<p>Son, HS junior, is interested in studying composition with an emphasis (or double major with) music technology. (Not recording/audio engineering, but the creation of original music with electroacoustic instruments.) So, we're searching for schools that offer majors in both these disciplines, and have found many, although surprisingly, some of the quite large programs don't necessarily have both. I'm here to ask your expert help sorting through the schools with special strengths in these areas. Despite his growing passion for his work, I think he'd prefer a LAC atmosphere to a conservatory.
(We are not in the market for a tough admit. GPA will be in the 3.8 neighborhood; SATs around 1800, I expect. Son plays alto sax -- jazz and marching band, but not the classical rep -- and keyboards; has studied sax for years and composition for a couple of years.)
We went thru this process with our daughter a few years ago, but voice/music ed was a totally different kettle of fish!
Thanks in advance for sharing your expertise.</p>
<p>Oberlin Conservatory, CCM, CalArts, Bard College (not the conservatory & SAT optional) - those are the first that come to mind. There are some others I can think of but his grades/scores would make them a hard admit such as Stanford, Berkeley, Wesleylan…</p>
<p>I’m sure others will be able to add to the list.</p>
<p>With Oberlin, your son can apply to just the Conservatory for BM in composition and joint major or minor in Timara. He can also apply to the 5 year dual BM/BA in which he applies both to the Conservatory and the college. His SAT score could a problem with the College, but they will do a holistic review of his application so one factor is not necessarily determinative. Oberlin College ( not including the Conservatory) admitted a little over a quarter of its applicants last year.</p>
<p>University of Michigan school of music would be right up his alley for the PAT (performing arts technology.) There is a stream that is less engineering and more EA music and programming, plus composition courses right in the PAT dept and of course, a lot of comp throughout the SOM. </p>
<p>A lot of the jazz dept kids seem into the PAT courses as well, and there are some nice variants on improv performance.</p>
<p>Now, it’s not an LAC…but for all intents and purposes, everything he’d be taking would be in the SOM/North campus and it can be quite intimate.</p>
<p>Depending on his math SAT or prior programming experience, I believe his grades are in range despite the tough admit UMich is getting to be since the common app. Let me know if you’d like more info. My son attends the program and is a senior this year.</p>
<p>I think it would be a good idea to also look into WHO teaches at each school. Sometimes, little know schools have some of the best composition teachers around. Same goes for BIG name schools, sometimes they have teachers that aren’t even that great. I’m in the process of applying to schools for a doctorate in composition, I am mostly concerned with who teaches at each school. Don’t just get tied down by the name and prestige.
Find a comp professor who works in the electro-acoustic medium, many of them do these days.</p>
<p>What you have said CPmitchell83 is so true for doctorate programs. There are many top Ph.D/DMA composition programs that have little or no undergraduate composition focus.</p>
<p>I think it might help to pick some schools first, then go onto their music department website and check for electroacoustic composition classes. There are many schools with classes in this area, so using other criteria such as location, size and vibe of the school might be a place to start and then refine choices with his musical interests in mind.</p>
<p>Your son won’t necessarily need a separate program for electroacoustic work.
The composition and technology pieces could be part of just one, general music major, or separate strands within a major(Brown, for instance, has three possible emphases in the general music major: composition, technology and ethnomusicology). In any case I don’t think it would need to be a double major.</p>
<p>once he has a list, your son can look at major requirements for a general music degree (BA)at each school, and how many composition classes could be taken along with other requirements such as theory and ear-training, music history, ethnomusicology and so on, and how many electroacoustic comp. classes there are. Does he like having seminars for composition or does he prefer to work on his own, or have private lessons? Does the school have a lot of distribution requirements?</p>
<p>Keep in mind too that in some cases, all it takes is one good class in electroacoustic composition, and then you can often work independently for credit at some schools. So your son should think about whether he needs a whole program for it, like Timara, or just needs one or two classes, which many schools will have.</p>
<p>I recommend a book called “Creative Colleges” which is available online, and lists all types of schools with good music programs.</p>
<p>Just for example, I kind of randomly looked up a selective but possible school in our state:
Clark University has a great music dept. and here is a technology/music class: [Program:</a> Music Major - Clark University - Acalog ACMS?](<a href=“Program: Music Major - Clark University - Acalog ACMS™”>Program: Music Major - Clark University - Acalog ACMS™)</p>
<p>Along with many LAC’s that your son could look at, he could also consider more alternative schools such as Bennington [url=<a href=“http://www.bennington.edu/Academics/AreasStudy/Courses.aspx?dCode=MUSIC]Bennington:”>http://www.bennington.edu/Academics/AreasStudy/Courses.aspx?dCode=MUSIC]Bennington:</a> Courses<a href=“lots%20of%20electroacoustic%20work%20being%20done%20there,%20and%20composers%20write%20for%20dancers%20there%20too”>/url</a>, Sarah Lawrence [url=<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/undergraduate/arts/music/courses.html]Music”>Music | Sarah Lawrence College]Music</a> Courses<a href=“check%20out%20the%20freshman%20seminar%20on%20music%20and%20technology,%20and%20also%20scroll%20down%20to%20other%20courses%20in%20this%20area”>/url</a>, and Hampshire [url=<a href=“http://www.hampshire.edu/admissions/music.htm]Music[/url”>Music | Hampshire College]Music[/url</a>].</p>
<p>So, I just randomly looked at 4 schools and they all have electroacoustic composition. I think you will find this is true at most music departments now. Plenty to pick from, and if you want more help, maybe let us know what other criteria your son has.</p>
