Unfortunately, I doubt it will be the last one to cancel. My D was accepted at one of the top festivals discussed here and we paid our deposit, but I’m feeling uncertain about paying the balance in April…
And Oberlin has already processed a refund for the application fee. Very admirable and definitely makes them look good in my eyes. I wasn’t worried about it, but it’s really nice that they did that at all, let alone so quickly.
Meanwhile, STILL not a peep from the program in Vienna (it was supposed to be in early June–just no way it’s happening!) that my son was accepted into, after two emails (one from my son, and one from me) and a phone call. At this point I’m borderline outraged, and kind of relieved that my son won’t be attending–if the sponsoring organization can’t handle basic communication during a crisis like this, I’d worry about how they’d handle important details once my son was in Europe. As they (whoever “they” are!) say, “the optics aren’t good”–especially when DOMESTIC programs are already processing refunds!
They have a $500 deposit from us, which I would like back (we did not pay the next tuition installment). Meanwhile, applications are still OPEN on their website. Something seems decidedly amiss.
Another program my son applied for (we are still waiting to hear for the decision in early April), which would have been held in Milan a little later in the summer, has already arranged to do it all virtually. Obviously it would be even better if it could be held in Italy, but at least they have a PLAN! And it sounds like a pretty good plan.
Sorry–just venting here. At least it appears that the airline from which we bought my son’s ticket is waiving change fees, and will give him a refund in the form of a voucher good for one year. I’m sure he’ll find a way to use this, once things are back to…normal? 
My mind is officially boggled. First, let me ask–is there ANYONE here whose child was planning to attend a summer music program in Europe that has NOT been cancelled?
We finally just got an email from the program my son (very much) wanted to attend–weeks after our inquiries. I was stunned to read that they still plan to go ahead with the festival (in Vienna–yanno, pretty much right across the border from Italy?) in early June. It said that they feel “confident” that everything will be fine by then. But just in case they do decide to cancel, we will find out in late April/early May. And there was not a word about whether tuition payments would be refunded in that case.
Honestly, I get nervous just walking down the main street of my town, and I, for one, am NOT confident that international travel will be right as rain come the beginning of June. I’m certainly not planning to send my son off to Austria, and worry about whether he’ll even be able to get home any time soon afterwards.
And I’m reading here from you guys that even DOMESTIC programs are being cancelled and are starting to process refunds.
Am I missing something here? The faculty is excellent (I’m taking the word of @compmom , who knows her stuff, on that!), and if things were just fine right now I’d be thrilled to send my son. But now?!! And do they really think we’ll be sending them more money in the meantime? Because we are NOT! $500 is already pretty much down the drain.
Venting again…But I know that this is the place where I can come to find out for sure if I’m, um, over-reacting, considering how many of you are in similar situations.
I would think you would get your money back. Here is what is going on in Austria:
https://news.yahoo.com/austria-extend-coronavirus-restrictions-until-102821041.html None of us knows what is going to happen. Have you asked what the refund policy is? I forget. I’m sure you have.
@compmom , yes–I sent them an email almost two weeks ago saying (politely) that I was not willing to continue making tuition payments until I had an assurance that, were the program to be cancelled, we would be refunded. The brief, very casual message received today made no mention of a refund policy. As I think I said earlier, at this late-ish stage of my life I’ve learned to get things in writing. I would have assumed that the message would have at least said, “Should we decide to cancel, our refund policy will be (?).” I just don’t like that there was no mention of it whatsoever.
And I agree that no one knows what will happen, but at the moment this thing seems to be just picking up steam, at least here. I’ve been reading a daily report on the virus in Austria. About a week or so ago, there were about 33 cases. There are now, I believe, over 300, and the number is rising quickly. And with the U.S. issuing a warning that Americans who travel abroad had better be sure that they can get back on their own, or plan to stay there for a long period of time, I’m not comfortable. Early June is really not far from now. And I certainly don’t want my son to be stuck somewhere thousands of miles away.
Also, I assume participants and faculty will be attending from many different parts of the world. Unless the virus is miraculously eradicated by June, there will be the continuing question about people who are asymptomatic but contagious. And then there’s the 12-hour or so flight… Not a great opportunity for “social distancing.”
I hope I’m wrong, and that this will all be over soon. But this rather haphazard, late response doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in how things are being handled, and that my son’s (and other participants’) health and safety are a priority.
EDIT: I just read the link you provided. There are now over 2200 cases in Austria. I’m not sure where I came up with “over 300.”
@AsMother , a friend’s daughter is planning to attend Prague Summer Nights. That’s currently still on as far as I know.
Our city newspaper has an article suggesting that this could last through late 2021, until a vaccine is found or treatment options improve. This would be with waves. We will reach a peak, then a decline with loosening of social restrictions, followed by another increase, wiht social distancing as it peaks and then decline, and so on. But I don’t think anyone knows. Is it seasonal? We’ll see. I don’t think we can plan anything. I suppose that for the program, cancelling IS a plan, so to speak but at this point they should either not expect money or promise a refund- in writing.
Looks like a lot of composers will be working from home this summer. Even with social distancing, it is possible to work virtually with musicians- I know one composer who is already doing that! Then the performance is live-streamed. This makes us all think about what a concert is: it is as much a social gathering of a community as it is a way to hear music!
