<p>My son will be a senior in high school in the Fall of 2014 and is forming his list of colleges to which to apply. He wants to major in cello performance. He has a 3.9 GPA and is an accomplished cellist. He has been first chair in the All State Orchestra for the past two years, is first chair in his youth orchestra, first chair in the World Youth Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Camp, and received an Emerson (full merit scholarship) to Interlochen Arts Camp this summer. What schools should be on his list? His teacher has suggested USC, University of Michigan, Rice, and Indiana. He would like to try/reach for Northwestern and the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins, but he needs some solid middle level schools and safety schools. Would love suggestions.</p>
<p>CCM, CIM,oberlin, FSU, Depaul, CCPA, UNT (my son had a sample lesson there with cello teacher and loved him. I looked on cello chat and searched what the cellists liked. And tbh, just start looking up cello faculty bios at those schools. And then matching interests. My son loves chamber so I looked up summer chamber music festivals and looked at the faculty and their schools. That might make it quicker for you. Just pan me and ill give you more feedback in my exhaustive search.</p>
<p>Perhaps, if you haven’t done so already, consider adding Felix Wang at Vanderbilt/Blair School of Music to your list of potential schools. Academically, it is considerably better than solid. Musically speaking, and increasingly, it’s not middle level either, if it ever was. Grad school teachers have noticed (given the past few years’ acceptances), and those who go there to perform and give master classes; I’ve noticed that awareness among other (usually older) teachers/players can sometimes be, let’s say, uninformed by the current reality, particularly up North on the East Coast, but that’s changing. In any event, apps are up vastly in recent years (why prescreening was instituted this past year), as is the playing level of entering students (not that it was ever bad), as Vandy/Blair plucks students away from the conservatories (deep pockets, meaning way better financial aid – merit and need based – certainly helps) and music schools like Eastman, Northwestern Oberlin (those are the ones I know about specifically). Anyway, even though it wouldn’t really be an admissions safety, musically or academically, it might be sort of a financial aid safety (at least in comparison to conservatories). It’s a pretty cool place (and Nashville, I’ve discovered, is impossible to resist, even for this New Yorker), and Felix Wang is highly regarded as player and teacher. </p>
<p>OMG – am I really becoming THAT guy, the one who raises his hand for Vanderbilt/Blair at the least opportunity? Oh, well. Apologies in advance. I guess I’m just pretty impressed with the place, not least because my daughter (current student) absolutely loves it.</p>
<p>@StringPop - no shame in being ‘that guy!’ Your daughter chose the school for a reason, and, of course, you’d like to share her good fortune with others.</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things too about vaderbilt stringpop. I’ve met a cellist from their pre college program and I was impressed:).</p>
<p>CIM, definitely: Melissa Kraut, Mark Kosower, Merry Peckham, Sharon Robinson, Richard Weiss. It doesn’t get much better in one place…</p>
<p>My son is a Jr. in cello performance at UMich. Both of the teachers there are wonderful, Anthony Elliott and Richard Aaron. You have gotten a lot of good suggestions. My son had lessons with teachers at many of the above schools and he liked a lot of them, there are a lot of great teachers out there. We found it much harder to come up with potential safeties and matches than reaches. It seems very difficult to know that you will match at a school. We found that a teacher may have said my S was strong enough for the program, but they didn’t know how many qualified applicants would be auditioning and there is a lot of variability in how many available spots they have each year. You may want to consider Lawrence and Bard as possibly slightly less competitive programs? I don’t know about the teachers at Bard, but Janet Anthony at Lawrence is a well respected teacher. Also, my son has had lessons at a festival with Bryan Dumm of CWRU and Anne Martindale Williams at CMU and loved them both, thought they were both great teachers. So a safety might be identifying a great teacher at a less competitive school. At the end of the day we were looking for the best combination of great teacher and strong music school with great opportunities and strong peers. My S’s safety was a great teacher at a less competitive school. Hope this helps and good luck!</p>
<p>Bryan Dumm at CWRU is also a member of the Cleveland Orchestra, so that’s a big plus. Look at Tanya Carey at CCPA/Roosevelt in Chicago is very well thought of and her students do very, very well.</p>
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CIM and UMich are great schools, but hardly safeties. I’d look into Temple University where the bar is lower but you can still study with a respect teacher (and some are Philly Orch members). <a href=“Our Faculty and Staff | Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance”>Our Faculty and Staff | Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance;
<p>Does he want freestanding conservatory, music school in a university or a college/university? I am assuming a BM, not a BA, but does he have academic interests as well? I always recommend reading this essay on the Peabody site, about different ways to study music: <a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html</a></p>
<p>NEC has great strings…also has double degree programs with Harvard and with Tufts.</p>
<p>USC’s Thornton School of Music has already been suggested to you. The strings department is directed by Midori Goto. Cellists on the faculty are Ralph Kirshbaum, Andrew Shulman and Ben Hong. Ralph Kirshbaum holds the Gregor Piatigorsky Chair in Violoncello.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great suggestions. Compmom-he would like a music school in a university but is open to a freestanding conservatory. What is the difference? </p>
<p>@2015Lalo- A music school within a university is a school such as Shepherd School of Music at Rice University or CCM at the University of Cincinnati. Julliard and NEC are freestanding. CIM is sort of a hybrid- it’s a conservatory that sits on a corner of Case Western University’s campus and the required gen eds are taken at Case, but the diploma is awarded from CIM.</p>
<p>I have several cello friends who are very happy at CCM. The Ariel Quartet is in residence and they’re doing great things with the chamber music program. There are two orchestras and they also play the pit for the mainstage opera productions twice a year.</p>
<p>I made the choice of going to a conservatory that’s part of a university instead of going to a freestanding conservatory my senior year. CCM doesn’t have a lot of gen eds compared to some schools (I actually covered most of mine with AP credits), but the ability to take classes in totally different subject matters as electives has been fantastic (one friend is taking biology classes, I’ve been able to take classes in linguistics, etc). Also, having access to the resources of a large university (UC has a huge library system, you can apply to apply for university research grants, there’s counseling for internationally competitive grants like Fulbrights) is a big plus. That said, CCM is relatively isolated within UC, so it definitely has a conservatory feel. There is a large grad student population, but that doesn’t limit opportunities for undergrads in my experience and is really great motivation to work harder. Another part of CCM that’s great is its location; there are a lot of performances outside of school (Cincy Opera, CSO, concert:nova, Chamber Music Cincinnati, plus four smaller opera companies that CCM grads have started up, all of which offer discounted or free student tickets), and performances opportunities/small venues to put on your own concerts, art museums, etc. </p>
<p>Musician34–I appreciate your perspective. Thanks for sharing.</p>