<p>in your opinion, what are the best music schools in the U.S.? i'm looking for a school with a good music performance as well as music education program. I'm leaning towards a university, but i am open to any observatory or private school suggestions as well...thanks!!!</p>
<p>Many state universities have strong music education programs, not all conservatories offer that option although Eastman School of Music does as does Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. With most music schools, you need to research the program for your specific instrument and for conservatory admittance, you need to be evaluated to see if your performance level is at the level to be competitive for admission. Conservatory music school admission is as hard as if not harder than applying to Ivy League schools. For example a school may only be looking to admit 2-3 students for a specific instrument or voice type, you are competing with students from 50 states and internationally for those 2-3 slots.</p>
<p>This may be looking ahead too much, but MSM has a double degree ed and perf program which gets you certified in the state of New York.</p>
<p>There are lots of possibilities.</p>
<p>First, maybe you should tell us a little more about yourself so we can better help you.</p>
<p>This comes up a lot on here (obviously, best music schools is kind of a nebulous term, because the best music school might not be the one that has the reputation, is considered a ‘great’ school and so forth. It depends on the students goals, it depends on the student, and it depends on the instrument or area of study. If you were going to major in contemporary performance I would not recommend going to Juilliard (they don’t have such a thing:) even though many consider it the ‘best’. Teachers play a role, getting a great violin teacher at a ‘lesser’ school might be better then getting some staff teacher another place…a self starter student may do great at a ‘lesser’ program where they have a great teacher and a good financial package even though the average level is lower, someone else might need the challenge of being around really high level students…</p>
<p>I agree, you should share a bit about yourself, what instrument you play,. your background and so forth…it helps make suggestions easier., there are usually myriad of options out there, so narrowing it takes more info.</p>
<p>Trinity University in San Antonio has an excellent music education program.</p>
<p>heres some info about me:</p>
<p>-I am principal trumpet player at my high school
-I participate in the school’s wind ensemble (the Clarence Wind Ensemble in New York), as well as jazz ensemble, orchestra, and pit orchestra for the school’s musical
-I have a 4.0 gpa…i am a sophomore in high school so i haven’t taken the SATs yet
-I am also going to be playing at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago this month 
very excited!!!</p>
<p>I also have participated in area all-county bands and i am auditioning for all state this year.</p>
<p>What sort of music are you interested in playing? Classical, Jazz, Marching Band, Contemporary?</p>
<p>We on this forum often suggest that students read this in order to understand the various degree options for music:
[Double</a> Degrees | Peabody Conservatory](<a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html]Double”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html)</p>
<p>A great book with lists of colleges, universities, conservatories and music schools with great programs is: “Creative Colleges” by Loveland. You are young enough so you can buy this and keep it around for awhile, or maybe find it at a library.</p>
<p>Since you are only a sophomore, a lot can happen in the next couple of years. Some of us have kids who decided between college BA and conservatory BM at the very, very last moment, after applying to both. Even in senior year, a lot of changes happen.</p>
<p>If you love playing, keep doing it. Do you take private lessons? Practice? Have you considered a summer program? You sound like a great player :)</p>
<p>Are there other things or activities that interest you that make you think you would like to be in a BA program rather than the more narrowly focused BM? For a BA, 1/4-1/2 of your classes will be music (usually 1/4 - 1/3) and at conservatory, 2/3-3/4 of your classes will be music.</p>
<p>It’s great that you are thinking about this now, but in some ways unfortunate that future instrumentalist majors need to think so far in advance. I would continue to play, practice and develop as if you will study trumpet after high school, and if other interests pop up, explore those too while you can. Including other musical activities, academics or whatever appeals.</p>
<p>If trumpet is still your passion, you can decide in a couple of years whether you want to pursue a performance BM, music education (and yes, state universities are good options for this) or a general music major for a BA. There are some places where you can get a double degree in performance and music ed. in 5 years, and you can always do music education in a graduate program. Or perhaps in a couple of years you will be super-focused on music ed. Or maybe you will suddenly love English literature or try out for a play and love that. You can do music in extracurriculars in college, too…</p>
<p>Keep working hard on your music and enjoy high school!! Things will become clear. If it helps, visit a few schools, both college and conservatory, to get a feel for them. Let us know your geographic preference and we can tell you some possibilities.</p>
<p>Like others indicated, there is no “best”, just a “best fit” for you.</p>
<p>Seriously, for a music ed degree, if you plan on teaching music in public school, I believe that I would keep the flagship university for whatever state you plan on teaching in (most likely your own), on the short list for best fit music programs. They know exactly what is required to become teacher certified in your state, and you will more likely make the type of connections that you need to get a teaching job in your state at an in-state college. Plus, as far as public colleges go, in-state is almost always going to be less expensive (which particularly matters for music ed students).</p>
