<p>D is considering the BA in music at the River Campus--not the BM at Eastman, to be totally clear. Wants a liberal arts education, not a conservatory, but at a school with a solid music program & in a city. She likely would pick a second major. We visited and were very impressed with the academics overall, the study abroad, and the prospect of taking lessons with grad students at Eastman, who are bound to be very good. Anyone with perspectives on the BA program? Is it perpetually in the shadow of Eastman?</p>
<p>Try doing a search using rochester and music as key words. I seem to remember a poster who was getting a BA in music at Rochester. My D is at Eastman, and takes secondary lessons in piano. She has always been assigned a grad student, and has been very happy with her piano teachers. During her first year, all the voice students were assigned to a choir that met at U of R, so there were both Eastman and U of R students there. All U of R students would get the same discounts to see the RPO, and also attend Eastman performances for free, I believe. That’s all I know, hope you can find out more through searching this site.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply and for the perspective. I’ve done many searches on this site and turn up dozens of results for Eastman, and for threads that relate to students being admitted to Rochester, but not much insight into the BA experience other than what we hear from the school and see on the Web site.</p>
<p>D’s best friend is at the River Campus and takes voice lessons at Eastman with a grad student. Be aware that the quality of same can vary much more than the regular faculty and it is difficult to change teachers if needed.
The logistics of getting downtown can be a real pain, although the administration will not tell you that. Yes, the shuttles run back and forth, but when trying to co-ordinate lesson times it’s best to allow for two hours to get to the conservatory (which is ridiculous, I know, I lived there for 30 years, taught at the River Campus for a while and my younger son will be applying to U of R this month!) simply because of the chances of a shuttle being a few minutes early or late, which happens more frequently in the winter. A music major, per se, at U of R shouldn’t be considered “in the shadow” of Eastman because they have little to do with each other; the latter is a performance degree from a well-known conservatory while the latter is much the same as getting a BA in music from any university.There is virtually no mingling in music-related classes. There is a really unique major offered in Music and Linguistics.
The U of R is an academically rigorous school and Rochester is in upstate NY with not much around it. Large numbers of students live on campus for the entire 4 years, either in university housing or Greek housing- even students from the vicinity choose to live there, which speaks well for the school!
The economic downturn has hit the region very hard. The Rochester Philharmonic is now considered a “regional” orchestra- there is not the strong teaching affiliation between the orchestra and the conservatory that is found in other areas which is sad, but a number of the players do keep home teaching studios. An important factor to keep in mind is that, if air travel is required, the Rochester airport has the dubious distinction of being one of the most expensive in the nation as far as fares- discount airlines come and go there with dizzying speed and train travel is, well, unreliable. Cars are allowed on campus but lots can be very far away. Spring and fall are lovely, but winters are something to behold and take some getting used to- fashion is forgotten about from November to April!
I would still recommend the school without reservation. Profs are top-notch, class sizes manageable and there are plenty of activities in which to participate. As sopranomom92 mentioned, all students have access to RPO and Eastman performances and there are very active drama and performance groups on the River Campus. Graduate schools look very favorably on an undergrad degree from there too, of your D is looking forward a few years!</p>
<p>I am the poster with the daughter who graduated with a BA in Music from University of Rochester and a BA in English, concentration in theater. You can PM me for additional information. I did not see what your d’s instrument is… my d’s instrument is voice and she did have primary lessons through Eastman for four years. She did get an excellent theory, ear training and music history undergrad experience at the River Campus as well as a required year of piano. The back and forth does become difficult although she was lucky in her last three semesters that her voice teacher came to the River Campus for her voice students. The instructors are DMA candidates and you do need to pass an annual jury. My main issue was that there was absolutely no mentoring about how you might advance yourself-summer programs, festivals to audition for, etc. There could also be a better staff liason in the music dept at the River Campus to advocate for their undergrads in terms of how to use the Eastman facilities-she did have great difficulty trying to get studio time to record a CD for a summer program submission.Many of the faculty teach on both campuses (problem when a professor has office hours only at Eastman) and there are Eastman students who take music history electives on the River campus.The music faculty on the River Campus is very close-knit and generous with their time. My d was in the Chamber singers ensemble and one year they did perform with Eastman Women’s Chorus in joint concert at a church downtown and also did a spring break tour for alumni events in Boston and NYC. The practice rooms on the River Campus, assigned by seniority are as good as any. You can audition for Eastman performances but … even for Eastman undergrads you are competing against MA and DMA students.</p>
<p>This is so very helpful. Thank you to both “mamas” for taking the time to write such complete assessments of the music program and the school. My D’s interest is in a music BA at a school where music seems to be genuinely valued, not just “oh, yes, we have that major,” and we got that vibe from U-R very clearly even without the Eastman connection. Not so much from, say, Tufts, another school with a BA music major she visited and is considering. And she wants to be in some kind of city environment, not a remote LAC campus. She’s a strong student from an academically rigorous high school, wants a school with robust academics, and we feel like she’d be competitive for admission. U-R, though absolutely no one we know has gone there, just hit a lot of good notes…didn’t seem too preppy or Greek though there’s a Greek presence, but not a place where “fun goes to die” either. The weather…eh. I attended college in the upper Midwest so I know what long winters are like. She does not. But she insists she’d deal.</p>
<p>Atlanticdreamer - You may wish to reconsider your first impression of Tufts. I know that the composition department there is very active, lively & nationally known. There is a regular poster on this forum whose son is getting a dual degree Tufts/NEC and she would be able to speak more knowledgeably than I can about the Tufts music dept.</p>
<p>atlanticdreamer, I will throw it out there because it popped into my mind: have you looked into Case Western? They do have a music major, and from what I could see during a visit, they do take it seriously. They are next door (a literal stone’s throw) to CIM and the Cleveland Orchestra. If your daughter is looking forward to some long, hard winters, the weather in Cleveland does offer some of the same features as that at Rochester, and it is in a city.</p>
<p>@atlanticedreamer- glassharmonica is quite right in recommending CWRU. Their music program is quite good (their Early Music major is renown) and I can tell you from experience that the music history teachers are fantastic. Although the Case students do not take any classes at CIM (Case has their own separate music faculty- but some of them do teach at CIM’s Prep Division), the CIM students take their academic classes at Case. Severance Hall is just down the street and the Cleveland Orchestra enjoys an international reputation (students get a discount). The school isn’t preppy and yes,there are some Greek Houses but they are not a major factor. Affordable and “safe” housing is nearby if for those that elect later on, to live off-campus, and I would say having lived in both places, that I’d much rather have my D walking back to her apartment from the CIM/Case campus than across the Genesee River from the U of R (older S lived there). As she also pointed out, Cleveland is a considered a real city, and a benefit of that is the airport, which is easily accessible by high-speed rail right from the campus and which is a major hub for a couple of airlines. The weather seems a bit less snowy in Cleveland than in Rochester but that can depend upon how the wind decides to blow off of Lake Erie vs Lake Ontario in a given winter!
Different vibe from each school though, but definitely worth checking out.</p>
<p>Thanks! I just skipped over the Case Western Reserve music dept. Website and it does look interesting - I will get my D to take a look and point out the additional aspect of being close to CIM; a friend has a daughter who studied there so we know how amazing it is. </p>
<p>It’s funny because we went to one of those traveling admissions sessions at which U of R, Case Western and Brandeis admissions reps were appearing together and didn’t get any info or insight into the CWR music program from the material or presentation. On the other hand it has been my experience that beyond the big stars of the collegiate music world you have to do some digging to find other programs. This forum is really great for that.</p>