<p>I'm a bit confused. Do you want to be a vocal performance major?</p>
<p>Columbia University does not have a performance degree; nor does it have much of an extracurricular vocal music program for its students. The excellent music department is strictly academic. A very small number of Columbia students take lessons at Juilliard, but apart from the one or two a year who are in the BA/MM program, you have to find the Juilliard teacher and funding on your own. Columbia does provide free music lessons, based on audition, to some students; the lessons are with adjuncts.</p>
<p>Do you mean Columbia College in Chicago or Columbia University in NYC?</p>
<p>In terms of "double majoring" with music and a non-music major... contact the schools directly.</p>
<p>If the music major is a BA and the other major is a BA it is a double major. If the Music major is a BM and the other major is a BA (or any other degree) it is a double degree. These often take longer than four years.</p>
<p>Oberlin is a wonderful program... but highly competitive academically. </p>
<p>Mascarasnake -- you mentioned that your grades in HS were not strong in the first few years.... and that you thought you might have to go to CC first? You may want to look at BA programs at colleges that are not as academically selective. You took the ACT, so I think you might be from the midwest? But, Plymouth State University in NH has a good music department (BA), good liberal arts... small school 3000 - 4000 students... many of the graduates go to very good graduate schools in VP... NEC, BoCo, BU, Peabody, etc... </p>
<p>I used to teach there in theatre. PM me if you have any questions.</p>
<p>I've heard a lot of good stuff about St. Olaf. And they have a 5-year Double Major Program (BM and BA non-music)</p>
<p>Does anyone know about this program? They have a music dept. with performance majors.</p>
<p>Do you mean University of California at Santa Barbara? They have what appears to be a friendly, small music performance department -- offering a BA or BM in music (you have to audition for either of the programs). It also offers graduate degrees in music performance. The campus is beautiful, on the beach, just north of Santa Barbara. You can find out a lot about the program online. When I looked, I was impressed by the master class series and performance schedule. UC Santa Barbara has a party school reputation, but also has an honors program and excellent faculty. It is about half the size of the other UC's. UCLA also has a performance degree (a BA) in the School of Arts and Architecture (requires CD screening, then audition), as does UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine.</p>
<p>I can only speak of the voice program at UCSB. When I spoke with a student who was leaving it last year, she described it as "slowly imploding". Not a good sign. But things do change (maybe for the better?), but I would be careful.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice, guys! Now, while I understand that none of the schools I listed have performance majors, I'm now considering a different approach to the process... what are some schools with strong music departments or schools where I would find strong vocal performing extracarriculars easily available to me? Like, for instance, schools that have affiliations with local opera companies or are known to have great music classes that you can take for academic credit or provide wonderful voice teachers among their music faculty with whom you can take lessons.... </p>
<p>Could you guys name some schools for me that fall under those criteria? There are obviously places like Oberlin, but I'm also looking for places like, as a poster above me noted, Sarah Lawrence which just happens to have a great voice department.</p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Anyone? Please? I'd really appreciate it!</p>
<p>(Read the above post)</p>
<p>The top flight music schools- conservatory, conservatory level within an affiliated instiution for performance concentrations are all auditioned based programs. Admission is highly competitive, and the "name" faculty and performing organizations are usually open only to performance majors or BM candidates in specific concentrations. Similarly, my experience with institutions that have working relationships with outside performing organizations limit participation and "ins" to the best qualified undergrad & grad music degree candidates.</p>
<p>Some schools open up their performing organizations to all BM/BA music candidates, and music minors. Others have a tiered system of performance groups, where assignment is based on internal auditions. There are schools that have one orchestra for music majors, and a second or even third open to other majors, faculty, and at times, to the surrounding community at large.</p>
<p>Your question is really pretty school specific and has no definitive answer as to what schools might work. One of the best ways to approach it is to first identify schools that suit the bulk of your selection criteria, and then spend ALOT of time going through the the school's music school or department's webpages. In most cases, the availablity and requirements for performance/performance organization opportunities, class and teacher restrictions, involvement in community based ensembles, outside gigging chances are all pretty well detailed if you look deeply enough.</p>
<p>Another source can also be the school's undergrad handbook or course catalog. Policies and procedures are quite highly detailed as it is the operative document. </p>
<p>If you need a specific question addressed, it's fine to call or email the school's
adcom responsible for music for an answer. </p>
<p>Word of mouth, experiences of friends, peers, and those you've performed with in the past are also good sources of general info.</p>
<p>Seconding Violadad. </p>
