Hi, Chelsea!

 

We don't have a Masters program here, so I can't give you first-hand advice beyond my own experience entering grad school, but that wouldn't be any help because I went directly from a career as an entertainer into a Masters program in choral conducting.  Of course I already knew and had worked with a couple of the choral faculty, and that didn't hurt, but my resume was not exactly typical of a recent graduate.

 

But in general, do not EVER assume that anyone will look at your submission from start to finish.  In that respect it is like an audition, and the best advice for an audition is to put your best 16 bars FIRST and don't count on time for a big buildup!  (And that advice is from the professionals who run the auditions for Disney!)

 

As I would interpret this, give them an opening that shows you IN PERFORMANCE, make it short, and edit it so that it shows the MUSICAL results you can attain.  NEVER an entire piece or movement.  Think sports highlights!  Then follow it up with clips of you in rehearsal, showing how you got the results you got and how you explained your interpretation to your singers and communicated with them.

 

Any grad school committee is doing triage, and assigning applications to YES!, Maybe, and No Way stacks.  The No Way ones go directly into the circular file, even if you get a nice letter of acknowledgement.  They do not meet the minimum standards.  The YES! pile is the ones that they honestly believe they can work with and bring you up to their standards in a year or so.  Then any unfilled spots will be taken from the Maybe pile.  There is always a limit to the number of spots available, and contrary to some of the sour grapes I read from time to time, universities do NOT take unqualified students just to get their tuition money, especially at the graduate level.

 

Practical translation:  they would love to see a finished product, but what they're actually judging is your potential to benefit from their instruction, so give it your best shot and don't worry about the results.  If you get accepted by six different grad schools, THEN you can worry!

 

Of course it goes without saying that you should follow their application guidelines to the letter.  Failure to do so is a quick way to get into the No Way stack.  And you'd be surprised at how many applicants for FACULTY positions don't meet the requirements spelled out in the job announcements, but write cover letters trying to explain it away.  Quite honestly, it just doesn't work.  If you're not qualified, don't apply.

 

Others may disagree, and you should weigh all the advice you get very carefully.  You would also be smart (if possible) to check out each school you apply to personally and arrange to speak with the faculty.  And remember that if you're offered a scholarship, it might mean that THEY need YOU for something, but in grad school that isn't necessarily a bad thing because most schools can't operate without the help of graduate teaching assistants, so if there's anything that you are really well qualified to do, make sure it gets mentioned in your application or in a cover letter.  A good friend was a vocal performance major, but had an assistantship in the German department because she was very qualified for it.

 

All the best!

 

John

 

 

Chelsea-

 

I think the content of your DVD depends on the school. I just started my MM in Choral Conducting at Michigan State this semester, and the professors here are much more interested in rehearsal technique than conducting techinque (although both are important). Conducting teachers can fix issues of physical technique, but they can't give you a good ear or change your personality when in front of a group. For my MM app, I only sent rehearsal footage. You could always set up your menu screen with seperate links to rehearsal footage and performance footage if you've got good representative video in both categories.

 

Also, some teachers are put off by flashy video packages with complicated menu screens and excessively edited footage . They have to watch a ton of these videos, and they don't want to have to find their way to the footage. They want to watch enough to know if the applicant is a definite "no" or a definite "invite to audition". So, make it clear in the first few minutes that you deserve an on-campus audition. After that, your video doesn't really matter anymore - it's all about what you do the day of the audition.

 

Good luck with applications. I was there a year ago and know it can be stressful!

 

     -Danny

Chelsea,

 

If you haven't already done so (and if it isn't too late), I would recommend asking the DCAs at the schools to which you're applying what they want to see.  You may not be able to make 5 different DVDs, but there might be a consensus in the generalities.  

 

I put together a DVD for a job search recently that had six tracks--three in performance and three in rehearsal.  The whole thing is 20 minutes long, but someone who wanted to watch a rehearsal could just navigate to those clips.

 

Good luck to you,

 

Cory Alexander