<p>My daughter will also be at BW on that date. She then has her audition at Carnegie Mellon the VERY NEXT DAY!! Her first audition is at CCM January 11. I’m actually not looking forward to it. She gets very nervous. They also said they will not be able to practice before the audition. I guess she better start warming up her pipes at about 6:00 a.m. at the hotel.</p>
<p>Which one doesn’t offer warm up time - that seems unusual for a music school.</p>
<p>Cincinnati. Can you believe it? I was pretty shocked. They are so particular, I thought they would be concerned about the kids voices. Someone already warned me about “head games” that go on there before auditions. Cut throat before you even get in the door. Musical theater is the same way. I can’t wait until it is over. My daughter wants to go to Baldwin Wallace. All of these places are too expensive. We are praying for a very good scholarship.</p>
<p>Linnlew, Is your daughter’s audition at Cincinnati this coming Friday? January 11? My D audition is at 10:00.</p>
<p>Maybe they should ask them to sing while drinking a glass of water too.
I hope it is because of a shortage of space.</p>
<p>I think you will find many schools do not “officially” give auditioners practice rooms in which to warm up before their auditions. The reason is lack of space. That does not mean that auditors expect students to sing without warming up. In fact, they would find that quite foolish. Singers need to warm up in their hotel rooms. Bring a recording of your accompaniments and a tape or CD player so that you can do a run through before your audition. If you arrive at the school well before your audition time, you may be able to find an empty practice room or classroom where you can do your final preparations. On the other hand, there is a possibility that you may not be able to find a space. Make sure that you are well warmed up before you arrive on campus.</p>
<p>On a personal note, when my D auditioned for U. Michigan, she was only able to access a practice room for about 5 minutes before she had to be on the other side of the music building for her vocal audition. The practice room she was able to access had no piano. (D liked to have me play the piano while she did a last minute run through of her songs.) D knew that there would be a lot of competition for practice rooms on audition day, so the fact that she couldn’t get into one did not throw her. She simply did a complete vocal warmup outside the music building. At some of the other schools she auditioned for, she did warmups at the hotel. At U. Mich., she had an extensive musical theatre dance audition one hour before her vocal audition. There was simply not enough time to go back to the hotel to do her vocal warmups. That will not be an issue for you students who are auditioning for vocal performance :)! </p>
<p>CCM voice faculty are concerned about the kids’ voices, but they simply cannot create warmup space for every student who comes to the school to audition. They are not playing head games with the kids. I know 3 of the voice faculty members at CCM, Thomas Baresel, Barbara Honn, and Mary Henderson-Stucky, who is the voice department chair. They are all fine teachers and want to see students who come to audition at their best. Yes, competition is fierce for spots in the vocal performance department, but I do not believe that the faculty are engaging in psychological warfare. (It’s another story in the MT department, LOL.)</p>
<p>I can tell you that the faculty are looking for well trained students. The biggest mistake most kids make when auditioning for the voice program is singing music that is too difficult for them. The faculty find that a huge turn-off. I have heard this directly from all 3 of the above mentioned professors. During her junior year of H.S., D studied with a protege of Prof. Baresel who also drummed that fact into her head. After that teacher moved to Germany, D studied with a CCM faculty member who tried to convince her to go into vocal performance instead of musical theatre. She had the same message regarding audition literature as the other CCM faculty - do not attempt to sing material that is technically beyond you. Far too many students make the mistake of choosing material that shows off their technical flaws instead of choosing material that shows them to their advantage. </p>
<p>To those auditioning this week, break a leg, or maybe I should say toi, toi :). I hope that you are in great voice and that all goes well.</p>
<p>Amen, amen, amen to Dancersmom’s message about repertory choices. Do not reveal your flaws, let them guess and suppose, but show your strengths!</p>
<p>Chiming in from the instrumental side - this is the same advice given to instrumentalists. Far better to choose something you can play with confidence.</p>
<p>Re: Warm-up space. Cellist son auditioned at 4 schools for undergrad and 4 for grad school. He was always assigned a warm-up time and room before his audition. Warm-up was often only 20 minutes, but it was something. He always took a practice mute with him and warm-up in his hotel when possible before going to an audition.</p>
<p>I think schools can accomodate warmup - if they choose to. Does it say anything about their “attitude” if they don’t - that’s not for me to say.</p>
<p>DD must have been lucky. There were warm up rooms everywhere she auditioned. Some assigned and some just open. Peabody even had a room across form the audition room for a last 5 minute warm up if you wanted.</p>
<p>West Chester had all their practice rooms available too - each with a Steinway piano so D got to run through her piano piece too. I realize that many of the state schools have much nicer facilities than the private schools, so space doesn’t tend to be as much of a problem.</p>
<p>All of the six schools D auditioned at (large uni’s and LAC’s)had practice space available. Best situation was at Depaul where students got 15 minutes with the accompanist/coach provided by the school, just before the audition.