<p>You might also want to focus on which colleges are “best” for your particular instrument. There are lots of great options for every instrument, but not all “best” colleges will be “best” in a particular program. </p>
<p>A good starting point for starting a list of possibilities, particularly for music ed, would be your high school music teacher, and if you have a private music teacher (if you don’t, you need to get one asap) also ask him/her for suggestions. Your music teachers probably have the best feel for what your ability is and most likely have a lot of knowledge about different programs.</p>
<p>You could also search this forum using key words that make sense to you, like “trumpet” since that is your primary instrument, and “music education” and “music performance”, (and putting those terms together in the search narrow in on the posts). I remember a while back there was a thread specifically about trumpet players/teachers/programs/schools.</p>
<p>And if you know of any “famous” trumpet players/teachers (a youtube search could get you started with that, or again, just asking your music teachers), you could try to find if they teach, and if so, where. If you start digging, you can usually find some info on professors, sites like this one, and those “rate my professor” type sites also may provide some info as to the teachers ability/likability/style, etc.</p>
<p>As a sophomore you do have time to think things out and see. I don’t know where you live (general area, not a good idea to give out specifics), but there are a lot of things to do between now and college that may make it easier:</p>
<p>1)If your private teacher has a track record of getting kids into top level music programs, then you may be doing okay, if you aren’t sure you may want to get an evaluation from a college level teacher, to see where you are right now, and what you need to do. Any music school of any kind of level is a competitive audition, and for the ‘top’ programs in your instrument, it is likely to be uber competitive, so knowing what you would need to do is important (I am speaking mostly performance here, not music ed). </p>
<p>2)Have you sought out things outside your school, like a youth orchestra or the like? Some youth orchestras out there play at a very high level (NY Youth, Chicago Youth, the new one in Boston, Seattle, SF come to mind) and it can show you what relative levels are like.</p>
<p>3)Another options are the summer music programs. I don’t know a lot about brass, but there are a lot of summer music festivals, and going to one can be beneficial, especially as you would see other students who are relatively serious and see what that is like.</p>
<p>In terms of programs, off the top of my head (and that is all this is), Cleveland institute of music comes to mind (Chicago symphony brass players teacher there), Indiana, Rice, Juilliard and I believe NEC all have strong brass programs (not as sure about NEC), among state university programs U Michigan and Northwestern come to mind (I believe several of the Chicago Symphony players teach there, if I remember correctly). One of the keys isn’t just the program, but finding a teacher who is good for you personally, if your teacher has contacts that is a start, or if you go to a summer program and find someone that can help, too:).</p>
<p>In terms of academics, those will be of more importance with a music school inside a university like Rice or a school like U Mich, at a conservatory it won’t matter much at all (unless you totally screw up:). For music schools, the key to admittance is going to be the audition, no matter where you go, don’t pass the audition you don’t get into the music school even if the academic portion of the school admits you (the reverse is more nebulous, depending on how you play, academics may be a bit less strenuous then required for an academic student going there). </p>
<p>Music ed will rely more heavily on the academics, so if you even think of going into that your academics do matter, plus quite honestly, you may change your mind when it comes time to apply to colleges and not major in music or music ed…there also is some evidence that if you go to a music school within a university, maintaining high academic schievement can mean getting academic scholarship money as well as potentially any merit aid.</p>
<p>Michael Sachs is the head of the Trumpet dept at CIM and he’s principal trumpet with the Cleveland Orchestra. It’s a small department, 2 teachers and 8 students, so you can’t get lost (or hide) and it’s demanding but considered one of the best. Speaking of “best”, didn’t we here on CC stop trying to “rank” music schools years ago?! One school may have the right combination for one student but be all wrong for another. Departments vary as do teachers, performance ops, physical plant and the course requirements. It’s easy to determine the “top tier” conservatories, but they might not be the right place for a lot of kids. Specific questions as to size of departments, locations, and what the student has in mind are helpful, but keep in mind that a teacher at “school A” might have moved to “school B” by the time younger kids get to the point of auditions. One thing we can do is to provide updates of faculty changes here.</p>
<p>Mezzo’s M is correct, rankings don’t mean much, and my list of schools are simply programs I know that attract strong students and have good brass programs, and it isn’t comprehensive by any means. There are a list of X conservatories and music schools people will put into rankings (schools like Juilliard, NEC, Curtis, CIM, Indiana, Rice,etc, etc) but the real rankings will be determined by the student, that brings in factors like having a teacher they can work with, finances, location, networking possibilities, all the things that makes a student say “there is where I want to go”.</p>