<p>I've been reading this board for a short while now, and this is my first post. I'm a composer currently nearing the end of my undergrad and am about to start applying to grad schools this fall.</p>
<p>I have a list of programs I like:</p>
<p>Brown (Meme)
UPenn
Duke
Columbia
Princeton
UC Berkeley
Stanford
UChicago
Northwestern.</p>
<p>All these seem like wonderful top programs. However, they might all be reaches (academically speaking). I need some help coming up with some good programs that might be easier admits academically to fill up a couple of my safety slots. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of Indiana, Rice, Michigan at the moment; although I'm sure they also have an incredibly selective pool talent-wise, even if they aren't as elite academically. </p>
<p>Any words you have to chime in with will be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Does your private teacher have any opinions? I feel like they would be the only people who are familiar enough with your talent level as a composer to tell you where to apply. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>Thanks coloratura_as. My principal teacher at the conservatory I’m studying in suggested Columbia a while back. I’m somewhat (cautiously) confident in my abilities as a composer to be competitive with the nation’s better programs. (i.e. - based on composition portfolio alone, if I apply to a large enough number of these super competitive programs, I’m probably bound get in to at least one.)</p>
<p>It’s the academics I’m mostly worried about know. IMO, I’m probably a good bit above average, but not quite Ivy League. Put it this way - lets say I was applying to college instead of Grad school, and my undergrad stats were my high school stats, then I probably wouldn’t be getting in to those universities.</p>
<p>The institutions you list all are at the uppers echelon of academic excellence in many fields, which begs the question are you being drawn to the name and the associated prestige? If that, by all means add Yale and Harvard. </p>
<p>NYU, NEC, may not have been on your radar.</p>
<p>Conservatory programs are conspicuously absent. </p>
<p>I would think that in a graduate pursuit the preference would be exposure and association with current active faculty composers that compose in a style/genre that draws you, or a prevailing style that directs your influences, coupled with an exception pool of student talent that would showcase your work. Not all orchestras and ensembles on the your list will provide conservatory/preprofessional talent levels across all instruments. </p>
<p>Current student posters like stephmin and Cosmos may provide insights. Both have been examining grad programs in comp, music history and musicology.</p>
<p>Look/search for past posts by WindCloudUltra and MahlerSnob, you might find some suggested options there.</p>
<p>I’m no expert. Just some thoughts, and my opinions. Good luck.</p>
<p>I crossposted with the OP, and didn’t address the academics.</p>
<p>Composition may not be a performance/audition based admit, but it can well be a portfolio based process that focuses on accomplished works, and have less of an academic requirement than a pure academic graduate admissions. Grades may well matter, but you need to assess the actual admission specific parameters for the schools under consideration.</p>
<p>You may well find that many on the list will require GSATs; there are also those that do not in performance/composition grad pursuits. You may want to narrow it down to a few of each type.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to reply, violadad. Your info has been very helpful. I have been attending a conservatory for undergrad, and while it has been a great experience and a wonderful place to build my ‘chops’, I am quite sure the time has come for me to exit the bubble and instead pursue my advanced degrees in a university setting.</p>
<p>And yes, I do have to admit I’m being drawn to the name and associated prestige. I plan on someday entering the professorial scene down the road, and whether its fair or not, I do sense that name-recognition of the academic institution does play a role in the academia market.</p>
<p>To be completely honest…I’m not as concerned about the level of performing ability that my peers will have. While it’d be nice to attend classes with some very talented young instrumentalists and singers, I’ve gotten plenty of that experience during undergrad. (Although as a disclaimer - I do have to add that it was an incredibly valuable experience.) In fact, many of the schools on this list don’t even have Grad programs for performance, and I think I’m okay with that at this point. I don’t see myself as a writer of ‘concert’ music anyway. More academic, really.</p>
<p>I’m surprised the question of what degree you’ll be pursuing hasn’t yet arisen. At Northwestern, Rice, Indiana, and Michigan, you’d almost certainly have to enter as a candidate for the MM, whereas you might be a PhD/DMA student right away at the others. Admissions at those schools will be a little different-- less academically oriented. They function exactly like conservatories, except with higher academic standards (especially at Rice and Northwestern). Admission to a PhD program is a different can of worms.</p>
