<p>"University Illinois Champaign which is a fantastic academic school but at least from what I know, is not perceived as a strong music school (could be, and like any music school, it could have a strong string program but in general be less competitive…that much I don’t know), "</p>
<p>WELL…Nathan Gunn teaches there so they get 28 extra “barihunk” points</p>
<p>I know neither of these responses are really germane to the topic, but I did want to address two things in musicprnt’s post which, while otherwise accurate and fair, I did take some issue with:</p>
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To my best knowledge, serialism in American music academia has become an unfashionable relic of the past. There was a period of time—between the 60s and the 90s—when you could only be taken seriously if you wrote serial music, but this is an attitude that’s long disappeared from most universities. And, generally, I feel the best composition departments are the ones that maintain a high diversity of styles and don’t require their students to subscribe to a single aesthetic, while also providing students with the necessary resources to explore contemporary developments in music and the arts.</p>
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<p>Institutional ranking systems are pretty much absurd and should be taken with a grain of salt, I agree. But why exactly do you feel Mannes being “higher” than Rice is inaccurate?</p>
<p>I agree with the last post on the issue of diversity of style at schools. A few years back, our daughter went to student composer concerts at the schools she was most interested in, with that in mind. If student works were very individual and varied, it was definitely a good sign about a composition department. Furthermore, it was a hopeful sign if a department’s website emphasized “individual voice” and so on.</p>
<p>I am afraid that the original poster is eliminating many great schools out of a mistaken notion that all concert music written these days is to be rejected as “modern.” I am still hoping for a clarification of the parent’s ideas of what “modern” means. While serialism is dated, it is true that much of contemporary classical music is atonal, and certainly doesn’t resemble the music of the 18th century that this parent may be looking for.</p>
<p>And yet there is Steven Stucky at Cornell, Jennifer Higdon at Curtis, and numerous others that compose in a style more akin to what many folks think of as traditional classical music. Conservatory and SOM composition programs want most for the students to find their own voices, not simply to compose in a style of a particular faculty member. No matter the school, a well educated composer can compose in any particular style, it is their own voice, however, that takes them in a particular direction(s).</p>