And I know that sometimes IU erroneously gets a bad rap for its large size and lack of performance opportunities for undergrads. We aren’t finding that to be true–especially lately. My youngest’s sophomore voice performance cohort is only 16 students–that’s all genders and voice types. Yes, the music school is large but it offers soooooo many different degrees (bachelors to doctorates) from jazz, to music industry, to strings, to brass, to music ed etc. So yes there is a lot going on, but the voice cohorts are reasonably sized and the kids tend to be pretty tight and very supportive of one another. And as far as performance opportunities, 6 sophomores have been cast in main stage opera roles this year and others in ensemble/chorus roles. (And main stage means main stage–the Musical Arts Center is huge and rivals the size of the MET. Young, underdeveloped voices have no business up there–considering vocal health alone). And the number of ensemble performance opportunities can be amazingly large. Outside of assigned ensembles there are always opportunities to be part of recitals (including other students’ recitals), master classes, opera workshops, etc. My daughters were/are singing all the time.
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