HS Senior Looking at Trumpet Performance

Hi,

I have looked through the forums and saw a few older threads related to trumpet but thought I’d post a new one for 2021-2022.

My son is a HS senior this year and looking at majoring in Trumpet Performance Classical but would like the option to do Jazz as minor or on the side. There seem to be so many schools to look at and thought I’d post for some help with directions to look.

We’re located in Ohio. He has a 4.3 gpa. His ACT was a 25.

Currently his list appears to be ;
Oberlin
Arizona State University
Baldwin Wallace
University of North Texas
Rice
Northwestern
Eastman
Manhattan School of Music
University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

From trying to look around on here and elsewhere
I have added on;
Frost
Mannes
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
University of Maryland

The list just keeps growing.

Anyone have any advice or suggestions we are open to hearing everything. Chances, culture, thoughts, experiences, etc…

Thanks!

1 Like

Son loves Jazz and was able to continue with it while training classically at University of Redlands. Just a 1/2 day or quick flight from ASU or San Francisco.

2 Likes

tOSU isn’t on the list?

Have you considered Peabody? Lamont?

USC Thornton is particularly flexible in terms of its Jazz Studies minor.

He has a strong GPA (what is his unweighted?), and he’ll have the option to apply test-optional at most or all of the schools where his ACT wouldn’t help, so I don’t think stats will keep him out anywhere; it will come down to auditions and whatever else they’re looking for. Hopefully looking at instrument-specific factors (trial lessons with faculty and etc.) will help narrow it down…

3 Likes

My kid is a freelance trumpet professional. For him, it was all about the trumpet applied faculty at the schools, and the quality of the ensembles. He got excellent guidance from his youth orchestra conductor (who was a trumpet player), his private trumpet teacher (who played principal in our symphony), and his HS band director. And from trumpet faculty at the summer programs he attended. He asked a lot of people about applied faculty on trumpet, and some of the same names came up over and over again.

I see he has considered Northwestern? What about Boston University?

Chris Gekker is trumpet faculty at UMD. He is terrific.

Terry Everson is at BU…and is equally terrific.

In my opinion, the applied faculty on trumpet is THE most important thing your kid needs to research. This person will be the one he spends the most time with over four years.

2 Likes

We just did this, for my trumpeter who’s starting college in 2 weeks. He too leaned Classical, but also loved playing jazz. Probably due to the pandemic killing most of his in-person music programs, he wound up deciding to double major with an academic field, with the likely goal of med school, instead of pro trumpet performer. But at the time he was starting the search, two years ago, he was leaning towards conservatory. He considered literally EVERY school in the country that offered a trumpet performance major, plus one school that didn’t.

First of all, does your son want to major only in trumpet, or does he want an academic major, too? Does he want conservatory, or a university/college that has a strong school of music? His GPA indicates that he’s a good student. And yes, he should apply test-optional, since that ACT is inconsistent with his academic achievement. Is the 4.3 out of a potential 5.0? 4.5? Approximately where does that 4.3 place him within his class? Top 10%? Top quarter? Top half? This will matter very much for competitive universities with good schools of music with great trumpet teachers, but not so much for some conservatories. Everywhere, his audition will be extremely important.

My son decided against conservatory, because he wanted to keep his academic options open. He wanted schools with strong academics (that ruled out places like North Texas and ASU, although ASU’s honors college was interesting, but I think he found out that one couldn’t do ASU music major and the honors college). He wanted schools where the music school was not on a separate campus from the main academic university. Most importantly, he wanted a great teacher - this was his most important consideration.

He wound up with this list: UConn (in-state safety, strong academics, and a Juilliard faculty teacher with a fantastic reputation, Louis Hanzlik). U Maryland - Chris Gekker. McGill - Richard Stoelzel. Boston University - Terry Everson. Harvard early action - no performance trumpet teacher, no music major, but my son already had music connections in Boston, and the conductor for the Harvard orchestra is great. If he got in, and decided to go, he was not going to try for NEC dual program because he wanted to focus on what Harvard had to offer him. He’d continue playing, probably continue studying, but he’d be leaning more toward medicine. If he didn’t get into Harvard early action, he would also apply to the dual programs of Columbia-Juilliard, and Yale College/Yale school of music. He wound up getting into Harvard early action and withdrawing his other applications, not applying to the rest.