@tableforsix , that looks like a really fun program! I’d be interested to know what kind of communication your friend’s daughter has received from the sponsoring organization (Classical Movements) regarding this, um, change in circumstances for the foreseeable future.
@compmom , I read something similar. This could really drag out, or we might get lucky (or whatever it would be). The Times had a “best case/worse case” article a few days ago that was…sobering.
Obviously I wouldn’t want to (and don’t plan to) send off checks for fairly large amounts of money without an assurance that my son would get what we are paying for, but it’s really what appears to be an underlying lack of thoughtfulness and professionalism that worries me. My feeling is that, for things like this, the people in charge should have very good communication skills, and use them (especially when something as serious as Covid-19 seems to be comes up). I mean, even if our kids are technically adults, they’re still our kids, and often not yet experienced in all the things that can come up when one travels, and we’d like to feel that situations are taken seriously enough to merit more than a short, detail-free email.
It will be interesting to see what kind of work emerges from all these composers on lockdown! My son’s been working like crazy here on his own stuff, and then classes (?!) start again tomorrow. In a way, it might make for kind of a creative blossoming among musicians and artists for a while! And while it’s good that live-streaming is a possibility, I do love the whole experience of going to see music live. And I’m sure that being in front of a live audience is, for a lot of musicians and others (except for those who deal with stage-fright), kind of a rush.
We will wait to hear from the composing/film-scoring program in Milan that my son applied for. THEY were proactive, and have already arranged to run the entire program virtually. It would be a shame to miss the whole experience of actually visiting Vienna and/or Milan, but it still sounds like a great way to keep creating and connecting during the summer, if we’re all still stuck at home.
Acceptance from EMF with merit- scholarship rolled in last week! So happy- just hope it won’t cancel. Anyone else planning on attending EMF this summer?
@tableforsix , I just saw that Prague Summer Nights has also (wisely, it seems!) been cancelled. Do you happen to know how they are handling the cancellation, and if they have or will be refunding any payments made? Believe it or not, we’re still in limbo here with the Vienna program.
EMF cancelled earlier this week, absolutely devastated.
@eclecticViola, sorry to hear about EMF. Just one disappointment after another these days… I’ve gotten “Used to Bad News” - like the old Boston song.
Music Academy of the West (MAW) announced a few days ago that weeks 1-4 would be online, with weeks 5-8 TBD. Today they announced that anyone that qualified this summer was automatically being allowed to defer to 2021 summer, regardless of whether or not they choose to attend this year. That was so awesome to hear.
^^^. That is great to hear!! As a parent, I thought a lot of MAW. We were able to visit one of “ours”. It was noted that we were parents of a Fellow and we were invited to attend a donors reception (we had not donated) prior to the concert. We just received a call out of the blue - they had noted we would be attending the concert and wanted to invite us to the pre-concert event. Nice! One of the kids also stayed in touch with his “compeer” family for several years - a terrific couple. Great community support!
I noted that Pacific Music Festival and Schleswig-Holstien have canceled. I didn’t see if they were giving 2020 Fellows an opportunity next year. I hope so.
We just received an email from Interlochen. They converted the camp to online for a bit less than 50% tuition price + automatic acceptance to 2021 camp without reapplying + 20% discount for next year. They also gave families option to defer or refund their deposit.
D is happy to attend the online camp instead of no camp.
In the email, they said that they will also open it to public, incase anyone here will be interested in…
Thanks for posting about Interlochen’s update. It looks like the online camp is three weeks long instead of six … which makes sense, but means the tuition discount is not worth as much as it sounds like. Also it looks like registration may already be open to the public if anyone is interested.
I know they are already online with their school-year programs. If there is anyone on this board that is involved with their school-year programs and would be willing to PM me with how that is going, I’d definitely be interested.
I have asked my daughter to consult with her teacher about what she should do to make the most of this summer.
@Musicaspirant - We loved MAW, this year being the 2nd that my S was accepted. We were so looking forward to a couple of trips to Santa Barbara this year, but that won’t be happening I think.
Hello- quick update from my post a while back. My S had been waitlisted at Tanglewood and Curtis. Then BUTI got canceled. Now he’s been accepted to Curtis for the summer. It’s been moved to online.
So my questions are- do you think the quality of the program will be as good? My S is still on the young side, so we were thinking about commuting & not having him reside there anyway (so he would have missed out on much of the peer immersion experience).
Do you think previously accepted students are backing out, leaving open spaces for those waitlisted? Or do you think with going online they are accepting more students than usual (perhaps to compensate for the lower tuition and $$ loss)? I had read before they only accept 16 students to their piano program. Do you think it is now more?
Looking at the website for Young Artist, accepted students can decline - and it appears to me that they are taking all comers to fill those spots (and maybe new spots) on a rolling basis, no mention of selectivity:
"Musicians aged 13 to 22 who have studied privately at the advanced level are encouraged to apply. Applications for the online program will be accepted on a rolling basis while positions are available. The final deadline is June 15 at noon ET, but positions may fill before then.
Students who were confirmed to attend the 2020 program were contacted via email on April 16 and may choose to either participate in this virtual program or decline."
Is your son a pianist? The faculty are not Curtis current instructors. Not that they might not be fine instructors, but some jump to the conclusion on hearing “Curtis” that their kids will be studying with current Curtis faculty which is most often not the case. I do not have a good line on the current “desired names” of many piano pedagogues - can’t judge this list. Maybe others can help out.