Anyone considering a degree in vocal performance, or advising others about these matters, faces a litany of concerns. Beyond soaring tuition and housing costs, and limited financial aid, there are the issues of finding the right teacher and school, getting enough performance opportunities, and balancing studio, rehearsals, and auditions with required coursework. Getting informed and being strategic about your higher-ed investment is the best guarantee for having a rewarding educational experience.
First, examine your expectations and motivations for pursuing a degree. What specifically are you hoping to gain from this experience? Is now the best time? Think hard about these questions and discuss them with trusted mentors. With clear goals appropriate to your developmental stage, it’s easier to find the right fit in a teacher and program, and to plan strategically about how to finance your education.
The Dilemma
Young singers usually enter an undergrad program with lots of ambition and high expectations, but without any clear sense of their own potential or any idea of what to expect from a program. They may have been lucky enough to acquire a healthy basic vocal technique, but most enter with little musicianship training—many can’t read music. Still, they or their parents pay for college tuition that can put them in debt for more than $100,000. It’s an awfully big gamble on the potential of a voice that can take 10 more years to develop.
Prospective master’s degree students typically pursue graduate work dead set on being cast in the school’s opera productions. Realistically, only a handful will get this opportunity—and many take on further debt, $60,000 or more. Worse, many arrive at both their undergrad and grad schools not knowing with whom they will be studying.
The majority of singers graduate with no performance experience other than what their school provided. They graduate with few prospects, unprepared for professional life. What can singers do to have a better education experience and outcome?
Finding the Right Teacher for You
For most musicians, the specific teacher they will study with is the most important factor in choosing a school. Finding the right teacher, especially in the formative stages of a career, is the most important factor in becoming the professional you aspire to be.
Don’t assume that the teacher with the great reputation will be a good match for you. The right teacher isn’t necessarily the person who’s the most encouraging, supportive, or likeable. You need to find the teacher who can help you work through your technical limitations and expand your repertoire with works appropriate to your Fach and ability. You need to find the teacher who helps maximize your natural talents while helping you enhance and improve your sound, range, diction, and interpretive skills. The right teacher is the one whose guidance leads
you to both hear and feel real improvements.
Many experienced voice teachers with excellent reputations are available, but the best studio teaching comes down to how a particular teacher connects and communicates with an individual student. That’s why choosing teachers based on reputation, on how they sound in concert or on recordings, or on what you observed in their masterclass isn’t enough. You need to know how a specific teacher will work with you.
Start by making a list of potential teachers. Talk to friends, colleagues, current and former teachers, conductors, coaches, and directors. Ask what teachers they’d recommend, and whose work they admire. As you gather names, listen to recordings of any of these potential teachers, watch as many masterclasses as you can, and attend summer festivals and workshops. Find out which schools and summer programs employ these teachers, and look for contact information. If you can’t find an e-mail address for the teacher on a school’s website, call the school and ask how to reach the teacher—or you can always mail an old fashioned letter.
Write to the teachers you are considering and request a lesson. Some teachers don’t have time to offer introductory “preview” lessons, but there’s no harm in asking. This lesson should be well before you audition for the school, ideally, the spring or the summer before. Yes, this can get pricey, but it’s worth the investment. Don’t gamble on a bad fit between you and your studio instructor.
Do Your Homework
Read school websites for background information on faculty—read course descriptions and degree requirements, and find out about the performance opportunities, student services, etc. This will help give you a sense of what to expect realistically from any program. You can also find directory information on schools in the United States at www.petersons.com and www.gradschools.com. For international schools, see the links on Finland’s Sibelius Academy website.
Visit the campuses—meet students, observe classes, and rehearsals. After these visits, you may find your original top choice may no longer seem ideal, so explore several possibilities. In the end, you should apply to enough schools (between four and seven) to have several viable options.
Show Me the Money!
Financial aid packages generally include scholarships (need or merit based), workstudy assistance (on-campus paid part-time work), and various low-interest loan packages. Be aware that because schools need to balance
voice types in their performance programs, they offer more scholarships to voices in short supply (tenors, baritones, and basses, rather than sopranos).
Keep in mind that state universities are considerably less expensive than private schools. In addition, grad programs at state schools usually offer teaching assistantships, with a stipend or tuition reduction plus valuable professional teaching experience.
If you have a profitable sideline skill and professional experience (such as a real estate license, or professional credentials as a jeweler), you may be able to partially fund your education with part-time work.
When considering your student loan options, find out in advance how much your monthly loan payments will be after graduation. Make sure you can afford the school you choose, but don’t base your choice entirely on cost. A short-term bargain may not be the best long-term investment: the lasting effects of your education will endure long after the loans are repaid.
Since living expenses are a big piece of college costs, look for ways to economize, such as being a resident assistant in the dorm, living with relatives in commuting distance, or working as a live-in childcare provider or housekeeper (working 20 hours per week in exchange for room and board). Living within a modest budget is an important factor to keeping your student loan debt to a minimum. Don’t add to your student loan burden by racking up credit card debt.
Outside the financial aid package individual schools offer, private grants and fellowships funded by foundations, individuals, and local community organizations may be available to you. Applying to these programs typically involves research to find programs for which you are eligible, writing application essays, and supplying letters of recommendation and other supporting materials (academic transcripts, a recording, or a live audition).
Undergrad Blues or Bliss?
