Yesterday, my daughter Jessi and I toured Oberlin College here
in Ohio. She had a formal interview with a Senior Intern at the Oberlin
Admissions office (but never got to talk with any regular staff
member), attended an introduction by a Oberlin Conservatory admissions
officer and a Sophomore, and had a Conservatory tour by that student.
Despite much web site searching, Jessi had not been able to contact
anyone by email to get permission to sit in on a Conservatory class
or to arrange for permission to visit a voice lesson.
It turns out that Friday is a poor day to visit Oberlin Conservatory
because very little is happening in the vocal department. It was
frustrating to find this out after we travelled here and despite all of
Jessi’s advance work.
At the recommendation of our tour guide, we hung around the hallway
outside the offices of two members of the voice faculty on the chance
that one of them would have time to
talk. After checking back several times, we finally ran into Alan
Montgomery (who teaches opera theater). He was kind enough to talk with
us and we got many of our questions answered. Mr. Montgomery also
generously phoned Duane Mahy (a voice faculty member) to introduce her
to Jessi and ask for some time.
We walked to Ms. Mahy’s office and were delighted to have her spend
half an hour answering questions and then giving Jessi a short voice
lesson. Jessi sang two of the “Italian 24” song collection and got some
very helpful tips on how to hold herself and manage her breath better.
Mr. Montgomery and Ms. Mahy were both very generous with their time and
were impressive teachers (as well as a pleasure to talk with).
The CMU and Oberlin music conservatories seemed satisfied with Jessi’s
vocal training and interested that she will graduate High School
with four years of Latin and three years of Spanish. Both schools
require undergraduate language classes only in Italian, German, and
French but expressed interest in Jessi’s training in Russian and Spanish
opera and art songs as well as her extensive American and English folk
song repertoire.
CMU and Oberlin conservatories take only about 15 vocal students a year so
they fall into the “very difficult” category of potential schools. 80% of
the admissions decision for both conservatories is based on a vocal audition.
Both are offering regional auditions in San Francisco in January 2007, so
we will not have to travel to the MidWest again just to try out. One of
the Oberlin Conservatory vocal students we talked with informally
said that half of her class had gotten in through a regional audition. She
also said that for other conservatories, potential students really needed
to go there to try out even if they do offer regional auditions.
CMU and Oberlin conservatories each offer the chance to take non-music
classes seriously. At CMU, music students can minor in another subject and
most Oberlin Conservatory students are double majors. So, Jessi’s strong
interests in Computer Science and English could be served too. Oberlin
even offers a formal technology and music program called TIMRA (Technology
in Music and Related Arts).
In general, Oberlin very much reminded us of
Peninsula School, the hippie
developmental school which Jessi attended from age three through 8th
grade. There is even a weaving shop in town called the
Loom Shed. Jessi became a good weaver while at Peninsula
School and has missed weaving while at
Harker High School. She and the shop owner, Charles Lermond, had a
great talk about weaving, looms, and designing patterns on a computer.
He uses Fiberworks PCW
(which I suspect we will be buying soon).
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