Help with a music composition recommendations.

College Majors Music Major
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<p>Ok, so I know there is already a thread about this, but it didn't have much for me. Due to super harsh situations I have to make a hasty move to Kentucky for my senior year. The main plan is to graduate with my last two credits via homeschooling then apply to colleges for the spring semester. I want to major in music composition and when I graduate I want to be able to write music for visual media i.e. video games, movies, tv, and the like. There are three main requirements that I have.
1. It needs to be close to my parents. They will be living in a small town in Kentucky called Corbin. I would like to be close enough to be able to drive down during the weekends. Like 4-6 hour drive tops.
2. It must be strong in music (duh!). Mainly something that will ready me for what I plan to do.
3. I would really like it to be GBLT friendly. I'm a gay man and I don't want to go somewhere I will be miserable. </p>

<p>Ok some background information to let you know what to look for. I have taken three years of music theory at my high school. This was a independent study course and I was able to chose the material I studied. We did regular compositions once I said that was what I was interested in. I have a strong background in basic and some advanced theory as well as arranging and counterpoint. My portfolio is rather small because I didn't write a lot of my stuff down. I would use a audio mixing program to write the music. This is something I plan on fixing over the summer to make it more robust. One question I have is what to colleges look for in those. I have no performances because I go to a school in rural Iowa, example. our school had a band of twenty some people and no orchestra. Some of my main influences for compsers are Nobuo Uematsu,Starvinsky,Dvorak, and Beetoven. I tend to follow the more modernistic styles.
My grades were pretty ok. About a 3.1 GPA , and I don't know I ACT score yet. Also to note the fact that I am also considerin Conservatories as well. I like the idea of on campus Conservatories like the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music . Thank you all for your time.</p>

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<p>I don’t know of any major undergrad composition programs which allow you to begin as a freshman in spring semester. Is that a requirement for you? Check out Univ. of Kentucky/Lexington. And Bowling Green State. Strong music dept. Jennifer Higdon started there and she just won the Pulitzer for composition. Miami University/Ohio. I think Vanderbilt would be a reach for you, but you could check it out. Belmont. (Not sure about how GLBT friendly it is - being a Christian college.) You don’t need to be looking for a program that specializes in music for media - that can come later. But if you want to learn the technical side then check out some of the music industry links. And read kmcrindle’s posts.</p>

<p>You will need to work on your composition portfolio if applying to conservatories like CCM. You need to have written scores. Midi recordings will be accepted in addition, but not in place of.</p>

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<p>Hi there VerumDeus. I know you said you’re interested in a composition degree, but I am going to give you info about something slightly different but possibly related.</p>

<p>I think a really great program to check out would be Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music Recording Arts Bsc in your case, based on a few factors, including the distance from your town (4.5 hrs), strength of music program (Jacobs is very strong SOM overall); general admit range GPA (you’d not be at a general deficit to the school itself, unlike programs like UMich), strong communications/multimedia program, the latter of which can be taken as an area of concentration with the RA degree, and the fact that Bloomington is a pretty hip town that I suspect would be GLBT compatible. Lots of contemporary/indie music around town; strong “telecommunications” dept including digital animation etc. Lovely campus.</p>

<p>Now, I should be clear that the RA program is NOT a traditional composition program at all, and does not presently especially interface with the composition arm of the school of music even though it too belongs to the school of music (but there is a traditional composition program at jacobs as well, so perhaps you could get the best of both with careful selection of electives and special permission). But if you’re writing right inside logic/protools et al and you’re interested in multimedia, it would certainly be worth your looking into given its close proximity to your home town. That is, provided you are technically-focused or interested enough to spend time in live capture/reinforcement and engineering as well, which are all part of the integrated training there. If not, maybe a composition degree with a double major in telecom might be more suitable. I don’t know much about their comp department.</p>

<p>I do know that kids in the RA program literally come from all over the world to attend (eg. one student when we toured was from Malaysia.)</p>

<p>In our case, my son’s strongest fit was at University of Michigan, which had a little more composition emphasis and film work in his curricula (eg lots of Final Cut etc.) in some ways, but IU Jacobs was a very close second. UM would likely be great for you too but it is TOO expensive for some Out of State students (COA of $48,000), too far away based on your criteria (about 10 hrs, I believe) and a little fussy/competitive about GPA (you’d be in base clearance range if you were auditioning to performance stream, but they like a much higher GPA even when there’s a strong supporting audition to compensate, and the average is something like 3.8 entering). It is a cool program, though, and provides full theory and BMUS credits with about half the regular composition requirement in electronic comp and several required credits in multimedia, including digital animation sound and film/media sound. Slightly less emphasis on live capture/reinforcement than Indiana UNLESS you’re in the engineering curriculum of the program, at which point it’s actually an ENG degree and your focus is much more on the RA/Eng side.</p>

<p>UMich also has a well reputed and very varied range of composition professors that my son has enjoyed enormously. So, if you’re looking at somewhere like CCM (about same distance etc.) you might then look at the UMich comp program as well, since you could still take some of the multimedia courses via elections across fields or electives via the film department.</p>

<p>In terms of finances though, by comparison, IU had really great out of state rates, some automatic scholarships, etc. Both are very competitive and by portfolio; each has between 16 (Umich)- 24 (IU) students entering each year I believe, and generally, both programs combine a level of technical and computing proficiency with creative development. </p>

<p>Hope that helps give you something to think about. Again, I note that both SOM’s, which are in essence, college style conservatories since they grant BMus degrees, also offer traditional composition. This is just another avenue in light of what you want to DO after the degree. </p>

<p>There is also the school of thought that a composer should just focus on being a composer inside a BMUS degree, and what and where those compositions appear or how they are deployed is addressed with post grad work or study. Depending on the student, I don’t disagree with this approach either.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Have you looked at JMU ?</p>