Hello,
Since I’ve been out of college (one year), with a vocal performance degree, I have had no luck in my field (I live in north Louisiana, where no opportunities are available). However, I’m ready to tackle grad school, but there are so many options I don’t know where to start. I’m looking for grad programs with commercial/jazz music with an emphasis in performance and composition ( and maybe recording). But then I’m wondering if music education is a more suitable route.
Schools I’ve considered:
Five Towns College
University of North Texas
UT in San Antonio
Queen’s College (CUNY)
Im really looking for a school that I can hone my talents and become true professional musician because this field is extremely tough.
I would appreciate any ideas or advice because I’m really stuck in what I want to pursue. I’m going to be contacting my professors that I studied with in 2014, but I would still appreciate any words of wisdom/advice from you guys.
Thank you
It might be hard to answer your question because you mention commercial/jazz performance, and also composition, recording and music education. Grad school is mostly (not always) focused on one area. If you want a multi-faceted grad education, there may be people here who can suggest something, but the ones I know are more classically oriented.
If you decide on one area for focus, and post about that, you may get responses. I feel badly noone has answered you but I am not exactly offering you much in this response!
Another direction, if you have not yet decided, is to try to put yourself nearer to opportunities. How far are you from New Orleans? Are you working a “day job”? Is income becoming a problem?
Grad school is a great idea of course, if you want to continue in performance. I know that UNT is good for jazz and is also great for composition. Aaron Copland School of Music has jazz performance and composition, and music ed. Five Towns has “jazz commercial” and music ed, in a context that includes some vocational programs such as audio recording, and film and theater.UT San Antonio looks classical, with language requirements for VP. Did you get a BM as undergrad, and was it in a classical program?
Schools like Berklee and Belmont are well-known for commercial work. Columbia College in Chicago? Cal Arts? USC? NYU? Miami Frost?
Have you visited the schools on your list? What location do you prefer, Texas or NY? NYC/Queens or Long Island?
Wish I could help more but this is not my area, and I really could only look at websites you have already seen 
Good luck!
You should consider contacting your past teachers for advice. For undergrad a forum like this can really help find schools. For grad school its seems to be driven by your past teachers and friends in the business or grad programs. All my daughter’s grad school choices came from her teacher and professional contacts.
Hello! Thank you for taking the time to respond; your time is appreciated. My BM was in Classical Voice, however, I feel as though I’m best suited in the commercial/jazz genre. If I have to choose a focus, it would be performance. I’ll just add a composing course as an election. By the way, I’m 25 y/o.
New Orleans is 328 miles away from my location. I am working a day job, but I make so little I can’t do much; I hate it. So yes, income is a definite problem.
It’s a long shot, but I would love to attend a graduate school in New York…where there is more competition but plethora of opportunities! Texas seems like a good place as well (UNT/UTSA) .But hey, any place is better than Northern Louisiana.
I respectfully disagree with bridgenail. Many prospective grad students have found help on this forum during the years I have been observing it.
I agree with glassharmonica. I’d come here and contact your previous teachers. I understand they were classical teachers, but I’m sure they might have some ideas or contacts to help you.
New York can be a pretty expensive place to live. I know you want to look at opportunities available but cost is a reality. If you can spend $50 join yaptracker so that you can become familiar with various opportunities that are provided there. It may give you a better perspective of longer term performance opportunities. Often there are local openings posted such as church, community theatre, etc. Sounds like you may not be able to take advantage of summer programs since you have a day job but the more information you have, the better choices you can make. Yaptracker can also make you aware of some of the grad school openings and their deadlines.
I’ve never heard of YAPtracker, but I just looked it up–what a great resource. I wish there were something like this for instrumentalists.
I understand what @bridgenail is saying. I think that grad school is not the best place to start if you don’t have focus. It’s expensive and very specific. If you consult with people who know you, understand your strengths and really have a fix on the current state of the music market you can hone in on your best path. If you don’t have those sort of contacts perhaps a visit to UNT and a chat with the faculty there might be of help.
@glassharmonica, there’s MusicalChairs, which is kind of like YAPtracker. There’s also OrchestraPlayers. (I’m not putting the URLs here because I think I’m not supposed to . . .)
I wonder if there is a difference for vocalists, instrumentalists, classical and jazz for grad. In undergrad of course I was very involved and we looked at so many schools. I remember looking desperately for “a list” of music schools so I didn’t miss some important school. I remember hearing about ccm near the end and thinking how did we miss that. But I didn’t use this forum!! For classical voice grad for my daughter the list of schools seemed to come from her peers and teachers/coaches. Summer programs too. By then she knew most of the schools for opera studies. Of course any information is good. But in my limited experience it came from her personal contacts. So I still hope that helps.