<p>I have seen numerous threads listing the top music and voice schools, but what are some less competitive “safety” schools for voice? Also, does anyone know of the voice departments of Wheaton College in Illinois and Houghton College in NY? </p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>You might find some options here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/753873-east-coast-2nd-tier-voice-programs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/753873-east-coast-2nd-tier-voice-programs.html</a></p>
<p>Some Houghton threads and posts
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/756705-houghton-college-greatbatch-school-music.html?highlight=houghton[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/756705-houghton-college-greatbatch-school-music.html?highlight=houghton</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/630466-please-comment-these-music-schools-violin-performance-me.html?highlight=houghton[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/630466-please-comment-these-music-schools-violin-performance-me.html?highlight=houghton</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/484025-univ-cons-classical-voice-depts-most-generous-scholarship-money-post1060440432.html?highlight=houghton#post1060440432[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/484025-univ-cons-classical-voice-depts-most-generous-scholarship-money-post1060440432.html?highlight=houghton#post1060440432</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/174484-best-school-me-going-into-ministry-post2194996.html?highlight=houghton#post2194996[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/174484-best-school-me-going-into-ministry-post2194996.html?highlight=houghton#post2194996</a></p>
<p>Thank you Violadad! :)</p>
<p>Hougton has a well-respected music-ed dept, but both that, and the VP side are very small. Are you looking for schools for the 2010-2011 school year?</p>
<p>Thanks Mezzo’sMama!
No, I’m applying next year, so I have still have some time. Do you know if it’s true that Houghton’s music dept has a strong connection with Eastman?</p>
<p>I know of no relationship between Houghton and Eastman. Sheer logistics would make faculty sharing difficult since the schools are a couple of hours apart from each other! The only thing that I can come up with are some Houghton faculty members who attended ESM.
Look to your state colleges. If you are in NY, check out SUNY Fredonia which has a good music department- it’s VP major is much less competitive than conservatories; Nazareth College also falls in that range and the director of the VP dept is a really nice man who still performs with the Eastman Opera Theatre.</p>
<p>Just from D’s experience, there was a faculty member at a summer program who taught at Houghton while completing a DMA at Eastman. One might conceivably be an adjunct at both- just need a car that gets good mileage and does well in the snow!</p>
<p>Also, MezzoMama- don’t mislead kids, especially the girls, about the competitiveness at Fredonia. D has a couple friends who were accepted at NYC conservatories, but rejected from Crane and/or Fredonia. Just goes to show that there are not guarantees!</p>
<p>Westminster Choir College seems to accept a lot of kids. While we tried to not use the term “safety school” (I think we all subconsciously didn’t want to jinx anything) my D used it that way. She did an Early Action auditi8on and was accepted there before she went to any auditions at the more competitive schools. Your D can get a good vocal education there, too. Two of the contestants in the Met Opera’s film “The Audition” were WCC products.</p>
<p>musmom2, I am not misleading anyone. With regard to the VP program at Fredonia, while it is perfectly good and can prepare students for grad school, it is definitely not in the same league as the top conservatories. As for your D’s friends, it is not unusual for high-level students to be rejected from second or third tier music schools simply because they are" too advanced " for the programs! Consider this from the perspective of the faculty of a voice program- if all of the students in a group are at Level 3-4 and one or two are at Level 1, how would that effect the dynamics of the group as a whole? No prof/director would want to be in the position of having to cast productions with the same leads year after year. Not only can it become a bit dull, but the personal interactions among the students can be undermined by this. Although any teacher at a school would be delighted to have an advanced student, they must think of the good of the program,which could well explain why those kids were turned down from SUNY programs that year.
Another VP school that might fall into the category of which don992 just referred, would be The Hartt School. Again, not a real “safety”, they have a December, Early Action audition which also lets one know acceptance status around Christmas. The two women featured in " The Audition" who attended WCC both studied with the same teacher at that school. One, Kiera Duffy attended WCC for undergrad and grad school while I believe that the young woman from Finland may have just attended for grad school ( does anyone know the specifics on that?).
At any rate, graduate school is a whole begins a whole new chapter and most voice students move onto another school/teacher for that as it’s good to get other perspectives on technique,etc.</p>