Katy Dickinson

Going for Music

Besides being very impressed with the music conservatories at both Carnegie Mellon and Oberlin, probably the biggest understanding to come out of this college visit in Pennsylvania and Ohio is that my daughter Jessi wants to study music more than anything else. On the 5 hour drive from Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio) back here to the airport hotel (in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), she and I discussed priorities and options. That is, which of the colleges Jessi has researched offer a world-class vocal conservatory education as well as providing an excellent computer science and humanities education.

Some of the best conservatories offer substandard training in everything but music. Jessi is now reconsidering the list of colleges to which she will apply before the end of December. The original list contained several schools with good but not great music programs: those are being dropped. The feeling of certainty, of belonging, that Jessi described when touring the two music conservatories is what really made the decision. She finds many academic subjects interesting and her grades are uniformly high but only music gives her that rush of joy.

I have no idea whether Jessi will be offered a place in one of the several vocal conservatories to which she will apply, or even what she will do with a background in opera and a singing knowledge of English, Spanish, German, Italian, Latin, and French. It will be fascinating to watch developments.

Posted at 04:38PM Nov 04, 2006 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

A Scanner Darkly, Kenyon College

My daughter Jessi and I are visiting Kenyon College here in Gambier, Ohio, today. We arrived last night in time to see a free showing of the movie "A Scanner Darkly" hosted by the campus film club at the huge bright new "KAC" (Kenyon Athletic Facility). This film combines live action and anime styles and features an impressive cast including Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson. The small KAC film theater was packed and the movie, while disturbing in content, was fascinating.

It was very cold walking back to our hotel and frost was forming on the ground. There was no cell phone service for Cingular on campus but the wireless net works fine. We are getting ready for Jessi's interview with the admissions department now...

Posted at 06:23AM Nov 04, 2006 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[1]

Visiting Oberlin Conservatory

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).

Posted at 06:07AM Nov 04, 2006 by katysblog in Home & Family  |