Yup, exactly. Composition is only one focus, though. Performance (and improv) is another. What’s unique is that the student can work on multiple instruments rather than in a typical music performance degree setting where you study your instrument and have to find time to add a secondary instrument if they desire. There’s a lot of flexibility.
Anyway, I suggested looking at it because it’s a very contemporary program that offers several directions and options for studying music. Just offering another angle.
“Contemporary” has a lot of different meanings in the music world. “Contemporary classical” aka “new music” is very different from contemporary popular music featured in some of these schools, and from blue grass, jazz and other traditional styles.
TIMARA is “contemporary,” yes, but very edgy and avant-garde, and involves non-musical talents as well.
Electroacoustic work often doesn’t involve instruments at all. Not posting again but we could PM. Debate is against TOS but want to make sure info here is comprehensive. We both are right.
I think this sounded like an insult to Columbia, so I want to clarify that it’s near the top of our list and may be a great match and awesome school. I just meant we were forcing him to expand his list beyond those he initially picked.
Thanks so much, everyone. We’ve been able to cut three from our list and add in one great opportunity we didn’t have before. We’re net -2, and I think we’re focused on our final list.
Hi again! Thank you for all your help. I’m circling back to Hartt and keep thinking we should put it on our list. It seems like, maybe, a jazz student could also take courses in commercial music. That would be a question for us to ask. I actually can’t figure out the deadline to apply, so that probably means my head is too full of music schools!
Looking back on this list and post, I can’t imagine why I thought we would want a music-safety, when the goal is to find a school that he feels is among the best programs for his major and his learning style. Trying to decide on schools based on admissions doesn’t make any sense in retrospect.
I think your son has probably missed most deadlines for US schools that require a prescreen, but I think McGill and some of the other Canadian schools have a later deadline and they have good music programs. McGill is particularly inexpensive for BM degrees especially when compared with the US. If you look them up, make sure that you convert Canadian prices to US dollars — it will be even less expensive than posted.
It’s interesting you mention McGill, because his dad went there, and we’ve been telling our kid about it. If there’s still time, I might make it one of his “parents’ choice” schools to apply to during break.
Yeah, he has some schools on his list to finish up, like Columbia College Chicago and The New School, but none of them do prescreening. Hartt’s deadline is unclear, based on my ability to search their website.
I just checked and a BM is about 22,000 US dollars tuition a year. Room and board are reputed to be inexpensive once the student can move off campus after freshman year. They also give a lot of AP credit for academics if that helps.
Also check out University of British Columbia and University of Toronto, both of which have good music programs although they may cost a bit more than McGill.
Hartt is a great school and I would think he could also take courses in commercial music. Here are the deadlines:
Apply by:
November 15: Early Action Deadline
December 1: Prescreen Deadline for DMA, PHD, Conducting Degrees
February 1: Graduate deadline
February 15: Undergraduate deadline
*Applications will continue to be accepted after the deadline pending available openings, with limited scholarship availability.