<p>Decide your own level of talent and commitment by being very honest. Do you want conservatory, conservatory in uni or college setting, or liberal arts degree in music? All can lead to masters in performance, but obviously the first two are more intensive and have better musicians. (An exception may be voice because a young voice major cannot sing as much as an instrumentalist can practice and a voice major has much to learn -- such as language.)</p>
<p>Once you decide which "tier" you want, center your search there and do thorough research. Many include several BA programs in case auditions do not work out; others decide to take a gap year so work for a BM program.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.</p>
<p>It's student base is usually around 3,000.</p>
<p>It's highly Liberal Arts based, and ranks very well against other colleges in the mid west.</p>
<p>It has a highly respected vocal program. Otterbein currently boasts four primary choirs (including from top tier to bottom: Concert Choir, Otterbein Singers, Camerata, and Women's Chorale), and several smaller ensembles (including the Otterbein Vocal Ensemble, Opus One (jazz), Six in the City (women's jazz), Barbershop Quartets, etc).</p>
<p>Also, some brief novelties, Otterbein's choirs were selected to perform in the first United States showing of Howard Shore and the Lord of the Rings music in concert with the Columbus Symphony. Also, Otterbein's Concert Choir has been selected to perform at ACDA events, as well as the Ohio Music Education Association Conferences. </p>
<p>Hope this gives you another good idea. In any case, best of luck with your college search!</p>
<p>Edit: Forgot to mention. Location-wise, Otterbein is VERY well situated. 5 minutes to the north of campus is Polaris, which is one of the most quickly-developing shopping districts in the Columbus area. And even closer yet is Westerville, which sits right next to campus. It is a well developed town with a great variety of stores. If you prefer high-class, Easton Town Center is a short ten-minute drive away, and includes just about everything you could ever imagine. Finally, Columbus is very easily accessible from campus, as Otterbein sits right on the outer belt.</p>
<p>Hey everyone. So, I posted a thread with the same question in the general college search forum, and it's been extremely helpful to me... But, I'd like to see what you music school school experts think about it... if you have any comments/advice/discords with the information I've received.</p>
<p>Here's the link: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=405963%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=405963</a></p>
<p>Please post your comments either in this thread or the above thread. Thanks so much for helping me out, guys.</p>
<p>If you think about it, it would seem that few liberal arts colleges would have the resources or the talent base to have first-rate performance programs. Williams may be an exception, but even there, the instrumentalists play in an orchestra with adults from the area. Apart from schools like Oberlin and St. Olaf's (and Lawrence, Moravian, and a few others), you will probably find that the larger the school, the more likely you will find the kind of resources and high level opportunities you might want. Where there is a consortium (e.g. Amherst, Smith, etc.), it might work for you. Harvard has a lot of performance opportunities; Columbia, by virtue of its location and its program of free lessons, could be a good choice (Barnard, too, which has a program with Manhattan School of Music; Columbia's program with Juilliard is tiny -- maybe one student a year is selected to do both, and if you are only a Columbia student, the free lessons are with adjuncts, not Juilliard faculty); Princeton has a lot of performance opportunities too, and subsidized lessons. But these are not liberal arts colleges per se, and they are extremely competitive for admissions. Some large state universities, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, have enough students and resources to provide pretty good opportunities for performance, but not on a level with Oberlin or Peabody/JHU.</p>
<p>One school I didn't see on your list in either place is Furman. Their voice program is suppsed to be amazing. Opera singer Elizabeth "Betsy" Bishop is an alum. </p>
<p>Other alum include Keith Lockhart (Boston Pops) and Robert Blocker (Dean of Yale's music school). Look through this list:</p>
<p>They offer BMus or BA. They told us doubling with a BA was easy to do. (Keith Lockhart doubled music and German.)</p>
<p>St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN also has a WONDERFUL program. It is a college of the church, so if that bothers you then you can ignore this. But the music program is superb. I want to do instrumental music education and I visited in the fall and fell in love with the college and the people there. Pretty sure it’s my first choice.</p>
<p>This thread is a dinosaur.</p>
Ithaca College and Bard College have incredibly strong music and liberal arts programs, expecially in voice. Both schools run conservatories, so the programs are competitive and have graduate students.
Luther College is exclusively undergraduate students and is a liberal arts college. Luther has one of the largest undergraduate music programs in the world, with 1000 students involved in ensembles, and 300 students majoring in music. Luther boasts 6 choirs, 3 orchestras, and multiple jazz ensembles.
Albion College has EXCELLENT academics in the liberal arts. We had a student go on to get her masters degree in vocal performance at Peabody Conservatory. The voice professor here is increadable. Our piano program is very strong as well. The violin instructor studied with Joseph Fuchs and received his doctorate from Michigan State University.
It’s a zombie dinosaur thread.