Scared college searcher

sing589
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:18:27 +0000

Hi, I have been reading these boards for a few weeks and decided I just had to join and try to get some questions answered.

After never knowing what I was going to do in college, I decided I would like to pursue a major in music, more specifically, vocal performance. With this decision comes a whole lot of questions and anxiety. I don’t really know where to begin, so I will post the questions I can think of right now and post more later as I think of them.

1) I have read some posts from people who say that if you get a BA in Music you can still get a masters in music, or if you get a BM in Music you can still get into a graduate program that is not related to music. What is the truth in this, how many people actually do either of these things, and what kind of graduate programs are these people getting into?

2) Though I am looking at a degree in Vocal Performance, I would really like to do musical theatre somewhere down the road. I feel that I don’t have enough musical theatre backround to get into a BFA program, so I was hoping to be maybe involved in some musicals in college and then maybe somehow get into “the biz” after I graduate. But is this possible? Are people successful in doing this?

3) I have not had much exposure to opera (hardly any to tell you the truth), and I know in a Vocal Performance program, that is what the emphasis is going to be. I don’t really know if I like it or not, I have sung songs from operas, but what if I find I really don’t like opera? I heard one person say if you are going into vocal performance you had better love opera, and I might, but who knows??

4) I was told if you get a BM in vocal performance you really have to go on to get your masters to really “make it” I guess in the music world. Is this true? And once you do, is your only option to join an opera company? This kind of overlaps with my other questions but what I really want to do is musical theatre - but I got started kind of late in this whole thing and have hardly any experience and don’t feel prepared to audition for MT programs. Can I be successful in real world MT with a degree in vocal performance?

Those are the four biggest things on my mind right now as I look at colleges. Also if you have any suggestions of good music schools that might be slightly less well known but still have a strong music program, that would be great! I already know about all the big-name schools, but I am trying to find something slightly off the beaten path.

If you read this long rant, thank you, and if you reply, thanks times two!