<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I am interested in doing a double major in Bassoon Performance and International Management/Business. What are the best schools to do this at? In addition, I have the opportunity to study in either Canada or the United States.
PLease help, my rather bizarre conundrum. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Music degrees are very demanding and allow very few electives. Top rated business programs can also be very demanding. While some degrees may have some overlap in course requirements and lots of room for electives which may be used to “double dip” and satisfy both degree requirments, it will not likely work very well with music or international business. It would be very difficult, if not impossible to do both and graduate in 4 years, at least unless you were able to exempt out of some courses with AP or Clep tests and do the summer school thing every summer.</p>
<p>If you really need a degree in both, then you might want to consider getting a BM first, and trying to satisfy some of the prerequists for a MBA by using all of your BM electives in business classes. A BM plus a MBA probably wouldn’t take any longer than a BM plus a BS in International Business. Why have two Bachelors degrees when you could have a bachelors plus a masters?</p>
<p>The University of South Carolina @ Columbia is rated #1 for International Business. They also have a fairly decent music program, all though they are not well known for music out side of SC. I have no knowledge about their bassoon studio though.</p>
<p>If you don’t absolutely NEED a BM, then the Universith of South Carolina may be a very good choice because they offer Instrumental Performance Certificates for non-music majors. The Performance Certificate is not a degree, but basically just a piece of paper which states that the University feels that you are good enough to be a professional musician. Since having a college degree is not neccesarally required to be a music professional (except for public school teachers), the performance certificate may be a good compromise option.</p>
<p>The performance certificate does require that you audition for the school of music, and you have to be able to play your primary instrument well enough to be accepted into the “peformance level” applied music classes. The performance level applied music classes usually give you 4 credit hours of college credit each semester and consist of one private lesson with the primary professor for your instrument and one master class per week. The professors expect you to practice a minimum of 15 hours per week if you are taking the performance level classes, in addition to the lessons and master classes and any ensembles that you participate in.</p>
<p>Or, at some schools you could major in music performance and also have a minor in business. Some schools have specific business minors for music students (U of South Carolina is doing a lot to promote their “music entrapanureship” for music majors). Again, with a BM major, no minor is going to fit into the normal curriculum without having to take extra classes above the minimum for the music degree, but a minor in music may be a stepping stone into getting into a graduate business degree program.</p>
<p>So exactly why do you desire both degrees? It seems like neither one would compliment the other too much.</p>
<p>You can do both in 4 years, depending upon where you attend college and what your ultimate career plans are. If you aspire to play in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, you should devote ALL of your time to music, assuming that you are good enough. There are few of those, as are there few such jobs, especially in bassoon. However, if you think that you cannot make performance a career and just really like to perform and want to get a degree in it but management/business is your serious career interest, you can easily do both, depending on where you go to college. Many universities and colleges offer degrees in both and offer good performance opportunities. If you go to a conservatory, you will be fighting for the first chair and likely won’t get it until senior year (unless you are THAT good). However if you go to a university or LAC that offers both degrees, you might end up in the first chair position much earlier, sophmore or freshman year, because all of the real stars who have only music in their eyes have gone to conservatories. You may end up having lots more fun in performance in a university or LAC, while still pursuing a career that might actually put food on the table. My D is in a LAC and is a star on her instruments and having a great time on the various ensembles, taking leading positions from older kids. At a conservatory, she’d be one of the crowd, and fourth chair. She is double majoring in music and education (not music education), with the goal of becoming a classroom teacher, admittedly not as high paying as a business manager, but somewhat more steady and better paying work than being a musician playing in the subway.</p>
<p>It’s possible at CIM/CWRU, in fact, I know of a student currently working on a performance degree at CIM and an International Studies degree through Case. It takes 5 years though, although you could do it in 4 if you got the music degree though Case and not the conservatory.</p>