Curious as to which colleges you have visited that have the most impressive music school facilities. I am talking about the physical building itself, performance halls, practice rooms, etc…Not the quality of faculty or instruction. For example, we went on a college trip and visited Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt, which had a very nice facility. But then we went to U of Alabama and were blown away by the facilities and the money Alabama has put into their music school. Which other schools are spending a lot on new music facilities?
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Northwestern, Bienen School of Music.
Not sure this is the best criteria for judging schools 
@compmom , Oh I am not using this as a criteria. But I am curious which schools are making music a priority and putting money into the programs. Also curious what school facilities surprised others as they toured.
I second Bienen. Beautiful building in a big, dramatic setting.
Bard was lovely - the conservatory isn’t large, but it is new and modern. The Fisher Center is drop dead gorgeous. And I was absolutely charmed by the tiny windowed practice buidling in the trees.
I would be careful about how much money they spend on facilities, it may or may not mean they are a great music school, some of the better schools in this country have old facilities, but they are great programs, whereas some of the schools with flashy new music schools are nowhere near the level of the top schools.
Rice has great facilities, and I hear they are in the process of fund raising to build new ones. Juilliard has facilities that were renovated about 6 years ago, and they are pretty amazing. Colburn is a small school, but they have wonderful facilities.
This is an interesting question-- a lot of the top schools have not-great (and sometimes awful) facilities. Of course, no one would choose a school based on its beautiful facilities, but it can certainly make a difference over four years. I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts. BTW. the new facilities at Curtis are beautiful, on a very human scale. I have also been very impressed by the lovely facilities at CIM.
Skidmore has a beautiful new music building.
Conservatorio de PR. The building is gorgeous and so is the view to the Condado Lagoon.
Recording facilities at Berklee, practice rooms at Thornton (USC), classrooms at Oberlin.
@glassharmonica , My son would not choose solely on facilities but it does catch his eye and cause him to look into a program more seriously. For example, when we visited Alabama we were simply just checking out a nearby large state school with lots of merit awards, so he could see if that was the type of school he might be interested in. But after touring the music building he decided that Alabama was worth considering. It’s a large, new building with soaring atriums, lots of practice and performance space, nice lounge areas, and a whole even newer wing for the marching band that alleviates practice time conflicts with the other music students.
Will be interesting how other facilities compare when we make the next college trip. He will be spending A LOT of time in the music school of whatever college he attends; so while other factors are more important, of course the location of the building on campus, its age, the number of practice rooms, the number and quality of performance halls and recital rooms, etc… will be a factor.
The availability and quality of practice rooms was important to D in considering choices. Bienen has plentiful, soundproof practice space with good pianos. On the other hand, I feel they sunk their cash into bricks and mortar and as a result, have less cash available for pure merit awards in music.
@vistajay:
The real question is about the quality of the teachers and also the competitive level. I just looked at the requirements on violin, for example, for U of A, and their audition requirements are pretty weak, one movement of a bach partita and sonata, one movement from a standard concerto, and a contrasting piece, and they “strongly recommend” one piece be played from memory. At a competitive program you would need to prepare an entire concerto, likely at least contrasting movements of a bach sonata or partita (I seem to recall Curtis required a whole one), usually a mozart concerto, and generally something along the lines of a paganini caprice…and all would need to be done from memory. The graduate requirement wouldn’t meet the undergraduate at most of the schools I am talking about, either.
I am not saying this to knock the university of Alabama, I am simply saying that the fact that they put up a nice building doesn’t mean it is going to be a top level music program, and the facilities to me might be more of “I have school A and B on the list, they are at the same level of desirability, having great facilities makes me go to B”.
GH, funny you mention the facilities at CIM. My S is there now. The recital and concert halls are awesome, my S just recently gave a recital in Mixon Hall and it is gorgeous. He says the practice rooms are awful and he came from UM where the practice rooms were pretty awful as well. All the practice rooms have a piano, a plus to be sure, but consequently there is no room for a chair and he has to use the piano bench, which is hard, not padded. He says he just barely has room for the full movement of his bow and I bought him a gel cushion for xmas to relieve his poor bum. He says that has made it possible for him to put in the practice time he needs.
