That’s Not What He Wants To Do With His Life.
Back in the fall, Dylan auditioned for a music scholarship at Belmont University. He was excited to major in Commercial Music – a choice that is rarely offered at colleges.
Since Dylan sings like an angel, he thought very little about his audition. He had to sing one opera song and two commercial songs. He picked his audition songs rather randomly.
Dylan sounded great on audition day. In fact, he sounded a little too great on those commercial music songs.
The Coordinator of Vocal Studies for Belmont has performed with a dozen different operas, and was one of nine national finalists in a competition sponsored by the Met. And the Coordinator of Vocal Studies was one of the judges on audition day.
He heard Dylan sing that one opera song, and refused Dylan admission to the Commercial Music program.
Not only did Dylan get no scholarship, he also got rejected from the program of his choice. Dylan got an email from the vocal studies coordinator, explaining that Dylan could, instead, enroll in Belmont’s classical music program. (The classical track at Belmont is called Music Performance.)
But Dylan could have studied classical music anywhere. In fact, he had huge scholarships offered to him at other colleges. Dylan wanted to study Commercial Music at Belmont; he didn’t want to study opera.
So Dylan jumped through hoops, made phone calls, and sent pleading emails. Long story short: he chose to enroll in the Music Performance program – the classical track – in the hopes of getting a scholarship from Belmont’s School of Music.
But Dylan never got a music scholarship from Belmont.
He had trained for years, and had many, many scholarships offered to him from other colleges. But all of those scholarships meant that he would study classical music and train to become either a conductor, a music teacher, or an opera singer.
Dylan likes heavy metal. He likes country. He likes electronic dance music. He likes rock and roll, some pop, blues, R&B, and even classical music. Dylan has the most eclectic musical taste of anyone I’ve ever known; and yes, he even likes singing opera.
But that’s not what he wants to do with his life.
So, when preparing to register for classes, we talked a lot with Dylan about his choices. He’s convinced – as we are – that he chose the right college. It is a perfect fit. But is he going to be able to do what he loves, as a career?
Dylan wants to sing. He’d like to do it professionally and help people and make enough money to support a family. All of us agree that it’s a long-shot, but that he’s in the right place to make it happen, if it’s going to happen.
His backup plan is to work in the music industry. There are a ton of jobs in the music industry that Dylan hasn’t yet explored. And the appropriate majors for those industry jobs are all offered at Belmont. There’s Music Business, Entertainment Industry Studies, Music Theory, Songwriting, Music Composition, Audio Engineering, Music Therapy – the list goes on and on.
So while Dylan is figuring out which way to go, he stuck with Music Performance as his choice of major. But he prepared to register for the fall semester by choosing courses that would be suitable for any major.
Now … we just wait.