He eliminated U Michigan because their classical teacher was ill, and the spot was being covered by several rotating trumpet teachers. He knew that one needs a consistent teacher putting you through his program for at least two years straight. If there is a stable luminary classical trumpet teacher at U Mich, it might be perfect for your son. UMich has strong academics, plus strong jazz and classical, and they have a reputation of going easier on the academic admission requirements for musicians with great auditions. Some schools he eliminated because he heard that the trumpet teacher was an SOB whom no one liked working with. He eliminated UT Austin because the teacher was stretched too thin, teaching and performing all over the country.

His friend studies happily with David Krauss at MSM, who also teaches at Mannes. Rice is a huge studio, and is incredibly competitive, but if his goal is playing with a major orchestra, the teachers at Rice (Butler and Geyer) are considered to be the best in the country, maybe the world, at preparing people to win symphony positions.

If your son wants a conservatory experience, there are so many places he should be considering, including Juilliard, which is tops in both classical and jazz trumpet.

And a shameless plug for the lovely warm Hartt school of music at U Hartford. My son says that Phil Snedecor was an absolutely fantastic teacher. U Hartford gives significant merit money for good students, and Phil Snedecor is doing great things with the trumpet studio there.

No way to chance your son without some idea of how good he is. All competitions for 2020 were cancelled. Did he try for any competitions this year? NYO or NYO2? Has he auditioned for and been accepted for any other competitive programs? Is he the top player in your regional or state wind ensemble? Does he attend and lead at a competitive precollege program? It’s all been so tough what with Covid cancelling so many programs, to get an idea of how one measures up to the competition.

He needs to get some feedback from his teacher and from any trumpet faculty in your area about how good he is, compared to other high school seniors. He also needs to seriously consider whether he is willing to essentially give up serious academics this early, and focus on trumpet. Some conservatories require/offer very little in the way of academics. Some require a comprehensive general academic studies curriculum (Juilliard), because they rightly believe that their graduates should be educated human beings, in addition to musicians. Some offer joint programs with nearby colleges/universities. Even Curtis I heard allows people to take two classes a semester at Penn, but my son heard that no one had the time to take advantage of this. In fact, that was what he heard from most of the people whom he knew at conservatories - that their time was taken up with practicing and ensembles, and that there really wasn’t time to take advantage of non-required academic classes.

There are music-specific threads on college confidential that you will find very helpful. Also, we got some good advice from the pros on TrumpetHerald.com. You’d be surprised at how many music faculty are on it. Ignore the nasty ■■■■■ Andy Del on it - most responders have been extremely helpful.

And then there is the question of money. Does he need financial aid? Merit money? Ohio State has a school of music with trumpet faculty - I imagine that would be his financial safety, with in-state tuition for him.

Feel free to send me a private message if you want me to ask my son specific questions, since he’s only 9 months out of the process, and his friend is studying trumpet at MSM (very happy there).

3 Likes

OSU isn’t really on any of the lists that we’ve been making.
Peabody is on a list but sadly at this point the lists are so long that it feels sometimes like the list is just a college directory of any school with a school of music or trumpet performance degree.

Lamont has been looked at but I cannot say atm why it wasn’t a top 10 choice for us.

I am hoping trial lessons happen and can start to help form more definite directions and desires.

1 Like

Thanks for the reply sounds like your son really did just go through the same thing of sorts.

As of right now my son is very firm in his desire to only major in trumpet, and not interested in an academic major. Although I keep suggesting to keep the door open to one, and have kept that as a consideration on the school search in case there is a need to pivot…

Class ranking for my son all I can wrangle out of the school at this point is he is definitely top 10%…they have some strange non ranking system that they allegedly do not disclose rankings etc…even after I specifically said it might be helpful for college applications, they were firm on only being willing to say my son is definitely top 10%.

And you are definitely right that Covid and some oddities of it all seem to have wiped out some of the classic competition/ranking opportunities.

It definitely does seem like the audition is going to be super important.

Thanks.

1 Like

@parentologist if you could PM me I do have some additional questions I’d like to ask you.

1 Like

For everyone that has done the trial lesson requests, I am assuming the last couple of years they have been mostly zoom trial lessons yeah?

What was the format of the email you sent? What sort of responses did you get? Were the professors pretty responsive/open to the idea?

