Graduating Senior Updates

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>I'm way overdue for an update, so this may get a bit long.</p>

<p>DS is finishing up his Tufts/NEC dual degree this spring. He'll finish with a double major at NEC (music comp and music theory) along with BS in Cognitive Brain Sciences at Tufts. </p>

<p>Over the 5 years, he played 3.5 years of chamber music at NEC and 4.5 years of orchestra at Tufts, on both violin and viola. He was never able to get his schedule to line up so that he could play in the NEC orchestra. As a comp major, he could get away with that. Not so if he'd been a performance major. </p>

<p>He's done well compositionally at NEC winning last year's honors concerto competition and this year's orchestral competition. He very much enjoyed working with Kati Agocs and also with Robert Beaser for a semester last year and John Heiss this year. He also greatly enjoyed studying theory under Stratis Minakakis at NEC.</p>

<p>In addition to his musical studies at NEC, he also took full advantage of all Tufts had to offer in the musical arena. In addition to playing in the orchestra, he served as orchestra manager for 3 years, 2 under Gil Rose and the last under John Page. He took conducting, piano and music history courses at Tufts and formed a particularly strong bond with John McDonald after taking his composition seminar at Tufts. Although he is technically not a music major at Tufts, they made him feel very welcome and are happy to claim him as their own. Indeed, we just found out today that DS will receive the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Tufts Music Department at graduation.</p>

<p>He's reached that mad dash to the finish stage consisting of senior recital and orchestral debut next week, running his cog sci experiment (in music cognition) over the next 2 weeks and writing up the findings, finishing off his music theory thesis in addition to the rest of his classes all in the next 4 -5 weeks. The finish line is in sight. Most days he feels like he'll make it. ;)</p>

<p>While he has done very well for himself, he has maintained a frenetic pace throughout the 5 years. He is DEFINITELY ready for a break! He's decided to take at least one year off before applying to grad school in music composition. He'll be staying in Boston, where he'll continue working for the Tufts Symphony Orchestra as manager AND assistant conductor. He's also been offered TAships at both Tufts and NEC in music composition and theory. He's looking forward to having far more time to compose than he has in the last couple of years. Time will tell, but it appears he's well on his way to carving a niche for himself in music and academics.</p>

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<p>I’d love to hear what other graduating seniors have planned once they graduate. Gigging, grad school or ???</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for the update! I love hearing what he did, and what he’s about to do! So exciting.</p>

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<p>This is a great idea for a thread. Thanks for sharing your son’s story!</p>

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<p>Thanks, Spirit Manager! Looking forward to hearing an update on your DS as well. No need to limit it to seniors!</p>

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<p>Thanks, lastbird! I thought it might be both fun and informative for those with music majors a few years younger.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much rimcmillan. It is so funny you should write this because I just saw my son (a freshman at NEC) this weekend and he updated me about what some of his friend’s are doing next year(mostly moving to NYC-keep in mind my son is a Jazz major). But those friends from NEC are all Master’s students and I was curious what the current seniors were doing. It turns out my son knows a wide range of kids at NEC but no undergraduate Seniors. </p>

<p>It’s great that your son has pursued cognitive science at Tufts. My son is interested in cognitive science and he started off saying he was going to seek out classes in that at Tufts. But he has been so busy with his music (rehearsing, jamming and gigs) that he keeps putting it off because of time. UGH…I have to remember that he has four years and this is only his freshman year. I keep biting my tongue because I know if I nag him one more time to sort out his schedule so he can take a class at Tufts he will tune me out and refuse.</p>

<p>My son knows some seniors from his HS who have been in NYC the past four years (as undergraduates at Columbia and NYU) they plan on staying in the city. One boy is part of a group that has a “deal” with a music production company. I am not sure if either boy can make a living on their gigs and music alone. I am watching them closely because my son sees them as mentors.</p>

<p>One nice thing about Jazz is that musicians tend to be incredibly nice and supportive of each other. And the older musicians my son knows are as a rule very willing to be guides to my son as he begins his career as a musician.</p>