From a young age, Eleanor Ilyas (‘24) has always been passionate about music, and her love of singing has translated into a potential career. Ilyas’ passion for music originated from watching a popular musical as a child.
“I had watched ‘The Sound of Music’ three times in a row when I was really little and since then I have wanted to sing like that,” Ilyas said.
As a member of the school’s Concert Choir, lead in the fall musical and participant in extracurricular singing groups, Ilyas is one of the few students who wish to pursue music in university.
Ilyas said she began taking piano and singing lessons at 5 years old, which ultimately led her to find a passion for vocal music. Beginning in Grade 5, she pursued singing through the Middle and High School musicals and simultaneously participated in choirs and various other music-oriented extracurricular activities.
“I ended up doing a lot of choirs outside of school and a lot of programs in the summer surrounding music,” Ilyas said. “It was just natural that I wanted to end up doing it at university.”
It’s a fear of not knowing if you’ll get in because, academically, you can find safety schools, but that just doesn’t exist for music because it just all depends on your audition.
— Eleanor Ilyas ('24)
Although Ilyas has always had a love for music, she said she was not exempt from mental blocks that stood in the way of performing.
“I used to have the worst stage fright,” Ilyas said. “I was so terrified, and then Mrs. Blacker told me to take every performance opportunity I could, so I did from then on. In choir, I just did every single performance I could. I tried out for every single solo … eventually, that fear started to dissipate.”
This past summer, Ilyas worked with musicians through the New York University Classical Voice Intensive, which she said has been her biggest accomplishment in music to date. Along with her work over the summer, Ilyas dedicates 2 hours a week to the London Youth Choir.
“My biggest accomplishment would be getting into the NYU Classical Voice Intensive over the summer,” Ilyas said. “Also, the stuff that I do outside of school, like the National Youth Training Choir. I definitely consider those to be my biggest accomplishments.”
When narrowing down her university list, Ilyas said she chose to apply to both music conservatories and larger schools with internal music programs to maximize her career opportunities.
Ilyas said for students aspiring to study music, the university application process not only includes the standard college admission requirements, but also additional interviews and submissions.
“You have to submit around three to five songs, just for pre-screening,” Ilyas said. “For me, it’s art songs or arias from the 17th, 18th century.”
Art songs are typically solo voice pieces with piano accompaniment while arias are more complex opera pieces.
Although Ilyas said she is incredibly passionate about music and motivated to continue pursuing it in university, the application process has not been entirely smooth.
“It’s a fear of not knowing if you’ll get in because, academically, you can find safety schools, but that just doesn’t exist for music because it just all depends on your audition,” Ilyas said. “The hardest and biggest difference is just having almost no certainty.”
Ilyas said she made it through the application process by staying organized by making spreadsheets of schools and each of their pre-screen requirements and vocal programs.
Furthermore, Ilyas said filming each of her performances in the past has been helpful when it came to submitting auditions to schools.
“Record every single performance you can, because a lot of times you can use those to send in as auditions,” Ilyas said. “I always find I tend to do much better in, like, performances because I only have one shot.”
Beyond “The Sound of Music,” Ilyas said she found inspiration from Harolyn Blackwell, a musician and professor at NYU, after meeting her during the summer intensive. Ilyas said Blackwell’s professional pathway is inspiring for her own future career.
“Her story of coming up and just being a huge performer throughout her life, and then becoming a teacher is something I would love to do,” Ilyas said. “Her voice is just absolutely beautiful.”
In order to sing professionally in the future, Ilyas said she aims to earn a Bachelor of Music Education, a 4-year undergraduate degree that prepares aspiring music educators for a teaching career.
“Hopefully that would lead to performance opportunities, but if it doesn’t, I would really love to pursue a career in music education,” Ilyas said. “I’m super happy with the future, either being more educational or performing or both. Just anything music.”
