Getting to Carnegie Hall Is No Joke

Getting to Carnegie Hall Is No Joke

The drive from Burlington, Vermont, to the Upper West Side of Manhattan takes about six hours, a fact 16-year-old Rowan Bauman Swain knows all too well. Rowan, her younger sister and her mother, Heather, have made that round trip most weekends from September to May for the past five years. They leave Vermont on Friday afternoon, as soon as classes are out at the private school where Heather teaches, and spend the night with family or friends in New York to be rested for Saturday morning. At 7 p.m. on Saturday—less than 24 hours since their arrival—they get back on the road to Burlington, arriving at home 1 a.m. Sunday.

“Every year, my family reassesses our commitment,” says Rowan, but she and her mother believe they’ll continue until she graduates from high school. “Juilliard’s Pre-College Division is unparalleled,” says Heather.

A part of the world-renowned arts  conservatory, Pre-College isn’t for dabblers; the program admits only students who have the talent for a career in music, like Rowan, a cellist. Graduates include classical superstar Yo-Yo Ma, New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert and Grammy-winning pianist Emanuel Ax.

Each year, about 500 musicians from grades two through 12 apply to the program. Fewer than 100 are  accepted, and the subsequent dedication required is grueling. Pre-College does not offer full-time academic instruction; students attend in addition to their normal schooling. The program’s private lessons in performance, classes on music theory and courses covering a variety of electives run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, with occasional recitals that go until 10:30 p.m. The price tag for what amounts to one day of instruction: $11,400 for 36 weeks.

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