1 Like

My kids both did trial lessons back when they applied (not during Covid). They emailed the trumpet faculty, and the music department chair to inquire about setting this up. Both did trial lessons after April of their junior years in high school. I think my son did one fall of his senior year.

2 Likes

Blair at Vanderbilt University has ways to include both classical and jazz in your curriculum. They’re also test-optional again this year.

1 Like

My son did several trial lessons online last year (clarinet), and it worked really well. He just sent brief e-mails asking if they offered trial lessons (usually directly to the profs, but sometimes the school website specifies you should e-mail someone in the music department instead) and attached a music resume. I can only think of one time where the guy kind of flaked out on him and he never got anything scheduled; for the most part everyone was very responsive and very used to doing lessons over zoom.

2 Likes

I’ll second the Peabody suggestion for three reasons:

  1. primary trumpet faculty of William Gerlach (Principal, National Symphony) and Tony Prisk (2nd, Philly) is solid

  2. Sean Jones (director of NYO Jazz and former lead trumpet of Jazz at Lincoln Center)is the primary jazz trumpet faculty, AND he runs the jazz department. More importantly, he’s awesome on all counts

  3. Academically, it’d be a good fit. The moderate ACT score may preclude him from places like USC Thornton or Miami Frost (if they’re still accepting/considering ACT/SAT scores) since they want north of 30 ACT. That’s not a problem with Peabody, and yet your son would still get access to a Johns Hopkins education and graduate with a JHU degree.

4 Likes

Thank you for this thread! My trumpet player also wants to do both classical and jazz! We are in WI and he wants to stay close to him. So far, we have done in-person School of Music tours of DePaul (Chicago), UW-Madison, and Lawrence (Appleton). He wasn’t sure about applying to Northwestern because of cost although, since he really loves Chicago, maybe he should just apply. I think he’s a strong academic student GPA 3.9-ish/4 (his high school does not do weighted GPA’s nor do they do student rankings) so I hope being a strong student gives him options. Of course, it’ll really be about his playing ability. Anyway, I think he should look at a few other schools. He likes the idea of being in a big city. I’m trying to come up with a few more schools for him to consider that are in a big city, but not too far away.

2 Likes

Thanks everyone. So far my son has sent the initial emails to the schools on his main list and most of the professors have responded and 1 lesson has happened.

There are a couple professors who did not respond, and I’ve read it’s not out of the norm to just give it a week or two and then email again…what with starting of the semester, maybe they were still on summer break, busy life of a college professor etc…

Not sure how many trumpet majors there will be this year on here, but hopefully we can keep this thread or one like it going with advice and updates etc…

With there being so many schools out there, it seems like a daunting task to narrow them all down…I’ve noticed while looking at the faculty at the different schools, there appear to be a variety of undergrad institutions that the professors have attended, and often not necessarily any from the “big” lists…So that makes me wonder if there aren’t some undergrad schools out there that are just as good or are good in their own right that get missed because they do not have a national reputation etc…

2 Likes

I’ve liked what I’ve read about Peabody and keep nudging it onto the list.

Your added 3 reasons definitely add to the like.

Thanks.

2 Likes

Two general comments. Note that my D was a VP major some years ago.

1.) Not all teachers reply, unfortunately. If you have a school where a teacher isn’t replying you can always check with the dept head for assistance for another teacher’s name. My D’s teacher never replied to emails (me D worked as her PA for a semester). She chose students from the audition and did lessons after. I don’t think this is common…but if a school and teacher is high on the list, you can still apply there even without a reply (if it doesn’t bother you or your kid too much).

2.) When looking at a teacher’s background, it’s good to check their alma mater…but you may also want to check what they did AFTER college. My D is older and the college can matter for contacts etc…buta lot of being a successful musician depends on your ability to hussle and continue to grow AFTER college. I’m seeing that in my D’s collegues. The college background is VERY diverse. So you may be seeing long-term, real life success vs academic/selective program success out of the gate at 18 and the early 20s. These successes certainly overlap but not always. And a successful, current musician may have a good amount of contacts and real life experience to offer (despite where his/her college degree comes from). If they are hired by a school…there’s probably a reason beyond their alma mater.

I hope that makes sense! Only at the very upper echelon of music (top orchestras etc) does the straight and narrow path make sense…and that’s for the musically brillant. For everyone else, there are many schools and many roads to travel.

3 Likes