Some of the nicest practice rooms I ever saw were at Central Michigan U. Didn’t see all the facilities at IU but they had one building with really nice roomy practice rooms.
I was very impressed with USC new practice rooms called Gateway. However their lesson and class rooms are so old and not impressive. USC is also not in the best neighborhood. Colburn has a beautiful modern facility and their dorm rooms are very gorgeous. “HOLLYWOOD” sign was visible from some rooms. Disney Hall (LA Phil) and museums are right in front of the school. Very nice location. Rice’s practice rooms are horrible. I was shocked to see many students are wasting time in from of practice rooms waiting for rooms to be opened. Their lesson rooms are very new and nice. Most of all, the school campus gives amazing atmosphere. CIM has beautiful recital halls and I loved Mixon hall especially! However their dorms and practice rooms are depressing… The weather was very harsh and cold. Juilliard has limited, old, not well soundproof practice rooms but their new sign-in system is very nice. Their dorm rooms are incredibly small but with gorgeous view of Manhattan. Juilliard has a very tight security.
Carnegie Mellon University School of Music
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Juilliard has a very tight security.
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You can say that again. My daughter spent 6 years there–8 if you include pre-college–and there is red tape to get through to get back inside, even on official business, and even though the guards know her by sight. Their recital halls are not great, to say the least, and scheduled up to the second. The practice rooms are small and cramped and hard to come by. The lighting is bad and on the weekends the place is overrun by precollege kids and their anxious parents. When she was a freshman there, her room was so tiny that her roommate (whose mom I’d met by chance earlier here on CC) could not physically stand in the room with her mom and me–because it was too small for four people. It was like living in a ship’s cabin. The view was great, but the common area living room was stacked high with cardboard boxes and suitcases from the international students, who had no place else to stash their stuff…so the living room was unused (which seemed like a waste to me.). Even so, it’s a world-class institution and I don’t think she would have traded a moment with her teachers for the creature comforts of a school with beautiful facilities. (Not that beautiful facilities would have been unwelcome.)
I have to agree that Bienen School of Music has amazing facilities - gorgeous setting and the views from the practice rooms are stunning. At USC we thought the practice rooms were too far away from the music buildings and on the far edge of campus. At Eastman the recital halls seem okay - one rather newer hall and two traditional style halls that have been renovated. Other aspects of the school facilities at Eastman I felt were downright crappy but my daughter loves every minute of being there. 
What’s great for one student may be torture for another in more ways than one. My daughter likes the cold and would have been miserable at a school in the south or on the west coast and as a VP major, she didn’t mind the hard chairs in a practice room (yes, she was at CIM as an undergrad) but she did need a good piano in a room and she would get annoyed when there were piano majors who would run over to the building when it opened and drop their books and coat in the practice rooms, “signing” the room out for hours on end even though they weren’t occupying it! While Mixon Hall was gorgeous, it was terrible to sing in- they never could “tune” it properly for soloists and the sound would go out but just lay there and not return- so the they overwhelmingly preferred the old Kulas Hall for their junior and senior recitals. Because the school is so small, the guards know everyone who is supposed to be there and security is great.
Another vote for really lovely facilities goes to CCPA in Chicago: the dorm is incredible, suites with views of Lake Michigan or the city and Soldier Field, a full health club, dining room, laundry, store, practice rooms, etc and it’s all attached to the main building so no one even has to go outside if it’s bad weather! The security is quite tight- no one gets in any door to the buildings without a photo ID even if the guards know you or have just seen you go out a few minutes before. Bottlenecks can result at recital time or concert nights!
@glassharmonica, I totally agree with you! My S has been spending there for almost two years now and he loves learning from world-class teachers! It is definitely a privilege! He also appreciates the convenient living in NYC. It is very easy to go around places by subway without having a car. Living right in front of Lincoln Center and walking distance to MET museum and Central Park are like a dream. However NYC is very expensive place to live! It cost a lot to just visit him. :((