<p>Yep, if the program offers a Masters, I will be applying for that. If not, I apply direct to the Doctoral program. (Northwestern does not have a MM in composition, actually. Only a doctorate.)</p>
<p>From OP:
“To be completely honest…I’m not as concerned about the level of performing ability that my peers will have. While it’d be nice to attend classes with some very talented young instrumentalists and singers, I’ve gotten plenty of that experience during undergrad. (Although as a disclaimer - I do have to add that it was an incredibly valuable experience.) In fact, many of the schools on this list don’t even have Grad programs for performance, and I think I’m okay with that at this point. I don’t see myself as a writer of ‘concert’ music anyway. More academic, really.” </p>
<p>Are you sure you want to study composition? This sounds more like a music theory studies interest. If you do not see yourself writing music to be heard, what is the point of “academic” music? </p>
<p>from Violadad:
“I would think that in a graduate pursuit the preference would be exposure and association with current active faculty composers that compose in a style/genre that draws you, or a prevailing style that directs your influences, coupled with an exception pool of student talent that would showcase your work. Not all orchestras and ensembles on the your list will provide conservatory/preprofessional talent levels across all instruments.”</p>
<p>I think this is dead-on. Whatever your compositional style is, there are some places that you can function and thrive and others where you will be speaking a different music language. Look for situations where you know and identify with the music of the composers on faculty, and start there…see what you can find out about their pedagogical style. A traditional musical mind will not thrive in a school where the compositional emphasis is on electronic and more contemporary mediums.</p>
<p>I can understand your stance, but maybe, I should’ve rephrased or elaborated on what I said. I guess what I meant by not wanting to be a concert composer, is that I don’t want to pursue a freelancing career/lifestyle where I dedicate myself to networking, gaining commissions & grants, seeking premieres, having my music performed at major halls and venues by orchestras and ensembles. Instead, I’d be perfectly content with my primary focus being not my own music but instead my duties at a tenured teaching post, where I’d just settle my career into the bubble that is the academia community. </p>
<p>I am most definitely (100000, to the power of infinity, percent!) sure that I want to study composition and not theory. ‘Academic composition’ and ‘music theory’ are not interchangeable phrases!</p>
<p>And, while I mostly agree with the sentiments on the styles of the faculty at the school, I do think this is much more so a factor with instrumentalists/singers/performers than it is with composers. For example, my current teacher composes in a vastly different language than I do, but yet this has no affect at all on my own work. Still, I enjoy working with him greatly, and he has helped me make great strides in the development of my technique and maturity as a composer. (He’s actually a rather well known American composer who at this point in his career has been more or less labeled as a member of the so-called neo-Romantic school. His music is very tonal. Mine is definitely not.)</p>
<p>“Instead, I’d be perfectly content with my primary focus being not my own music but instead my duties at a tenured teaching post, where I’d just settle my career into the bubble that is the academia community.”</p>
<p>Here’s the catch, EarlGr8, you will not get a tenure track position, nor eventually tenure itself, unless you have composed music which is performed and respected by the “academy” as well as by the commissioning and/or consuming public. You do not get to sit in your own little bubble, as great as that would be, unless you have earned stature as a dominant contributor to the field of music, either through performance and conducting or through composition of music which is experienced by others. </p>
<p>It is less likely that the more contemporary composers would be comfortable with the neo-Romantic creators of public genres such as movie scores, etc…they tend to have a “been there, done that” sensibility. Your current experience sounds quite good…your mentor/teacher knows you and your style quite well, and he will have suggestions for you. Obviously plans to study at a school because of one specific faculty member is risky…people do fall under the bus or get another offer. So you want to make sure the general musical environment will accept the kind of composer you are. </p>
<p>My comments about music theory had to do with not knowing that you had any compositional instincts, and it sounded more like you wanted to analyze the works of others in academic work. </p>
‘Academic composition’ and ‘music theory’ are not interchangeable phrases!</p>