<p>Hello, I am a junior horn player starting the college search. I started horn my freshman year and have been a 3 year member of the all-shore band (best out of two counties), 2 year member of the Central Jersey Region Band (all of central jersey), and 1 year member of the New Jersey All State Orchestra as of this year. I intend on studying music after high school very seriously however at this point I am undecided as of music ed or performance so looking into both.Interested in where to start the search etc. I live in NJ and would like to stay on the East Coast with a max. distance of 5 hours out. Interested in Conservatory or University study. Currently study privately as well. Any help would be appreciated!
~thank you~</p>
<p>Greetings, Chauncey. Our resident horn parent is binx, who will no doubt have some information for you soon. Violadad, our master indexer, may have some links for you as well. If you have not yet found it, I suggest you read the first dozen or so posts at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html</a> to get some idea of what you may be in for. A five hour (driving, I assume) radius of where you appear to live would include the major schools in New York City (Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes, …), Philadelphia (Curtis, Temple, University of the Arts…) and Baltimore (Peabody) plus several other noteworthy University programs in between.</p>
<p>Chauncey93, welcome. BassDad already gave you the best place to start. Add another hour or so and you’re also into Boston, with the fine choices there NEC, Boston U, among others.
Many of the straight conservatories will not work for music ed, so you may want to look at U/Hartford/Hartt, Ithaca; Rutgers/Mason Gross, TCNJ and Rowan within NJ. Fleshing out a bit more detail of your musical training, and some academic/stats info will help as well.</p>
<p>Besides binx, you may want to look for some past posts by team_mom amd Momof3Stars as well.</p>
<p>I’ve posted extensively on music ed, and you may find some of the info here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/892168-search-tips-other-insights.html?highlight=search[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/892168-search-tips-other-insights.html?highlight=search</a> helpful. See what you can come up with, but if you have problems locating anything, let me know.</p>
<p>A couple of horn threads to get you started:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/904832-any-suggestions-horn-major.html?highlight=horn[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/904832-any-suggestions-horn-major.html?highlight=horn</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/558621-best-horn-faculty-your-opinion.html?highlight=horn[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/558621-best-horn-faculty-your-opinion.html?highlight=horn</a></p>
<p>thank you for the starter info iv’e allready looked at a few of the posts previously and will check the others out. i visited BU last month as an intro to boston. as far as musical background, academics, etc. previous to horn i played trumpet for 7 years and took piano lessons for 4 years starting in 8th grade. i currently take music theory honors in school as well. overall academics are in the a-b range with a mix of ap and honors classes in addition to standard academic classes.</p>
<p>Resident horn parent here… but the Dads have already outlined the basics. Another university to add would be Penn State. I’ve heard good things about Lisa Bontrager, the horn teacher there.</p>
<p>Something to be aware of - conservatory-type schools are all about the audition. Universities also care very much about grades and test scores. When evaluating programs, you have to look for schools where you fit both musically and academically.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if you’ve attended any summer programs. Don’t know what is in your area, but they are a great opportunity to immerse yourself into music full time and see if you can stand it. In addition, you get exposed to horn teachers and students from various schools. It helps to give a sense of where you might fit in ability-wise, as well as suggest possibilities you may not have thought of.</p>
<p>Several other possibilities within 5 hours, give or take:</p>
<p>George Mason U
Gettysburg College [Sunderman Conservatory]
James Madison U
Montclair State U
New York U [Steinhardt]
Penn State U
Shenandoah U
Susquehanna U
U Delaware
U Maryland
West Chester U</p>
<p>I have no idea whether the horn teachers at these schools are any good, or if some of them even have horn teachers. All of them have decent or better music or music ed programs and some of these may be useful as a higher probability of acceptance option (I won’t say safety because there really is no such thing where an audition is involved) for those applying to mostly conservatories.</p>
<p>Hello Chauncey, horn players are always welcome here!</p>
<p>There’s mountains of important insight in those threads that BassDad and Violadad recommended and Binx is right, you should think about ALL your abilities, not just horn, to determine which type of school is best. Then you need to determine where you fit in with your horn. I think that we don’t know enough about your music studies to help with that.</p>
<p>Do you have a summer plan playing horn? It’s probably fair to say that most of the rising seniors that plan to apply to conservatories are playing horn this summer. There is also the option of a music dept/school within a university. I know at least three of the graduating horn players from NJ all-state orchestra (You are in my home territory now.) None are attending stand alone conservatories, all are attending colleges and universities with music schools/departments. That doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have to audition to get in, it just means you have the option to study things other than music too.</p>
<p>Let’s hear more about you, your background, and your plans so we can be of help.</p>
<p>A University with good music dept./school would be my ideal scenario as I would like to be in an environment where if anything changes interest wise I could stay at the same college/university and just change schools as well as mix in some other possible courses here and there. Conservatorie is not a main area of focus but still something i want to keep open for now. Regarding summer I am not enrolled at a summer program however I will still be playing in two-three ensembles. I tend to thrive in a more competitive environment so that is also something I suppose can be thrown into the mix.</p>