About 5 weeks ago when I desperately needed some guidance on what to do with my life, I opened my email in box and found what normally would have spam from the NATS organization (National Association of Teachers of Singing). However, the title of this spam email was heaven-sent: "New Music Theatre Voice Pedagogy MFA." Aaaaaaahhh! (you must sing that in your head, it's a high angel sounding note). I have been waiting for years for some university to create a program like this. It is new this year and the only one in the nation. If you want to study vocal pedagogy there are plenty of graduate programs out there but they are all classically based. All those times that I have applied for graduate school and not gone is largely because they weren't really the programs that I wanted. What's even more miraculous about this all is that the deadline for Fall 2011 was May 1st. I still had time to apply and get in for this fall! I had a really strong impression that I should try to get into this program this year. So I turned down a very sensible job that I think I would have enjoyed because I didn't feel like I could get this application done in 5 weeks if I was working full time. And I was right. It has been a crazy race to the finish. It has been more than just writing a 2 page Statement of Purpose, creating a CV, a Repertoire List, and a DVD of some samples of my singing. It has been jumping back into the saddle after being out for almost 4 years which has required a lot of practicing, choosing repertoire and trying to figure out what my teaching philosophy is. I didn't think I had one, but after I thought about it for a while and paid more attention to my teaching at BYU this semester I was able to start verbalizing my approach as a teacher.
Whew! I am so grateful that I found this program. Even if I am not accepted, I am grateful for the process of the last 5 weeks. I feel like I have awakened and enlarged a part of my soul that has been dormant for a long time. I am really excited about teaching and about singing. I have been taking voice lessons and want to talk all the time about what I am learning and discovering. That past six months have been rough and it feels good to be excited about life again.
Once they receive my application they will decide if they want me to come out to PA for an audition where I will do some singing, and some observed teaching. But for now, I am glad to be done with the paperwork and to be able to spend my time practicing and preparing for the hoped for audition.
Here is the link to the DVD that I sent in with my application.
Well!! This is all very exciting news!! I feel great things happening for you, Miss Christy. That is no coincidence in finding that program when you did. Heavenly Father has impeccable timing and knows you personally. "So it is, amid the vastness of His creations, God’s personal shaping influence is felt in the details of our lives—not only in the details of the galaxies and molecules but, much more importantly, in the details of our own lives. Somehow God is providing these individual tutorials for us while at the same time He is overseeing cosmic funerals and births, for as one earth passes away so another is born. It is marvelous that He would attend to us so personally in the midst of those cosmic duties." -Neal A. Maxwell, Becoming a disciple,
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for more updates!!
Love you!!