Vocal Performance Majors- Soprano Advice?

Lulu_sMomma
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:08:52 +0000

MomofWildChild, thank you for your comments. Your daughter must have a lovely voice and is obviously very talented. Where did she go for Grad. school or did she go straight into performing? Rice is an excellent school, your D and her voice teacher obviously had a wonderful relationship. Thankfully, all people are different and make different choices according to what works for them, and we are lucky that we live in a country where our children have so many varied choices and are not forced into a path dictated by someone else. Your D was happy at a large, midwestern college as was her friend, but my daughter would not be; and, yes, she is extremely serious about vocal performance, and no, Indiana is not on her list of schools to be considered precisely because it fits into the catagory of a larger, midwestern university! There is a new faculty member at Indiana that my D would love to study with, but overall, four years of living in a place where she would not be happy is not worth it, not when there are other places that would be a much better “fit” for her. I am proud of her for knowing herself well enough as a person and as a singer, so that she has the confidence to make a decision that suits her needs and does not waste the valuable time of others.
My D is a top student at an excellent prep school where she is involved in many other activities, but she always finds herself having to shuffle things to try to find more time for her true passion- singing and performing. She has always proven herself to be responsible, highly intelligent and extremely motivated and focused and I trust her enough to permit her to choose a college that will have the proper facilities and teaching faculty to help her grow and develop to her fullest potential- if that is a conservatory without a university affililiation then so be it. If indeed, she “misses” anything, she will make up for it in other areas and there is an entire lifetime ahead of her to meet people everywhere. Your daughter made the right choice for her and seems to have had a wonderful experience and I am glad that she found a school that would permit her to flourish.
Perhaps the two young ladies will meet someday, on a stage, and bring beautiful music to many. I wish your D well in her upcoming marriage.

Thanks, BassDad! I will be setting up an appointment to visit Oberlin in October when we also see CIM! I do hope that my D can stay on campus for a night, since Oberlin really seems to offer unique opportunties not available elsewhere.Your information is great and your enthusiasm for the school matches that of the graduates that we know, so there must be some “magic” there someplace! I’ll let you know how she liked it after we get back, but you may get a PM if I have another question before then!
We’ll find the time for Curtis, which should be fun since my D has never seen the area where I grew up and we can make that side trip to Buck’s County for that! Curtis will definitely stay on her grad school list, no matter what.