With her acceptance into New York University’s Master of Music program, senior music major and theatre minor Meghan Gibson is now one step closer to her dream career as a musical theatre performer. When she begins the program in August, she will focus on vocal performance with a concentration in musical theatre.
“It’s a little different than a typical music program,” Gibson said. “It brings together theatre and dance on top of the typical music classes that you would have to take with that. It’s very performance based, since it’s a vocal performance program.
At the end of the two years I’ll spend there, I’ll get to do a debut for producers in New York to hopefully get me a job on a show.”
Meghan Gibson, photo by Nathan Heinze
The application process was extensive. Gibson had to write essays and turn in transcripts just like a typical graduate school application, but she also had to do a prescreen audition which involved recording herself with an accompanist at Bluffton. She then sent NYU the recording of a few songs and a monologue.
From there, Gibson was invited for an in-person audition and interview at the New York City campus.
Gibson said she believes Bluffton was a good stepping stone to prepare her for NYU as well as her long-term goals. For example, she was given a lot of performing opportunities as a music major at Bluffton, including performing as a soloist in a Masterworks concert her sophomore year. Her list of experiences also included a number of roles in Bluffton’s musicals and plays.
“Melissa [Friesen, professor of theater and communication] and Crystal [Sellers Battle, associate professor of music] have worked really hard together to make sure that I understand different aspects of performing and how to approach roles and how to approach songs to bring the most character to that, which helped me a lot,” Gibson said.
Although Gibson is excited about all that New York has to offer, the transition of moving from a small town to a big city is also nerve-wracking.
“I’m most nervous about moving to New York,” she said. “It’s a big city. I’ve never lived in a big city before, and the price of living there is high.”
Despite how far she’ll be from home, Gibson said she finds comfort knowing that she found a community atmosphere similar to Bluffton’s on her visit to NYU’s campus.
“[NYU is] a really close-knit community despite being a huge community,” Gibson said. “The music department was so tightly knit, and they all seemed to know each other, which was cool because that’s how it is here.
I didn’t want to go somewhere and constantly have to be in competition, or hate the people I’m around. Seeing that wasn’t the case there was really nice.”