Each situation was different, sometimes well organised and sometimes a mad
scramble for space and a piano. Her best advise is to chat up a grad student and get the inside info on where the best last minute warm up spaces might be. In fact we ALWAYS got the best information from current grad students
—on teachers, programs, opportunities etc.</p>
<p>When I said head games, I meant between the girls and guys auditioning - NOT the staff at CCM.</p>
<p>Barbmaz,</p>
<p>Hi. Sorry it took me so long to respond. I was out of town without a computer! Anyway, my Daughter’s audition is this Saturday at CCM. We just came back from a “mock audition” at her voice teachers house. It went well. She is just going to do a little more rehearsing in front of the mirror and she will be all set. She is nervous as well. This will be her first audition. The next one is at BW on Saturday, Jan 19. </p>
<p>I am not sure who is more nevous…I think me! Best of luck to your D and to everyone else who is beginning this process. Time to go work on the FASFA…yuk!</p>
<p>The facilities at CCM are big enough that you can find your own place to be, so take your knitting, crossword puzzle book, or whatever, and park yourself by the office where she can find you. She will be fine. She has to do this, not you, find some other parents with whom to bond! Lorelei</p>
<p>Barbmaz,</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification. I’m glad to learn that it was the girls and guys auditioning and not the faculty you were referring to. My D has heard of students trying to shake others’ confidence at auditions. She made an effort to try to interact as little as possible with other auditioners at her college auditions. She felt that it was best for her to focus on doing her mental preparation for the audition to come and leave socializing for other occassions. She always looked for an out of the way corner in which to get herself in the proper frame of mind. My husband and I were given very specific instructions on what we were allowed to talk about and, to most importantly to her, what we were not allowed to talk about during audition trips, especially on the mornings of the actual audition days. I could say things like, “Do you have your water bottle packed?”, but not, “Do you need to run through that song again before we leave the hotel?” D was very determined not to allow any negative thinking to cross her mind! </p>
<p>I hope your D’s audition at CCM goes well tomorrow.</p>
<p>Linnlew,
I hope your D does well Saturday.</p>
<p>I guess I’m naive but I had no idea that auditioners might try to shake each others’ confidence. Maybe there is an audition “mean girls” movie in here somewhere.</p>
<p>You will find “mean” people, people playing mind games everywhere, and auditioning students and/or parents may on occaision fall into this group, and any other group you’d care to name from sports people to theologians.</p>
<p>Just remember, what goes around, comes around. </p>
<p>From our experience, cooperation, free exchange of info, the willingness to extend a helping hand is by far the norm and not the exception.</p>
<p>Best of luck to all auditioners.</p>
<p>We had nothing but positive audition experiences. I (the mom) met some very nice other moms and dads on the "audition circuit. In fact…saw some at more than one place. People were very pleasant, cooperative and helpful…no meanies in the bunch.</p>