The focus of most undergrad voice programs is to help students gain solid musicianship skills. Four-year undergrad programs usually consist of 120 credit hours that include private lessons, chorus and other ensemble
experience, opera scene programs, music theory and history, as well as general education or liberal arts requirements. Some programs may also offer studio class, diction, language study, and movement or acting classes.
Many undergraduates arrive at college enthusiastic to perform but ill-prepared in music theory, ear training, and sight-reading. These are fundamental, essential skills necessary for learning repertoire quickly, working well in
ensembles, and ultimately, for making a singer more employable as a professional. In some cases, it may be wise to consider enrolling at a less expensive state school for a year or more to shore up any weak areas in musicianship training before enrolling in a more expensive, competitive and demanding program.
Tips for Undergraduate Success
• Work hard at your music theory and ear training—get a tutor if needed
• Take extra coursework in languages: Italian, French, and German
• In consultation with your voice teacher, look for appropriate additional performance opportunities, such as wedding gigs and local auditions for operettas or musicals. Take a church job to increase your performance, sight-reading, and ensemble skills.
• Get your general education or liberal arts classes done early. Take courses that both satisfy the school’s requirements and stretch your imagination and intellect. You can’t be a great performer unless you have something to communicate! Some people take these courses through summer programs or at nearby and less expensive state schools or community colleges. Find out in advance what credits from which schools will be accepted as transfer
credits.
• Take piano lessons to improve your sightreading skills and so that you can accompany yourself and future students. You may be able to barter piano lessons with a fellow student for tutoring you can offer in exchange.
• If possible, participate in summer festival study, summer stock, or regional musicals to gain stage performance experience.
What next?
After completing their bachelor’s degrees, singers often struggle with the decision of when (or if) to enter a master’s degree program. If they already carry significant student loan debt, taking on additional loans may be unmanageable. And because the voice develops according to its own timeline, it’s not necessarily clear when is best to invest in another degree.
For many, a year or two off between degrees can be well spent with private study and coaching, language study, a church job, and free-lance and oratorio work. To pay the bills, singers take on a variety of day jobs, though it’s wise to be careful of work that over-taxes the voice (telemarketing may be a mistake).
Consult with your teacher, coaches, and other people who’ve heard you sing over a period of time. Get feedback on your readiness to enter a competitive grad program.
Master’s Degree Savvy
Typical master’s programs include lessons, diction, repertoire and performance classes, movement or acting classes, opera scenes and full productions, plus at least one “academic” course per year in music theory or history.
Some programs may also offer pedagogy courses, language classes, and various ensemble opportunities.
Master’s degree programs generally carry just 36 credits; grad students have more time for performance studies, rehearsals, and auditions. These programs provide the opportunity for intensive, focused study, so that singers can develop their technical and interpretive skills, expand their repertoire, and gain performance and audition experience. The expectation is that students enroll with a solid foundation of musicianship skills and a solid, healthy vocal technique so they can make the most of the two-year program.
Much of a successful grad school experience is up to the individual student. It is your job to come prepared, to seek out the right teacher, the right choice of classes, and to take on the challenges of local and regional auditions
and off-campus performance opportunities. Use the time well, so that you have a platform for work after graduation. Audition for local oratorio and free-lance work: network and meet the area’s choral conductors and sing for them. Make time to explore a related interest area, such as teaching, stage direction, conducting, arts administration, or performance outreach. This can lead to work opportunities after graduation to supplement your performance income.
Option B?
Many music schools also offer diploma and certificate programs. These are geared for performance concentration with little or no academic requirements, and are less expensive than degree programs. Diploma programs can be attractive to those seeking an additional year of study beyond either their bachelor’s or master’s degrees.
The competitive level of diploma and certificate programs varies. The “Artist Diploma” is often a school’s most competitive program and is geared toward musicians already launching professional careers.
Is There a Doctor in the House?
The equivalent of the Ph.D, the Doctor of Musical Arts, is the terminal degree in performance, and its prerequisite is the master’s. DMA programs generally have a two-year residency requirement, and include lessons, performance classes, and demanding courses in music history and theory. Programs require students to pass foreign language exams and may also require passing a comprehensive exam at the end of the coursework.
DMA candidates must write either a full thesis or else one or more doctoral research papers, focused on an aspect of performance, or on theoretical or historical analyses of particular works. The performance requirements usually involve three to six solo recitals (sometimes lecture recitals and chamber music are also included).
Singers often pursue DMA programs because they aspire to teach voice full-time at the university level and these jobs now typically require doctorates. Though no degree can guarantee employment, DMA students can make themselves more marketable for college teaching jobs by getting as much teaching and performance experience as possible. Teaching assistantships can offer terrific experience. Otherwise, candidates should gain experience teaching off-campus at other local institutions.
It’s also important to perform not just the on-campus required recitals, but to perform elsewhere and often. Employers view this as evidence of an active professional track record, an ability to perform for all kinds of community audiences, and a potential ability to recruit students.
The Bottom Line
Whatever you choose in terms of advanced studies, from private lessons to full degree programs, the proof of the value of the education you receive lies in what you do with it. As Charles Stier writes in his book, What Happens After Graduation? The Classical Musician and the Music Business: “The first and most important step in becoming a professional musician is to seek out and remain with the best teacher. The second step is to know when to leave. The third step is to take what you have been taught and redefi ne those values in your own terms.”
