Recorded Audition Vs Live Audition

musicprnt
Sun, 22 Nov 2015 16:57:23 +0000

One suggestion I have is that when you apply to the schools, if you submit a recorded audition let the school know why in your application, it may help. It isn’t that schools prefer students from higher economic and social backgrounds, if anything, they do make an effort to get non traditional students, students from non represented minorities like black or hispanic kids, and they do want to try and help those who aren’t as well off. The problem is that the whole way they audition kids and what they are looking for these days has been so heavily skewed towards students that are playing at an entirely high level, that it favors those with the resources to get to that level.

A generation or two ago, it was a bit different, I am pretty certain that kids who had the potential but simply didn’t have the kind of background, could get into the major music schools, but these days that is rare IMO if not impossible. As I have recounted on here, one of my son’s teachers was a casual player in high school, but decided to go to music school and got into one of the top conservatories, today I doubt she could get into a second tier school playing the way she did.

Don’t be so sure that if you audition by video you won’t get in, kids do, and you never know, which is true across the board. If your folks have relatively modest means, then many schools offer non merit financial aid, so that can help, and you never know with merit aid, which in many programs is tied to family income as well. If you absolutely can’t do live or regional auditions, then submit what you have and note why on your application, you may be surprised what comes out of it. Schools aren’t heartless, and there are still people on the other end of that application, the admissions people, the teachers, and you never know what they will see in an applicant. One thing I know for certain, if you don’t apply, you won’t get in:). People do get in with video auditions and you can only do what you can. It is why students apply to schools they think are reaches or next to impossible, my son got into the studio of a teacher he thought was going to be impossible (teacher rarely takes in freshman, mostly takes grad students, and in a given year takes maybe a handful of new students…), if he didn’t bother to apply, wouldn’t have gotten in:).

The other thing is apply to a spread of schools, maybe you won’t get into a U michigan or vanderbilt level, but maybe you could get into another school that has a strong program that isn’t quite as ‘known’ or whatnot. Given that a lot of kids go to grad school, you could go there for a BM then get an MM at a ‘big’ school, and maybe the slightly less known program will jump at you:)