auditions for conservatoires

[jazzsyncopation]

anyone else doing this? Horrendous or what?.... total nightmare!

Rabbit the compromise for the Imperial & RCM is that you have to be highly able to get in to Imperial for physics and be judged able to devote some time to music plus I understand the students are focusing on performance in a single instrument without the usual second study and add ons.

They certainly take them. How many and how well they then do is an imponderable (although I suppose one could look up the stats). However I won't be because I will see again the minuscule number of people who got places for DD1's first study in the last year for which stats are easily googlable and that will depress me all over again.

I've been told (but do not know how true this is) that second study isn't really 'a thing' these days. You don't get the amount of time/input that used to be the case. Or so I am told.

In my youth I shared a house for a year with a bunch of Imperial physics undergrads. If DD1 spends as much time practising when she is at college as they spent on the lash she'll be fine!! They did have VERY full days in terms of lectures/classes though.

She is a singer. He did enter at 20 but only because he was ill & had to repeat a year of his a levels, them he didn't get in first time round.

Several of his classmates were 18. Some have made a living though performing, one in particular has made several recordings & sings with leading orchestras. Another went into musical theatre. Quite a few teach, one did postgrad & did a couple if years in TIE before training as a teacher.

Quite a mixed bag.

Oh, just thought not sure if this will help but the RNCM has links to Opera North, we went to a concert and they announced certain singers who had been at RN who had gone on to have careers with them.
They also sent students there for certain days, concerts, events etc.
The RN have a strong vocal school.

We do get around a bit.

Audition time is now upon us. DC beside herself with anxiety not sure what to do to help as she is in danger of talking herself out of the running before we even begin.

Any advice on how to be of use would be helpful.

For other contributors we know several singers of went to conservatories at 18 but most went as post grads. It is very dependent on the individual.

halfthewaytothemoon (love your username) could you approach it like this when you discuss with your DD: there are going to be a series of "auditions", each of which is a mine performance and which collectively are an opportunity to perform to a special audience.

Certainly she is not going to be successful at all of them and that doesn't matter. She just has to do these little performances just like all the other performances she has done in her life. And then see what comes.

In other words, the result of each individual performance doesn't matter too much.

Rabbit I find the BMus vs BA for Uni courses a bit confusing. Somewhere like Cardiff where they offer both is reasonably clear cut as final recital only offered with BMus, and BA encouraged more if taking joint honours.
But the BMus course at Royal Holloway allows non-music electives from 2nd year.
I believe the BMus course at Leeds has a year abroad that can be at an overseas Conservatoire.
And the BA courses at Nottingham and Southampton can both have a high proportion of performance modules

A lot of it is down to tradition really. Just because a degree is called BA it doesn't necessarily have less performance than one that is called BMus.

Plenty of students start their conservatoire vocal training at 18-20. What they tend to do is continue formal study for a lot longer than most instrumentalists. I've known singers who are still with their teacher after 7 years plus, all of the postgraduate study part-time, thank goodness
Most of the students on our Opera Course are in their mid-late 20s but most of them start singing training well before 18...

I am also finding the difference between BMus and BA in Music very confusing.

It used to be that the BA was a 3 year course with more academic content & the BMus was 4 years with less academic content but that may not be the case now.

Which conservatories are best for 18 yr olds/have the most places? And how many are we talking about?

The Royal Academy
The Royal College
Trinity Laban
Guildhall School
Royal Welsh College
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Royal Northern College

none of these exclude school leavers from their BMus Vocal Studies courses on principle

Interesting ... I am obviously several decades out of date!

You've missed Birmingham Helene.

Mooinmammacat

Back to my usual username now, but posted above about singing.
I think it depends on the instrument(s) tbh, and not sure there are any bests.
For example I defy anybody to find a southern conservatoire that can teach brass as well as a northern one, because this is where all the best teachers are and where the culture and support from an early age are prevalent. Most kids play a brass instrument from an early age in primary and whilst others are offered there is a good intake of brass every year.
I am sure there are similar schools in the south that specialise in instrument tuition that is better than the northern alternatives for the same reasons. I hear the south have many youth orchestras and schools tend to have some as well, whereas we tend not to have school orchs and just county, there seem to be fewer violinists, oboes, bassoons and cellos here.

I'd say that Guildhall School's WBP department is a fair challenger for RNCM, actually

Recent alumni include Alison Balsom and Philip Cobb

And yes, I did forget Birmingham, sorry

Depends what sort of Brass you are looking for. If you want to study Jazz, then your first port of call will be GSMD.

I assumed that moomin was talking about singing though. Obviously Helene's list doesn't apply for all instruments, Scotland and RNMC don't do recorders, for example.

Also missed Leeds College of Music which is now included in CUKAS.
Guildhall still has separate application process with slightly later deadline.

All the Conservatoire courses are 4 year BMus.
Some of the Uni BMus courses are 3 years.

I was reading this idly and remembering how expensive years 12 &13 were. OK they get loans and maybe bursaries once they're in but whilst still at school it's really down to parents to shell out for trains, fees, overnight stays etc. and it is quite frightening how it all mounts up.

I have been on the committee of a local charity which gives financial support to students in FE and persuaded the members that support should also be made available to students in Y13 for this reason. When I looked at how much it had cost to 'launch' DD it made sense to try to help students coming up to the same stage. Such charities exist all over the place and are worth seeking out.

DD is at Imperial and won the scholarship for three years tuition at RCM. It didn't impinge at all on her main studies. She really loves playing in ICSO and was marvellously well taught by her RCM teacher. The standard and range of music at Imperial is amazing.
The audition for the scholarship was another expense involving an overnight stay - and you apply for that before you know if you're going to Imperial so it was an added stress in Y13, financially and emotionally. It also involves writing another CV in the form of a letter. I believe 5 scholarships are awarded each year, sometimes fewer, depending on the standard of applicants.

It was worth it - she's in clover. She was torn between music and science, having been at a junior conservatoire, and became dead set on having the best of both worlds this way. She's surrounded by scientists who are also marvellously talented musicians and has the emotional release from the stress of the course that music gives her.

I hope this helps if you're in a dilemma.

Hello, I wasn't intending to say that no other area teaches brass nor that there were no good players from other areas, just that some areas or schools/colleges are better than others for certain instruments.
Really to push the point there are no better conservatoires as asked by mooin. I used brass as an example as I have found this to be the best example of differences.
Jazz is good at Leeds, and Trinity Guildhall.
There my knowledge ends
Although I will have to brush up in years to come, for dd, when she is ready.
I too would like to know of good conservatoires for singing in the south as I only know about the northern ones.

Trinity and guildhall are two separate places.

Rabbit

My knowledge doesn't even start there then
Had heard them mentioned and thought they were the same place.
My dh has several students who go there for Jazz.
They come back for lessons in summer and he goes there as a visiting specialist to do workshops.

Trinity is actually trinity Laban. It's both a conservatoire and a dance school. Guildhall is GSMD - does music and drama. Both do jazz but my jazz musician friends (who admittedly went to and do some teaching at GSMD) reckon that's the top place for jazz. They may be biased. DD1 did a jazz course there in the summer and it was amazing.

You are probably getting confused with the trinity guildhall examining body which is a different thing.