<p>Hello! I will try to be as brief as possible about my situation. </p>
<p>I have been composing since early high school. When it came time to choose a degree, I thought I wanted to be a band director and thus chose music education. During my undergraduate years, I was privileged to receive one fairly high profile performance at a national convention of one of my works. This was my sophomore year. During this time I also started writing marching band shows (arrangements and original compositions). Marching band is very competitive in my state and you can make a lot of money doing this. I had (and continue to have) my marching pieces published and they get a decent amount of performances from year to year.</p>
<p>Fast forward to my senior year. I graduate in 2008, find a job, and realize all too late that I really want to be (and should be) composing for a living. Fast forward to August 2009. I have one recorded concert work (from sophomore year), several marching band pieces, and several other completed works with no recordings or performances. I dare not submit marching band music in a serious graduate portfolio, so I submit electronic realizations. I apply to 8 top tier composition programs. I am rejected from all of them come April 2010. I am not surprised, given that the one recorded piece I submitted was about 5 years old and does not represent my development since that time.</p>
<p>Fast forward to now. I am dead set on reapplying. I have written much new material in the past year. However, try as I may, I cannot get performances.</p>
<p>My question is...should I apply for an undergraduate in composition rather than a graduate program? I can't help but think that this is hindering my applications. Not because of the degree itself, but because I missed all the performance opportunities that composition undergrad students have, and now I am left with "hoping" the faculty at the colleges I apply to will see through my lack of concert recordings (I've got plenty of marching recordings), even though I have lots of experience writing for ensembles and have been moderately successful as a young composer.</p>
<p>I apologize for the length, it certainly wasn't brief. Thank you in advance for any wisdom you might be able to give!</p>
<p>Don’t you have any friends you could get together to play your pieces which you could record? If not, and this is important to you, I recommend hiring people to play them. Think of it as an investment.</p>
<p>Also, have you reconsidered the programs to which you’re applying? There are many composition programs out there - some of which might even appreciate your band music, and many terrific ones which go under the radar, such as San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Have you met personally with any of the professors who you’re interested in studying with? If not, I suggest you do that and get feedback from them on your scores and their suggestions for a path you might take. </p>
<p>I cannot see how getting another undergraduate degree would help you. However, if you need one more year to get scores and recordings and festival experience/contacts - you could try an adult extension program such as the one at Mannes College of Music. There are some terrific teachers in that program and I don’t doubt there are similar programs around the country.</p>
<p>I do have friends that could record chamber pieces, however my best work is my large wind ensemble (concert band) music. I’d like to submit those pieces.</p>
<p>I am definitely reevaluating my choices and am looking for programs with great bands and composers that write for band. My list has changed quite dramatically.</p>
<p>I have not met with any professors in person, however I have been in contact with some of them throughout the past several months.</p>
<p>I suppose it comes down to waiting another year or not, and dealing with the consequences either way.</p>
<p>Have you applied to programs at universities with serious marching bands? When my son was considering USC, as an undergrad, they invited him to apply for a special scholarship for composing for the band. So many of the big football schools actually have very serious composition departments.</p>
<p>When you applied last year you didn’t meet with the professors? How did you pick which schools to apply to? I would think, for grad school, even more than undergrad, the relationship with the professors will be the most important factor of all, along with contacts and opportunities in the musical world.</p>
<p>You could also check the bios of your favorite wind/band composers and see where they got their advanced degrees. There are so many great departments out there - I’m sure there’s somewhere perfect for you.</p>
<p>Thank you for the encouragement! You pointed out one of my biggest mistakes, the fact that I did not try to contact faculty my last time around. I had little to no guidance, and did lots of research by myself in order to make my decisions about where I would apply. I have been trying to change that this time, and in fact I hope to talk with Frank Ticheli at USC very soon.</p>
<p>My list is something like this (perhaps useful for someone in the future):
USC (Ticheli)
U Texas at Austin (Grantham)
U Michigan (Daugherty)
Ithaca (Dana Wilson)
North Texas (large comp program, Cindy McTee)
Bowling Green (good bands, Marilyn Shrude)</p>
<p>Also considering NYU Steinhardt and possibly UCLA.</p>
<p>Comp85, this might sound a little crazy, but why not turn this question over to some of those awesome folks you listed above and ask to meet or skype, review what you’ve done, and simply ask what you need to do/best course to be successful in application.
My son did essentially this two years before he applied to UMich undergrad. His prospective department head met with us and mapped out what he needed to do. He did it, and got in. Now a sophmore, he’s just gone through the process of asking in advance what he’d need to do for a concurrent undergrad/grad (masters) program next year. Again, they graciously mapped it out and gave him clear direction to follow.
I am sure those other programs would be equally accommodating if you just planned a road tour. (If you can possibly afford to do it in person, I’d strongly recommend it.)</p>
<p>The worst thing they could say to you is that you don’t have adequate training in composition. If they identified this, then you’d know you needed further study privately, by audit or by second undergrad degree to get where you want to go. The best case scenario is that they might offer you a network or the means to have your work played. Eg. at UMich, there’s not just the symphony and the wind ensemble, there are also additional mid-level band and wind ensembles…so if you could get some networking assistance from the SOM to connect with those folks, maybe you could get played.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your help! I will try to update this thread with further information about my progress for those interested perhaps down the road.</p>
<p>This is a discussion of how to approach graduate school for a performance degree, but it applies just as much to composition, I think. Check it out: [Graduate</a> School Preparation Series, Part I : Selecting Potential Schools | DrumChattr](<a href=“http://drumchattr.com/?p=754]Graduate”>http://drumchattr.com/?p=754)</p>
<p>It sounds like you have already accomplished a lot, and are getting clearer on what you want to do.</p>
<p>Do you have a composition teacher now? Perhaps you could get one, work a little with him or her, and that teacher could help guide you a little in the application process. As well as the teachers in the institutions where you are applying, as others have said.</p>
<p>You can find out any gaps in your coursework that might result from transitioning to music ed to an MM program in composition, and take classes through continuing ed at a conservatory or college, if need be. It does seem unlikely that you would have to do another undergrad degree.</p>
<p>Strongly agree with those who say having pieces recorded is important, and worth spending some money, if at all possible. It can be difficult for large ensemble pieces, but if you can get any of the recent work that you like best, played by good musicians, that would help your application. Try to get the best musicians that you can afford.</p>
<p>You might be surprised at the trouble some undergrad composers have getting their work played satisfactorily. They have to hustle and be very entrepreneurial, enter competitions, or pay musicians, quite often.</p>
<p>Curious what composers you like…might help to think about that, or listen to the music of faculty at various schools, usually available online. Do you like writing for bands (sounds like a good career so far ) or are you anxious to write other genres?</p>
<p>Spirit and compmom, thank you for the additional thoughts. I am keenly aware of the need for quality recorded performances. Its getting late in the game and I’ve tried so many resources - now I’m just sort of waiting for confirmations and responses. It seems as though I’ll need to either be fortunate in getting performances very soon or consider waiting another year, as I do have some confirmed performances next spring. That gets into an entirely different bag of worms with respect to my personal life, as my wife would like to continue her studies (not music related) at the graduate level as well. She has been too patient with me. Alas, I wouldn’t want life to be too predictable!</p>
<p>Note that both compmom and my experience with admissions for music composition has been at the undergrad level. I’d assume that the expectations and requirements would be higher at the grad level.</p>