last minute charge” for the lesson…
So, while it’s best for the student to deal with the prospective teacher, be prepared and in the vicinity until you’re sure that all is well. And it is well within the student’s rights to ask a potential teacher if he/she is contemplating leaving a position at that school or are they certain (relatively, at least) that they will be there for the entire 4 years. It’s one thing to pick up and transfer after a year or two to follow a teacher, but to leave as a junior or senior can mean loss of credits, etc. The kids get through these lessons easier than we, the parents,do!