<p>Tell me more about Clark – you are not the first to suggest it to us, though it hadn’t been on the radar before now. But looking at the website, I cannot even tell at a glance what degree/s they offer (BA? BM?), and they seem to have only 3 full time music faculty – so I had not gone much further with it. I hope it doesn’t sound like a rude question to ask, but what makes this a great music department?</p>
<p>Clark University was one of the applications that would have gone out had my son not been accepted to Oberlin early review in December. While it is a small department 2 of the 3 tenure track faculty members are very active composers with excellent academic credentials. The head of Clark’s music department received his Ph.D from the University of Chicago which has a top doctoral composition program. The head of the composition department at Oberlin received both his BA and MA from Clark. So objectively, Clark would be a good choice for undergraduate composer. Whether it is the right choice for a particular student has to do more with the factors compmom discussed.</p>
<p>super answer, thanks, Bartokrules (yes, he does)</p>
<p>Clark is a BA music degree.</p>
<p>Here is a discussion of different approaches/degrees for the study of music:
[Peabody</a> Institute - Conservatory Admissions: The Double Degree Dilemma](<a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/doubledegree]Peabody”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/doubledegree)</p>
<p>Some conservatories won’t care so much about grades and scores, but I think your son would have access to some really good colleges that do care about grades and scores. Clark is one. I just thought of it at random, as I said, because we live in MA.</p>
<p>If you look at part-time and affiliate faculty, the music department has plenty of professors. Aylward, who is listed first, is pretty well-known and ran a prestigious summer program in Europe, the name of which escapes me. We know of a young man who has thrived there as a composer, and the QX string quartet, which was in residence at Clark a few years back, also played student works at Tufts and were exquisite. But that’s all I know and it is kind of hearsay.</p>
<p>If you are sure your son does not want conservatory, again, I think you will find that many schools will offer the electroacoustic work that your son wants, and he will find other areas of interest as well. You will just have to look deeper at the school and not dismiss them for reasons that may not be valid in the end.</p>
<p>A college BA program will mean 1/2-3/4 of courses will not be music at all. A BM program at a conservatory or music school will mean the reverse: 1/2-3/4 of courses will be in music.</p>
<p>The application process will be very different as well. For a BM program, he will need a portfolio (due Dec. 1st generally), interview and possibly an audition. For a college, just the usual (often common) application and then he could do an arts supplement with one composition on a CD.</p>
<p>Is there a particular part of the country where your son would like to go? There are so many schools, both conservatory and college, that folks here could suggest more if there was a little more to go on.</p>
<p>Just to tie into Compmom’s point on the BM vs the BA, at Oberlin Conservatory with the BM 20-25% of the credits are in liberal arts subjects (although there are no distribution requirements so my son plans to do most of these in math) whereas as a BA Musical Studies major in the College, the distribution requirements apply. The Musical Studies major is run jointly by the College and the Conservatory and is an auditioned major in the College. In addition, Oberlin offers summer programs in composition and Timara. Each is a week long and they are back to back. My son did the composition program after his junior year and it was one of the factors for his desire to go to Oberlin. It is taught by the Oberlin composition faculty.</p>
<p>Our first child was a music major applicant, so I’m familiar with the BA/BM distinction, so expect it to be front and center when I’m exploring a music dept. website, and am confused/surprised/frustrated/whatever when it isn’t! Pretty firmly fixed on a BM if he sticks with music.
We live in the NE near NYC. Any location is really fine with us, tho son prefers not to go further north!</p>
<p>So for a BM would he look at NEC ([Course</a> Offerings | New England Conservatory](<a href=“The College | New England Conservatory”>The College | New England Conservatory)), Eastman, Manhattan, Bard, BU?</p>
<p>Ithaca has electronic music [Music</a> Theory, History, and Composition - Ithaca College](<a href=“School of Music, Theatre, and Dance | Ithaca College”>School of Music, Theatre, and Dance | Ithaca College)</p>
<p>and Hartt [The</a> Hartt School | Music Dance Theatre > Composition](<a href=“The Hartt School - University of Hartford”>The Hartt School - University of Hartford) or
[Music</a> Production and Technology](<a href=“http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/musicprod/Musicprod/Welcome.html]Music”>http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/musicprod/Musicprod/Welcome.html)</p>
<p>Both are conservatories on the same campus as a college/university.</p>
<p>I feel as if you probably know all this…it is actually interesting for me to look up electroacoustic offerings since my own daughter has unexpectedly come to love composing in the lab. Don’t mean to keep sending you links that you may have already!</p>
<p>Note that for Bard the electroacoustic music department is part of the College’s music department and not the Conservatory. One would only get a BA. I don’t think the distinction between the pursuit of a BM vs a BA is the most important factor when considering programs for electroacoustic composition. One can find equally strong programs in BA programs (such as Wesleyan, Cal, Stanford and Bard.) I think what will be most important in reviewing programs like those, however, will be the opportunities for undergrads as opposed to graduate study.</p>
<p>Good point! The links in my first post were BA programs and in my last post were BM programs. (This was because originally the son wanted an LAC but then further on the parent said he wanted a BM.)</p>
<p>ps Does that mean Bard conservatory doesn’t have any electroacoustic composition courses at all, that they are all in the college?</p>
<p>Yes, that’s what that means! All electroacoustic, world music, and jazz classes are in the college - but conservatory students are welcome to take them.</p>