<p>Classical music and literature are two things that are prized at pretty much every liberal-arts kind of college (not just LACs – most comprehensive universities as well, especially the elitist ones that sneer at vocational training). So those interests don’t narrow down the field much at all.</p>
<p>With music, as others have hinted, you have to make some choices. There are conservatory and semi-conservatory programs, where musicians are somewhat segregated from the general population and trained for professional careers in music. There are places with strong non-conservatory programs that attract a core of musicians who want to study aspects of music, but not to get BFA degrees. And there are places where music is mainly an amateur activity, although if there is a critical mass of musicians and good traditions the “amateur” opportunities can be great. A non-conservatory classical musician at a college that has a conservatory may have less satisfactory opportunities there than at a place with a bare-bones music department but lots of pre-meds who were in their high school orchestras. And, on top of that, location may matter: There are more vibrant classical-music communities in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, than in, say, Denison, OH.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago probably falls into the “amateur” category: lots of musicians, not so many music courses that they take (although there is, I believe, a pretty strong Music History PhD program). There are university orchestras and other performance groups that a skilled, but nonprofessional-grade player can find a place in – but, I believe, fewer of those than at some other elite colleges. Chicago the city is, of course, a great (if sometimes expensive) place to be a classical music fan. The University’s English department is highly regarded, and English is the third or fourth most popular major.</p>
<p>Given your apparent geographic preferences, you may want to look at Oberlin, too: largish (as such things go), arty LAC near Cleveland with a well-regarded conservatory.</p>
<p>I know several kids who more or less fit your description who went to Penn, and who found it both musically and other-interets-ingly satisfying. Penn is more in the second category – a significant academic music department, and also a loose affiliation with the Curtis conservatory, so some Curtis students filter around. Bard – whose president is a musician, with great pull in the music world and a location not inconvenient to NYC – is another place where arty, intellectual students congregate.</p>