<p>I'm a high school senior planning on majoring in Piano Performance next year (or a double major with Music Education if I end up at Cincinnati). I've already auditioned at and gotten into the University of Iowa School of Music and I'm only weeks away from auditioning at both Lawrence University Conservatory of Music and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. I've obviously already been to the campus of the University of Iowa for my audition (and on two other occasions for its annual High School Orchestra Invitational) and I thought it seemed pretty cool, although Iowa doesn't have a conservatory and the university is just too big for me to have gotten a real feel for it yet. I've also visited Lawrence once and loved it based on my experience there! I haven't been to Cincinnati yet but I'm going in about a month for my audition. I've done a master class with the professor I will study with next year if I go to Iowa, Ksenia Nosikova, and I've had a lesson with the chair of the piano department at Lawrence, Cathy Kautsky. I was wondering what possible pros and cons anyone might know about each of those three schools?</p>
<p>Well I am a Hawkeye alum (not for music) and my S wouldn’t even consider Iowa (sniff,sniff) because of their music college situation. Have they even broken ground on a new building? Iowa is a great school anyway!</p>
<p>I don’t know what the status of their new building is because I didn’t get to see it when I was there. (I haven’t taken a campus tour since I was a freshman.) That said, I was impressed with the multitude of Wenger rooms, etc. that they had in their current music school location, which is above a (university-run?) mall.</p>
<p>We visited CCM in the fall and my S will audition there tomorrow, jazz bass guitar. Lovely facilities…</p>
<p>Good luck to him! Any comments in particular about these lovely facilities?</p>
<p>Several years ago, CCM hired a dean named Douglas Knehans…who was interested in increasing the profile of an already high-visibility institution. His stated goal was to make CCM an “All-Steinway” school. After a fund-raising campaign, Knehans and CCM placed the largest factory order in Steinway history; 165 pianos worth (I believe) over $4 million delivered over 12 month period.</p>
<p>While the pianos apparently did what was intended for CCM, Knehans ended up making a rather sizable number of enemies; mostly among the generalized University faculty who, while seeing truckloads of new pianos delivered, viewed the purchase as sacrilege in an era of salary freezes. After something like 2 years, Knehans lost the political battle…and his job. He was placed on some kind of administrative leave while collecting his Dean’s salary; eventually settling into (I believe) a ranking position on the CCM faculty.</p>
<p>CCM has a new Dean this year- formerly of the conservatory at Baldwin-Wallace. Let’s hope that he can repair the damage done over the past few years and that the students are no longer caught in the tug of war that occurred between administration and faculty.</p>
<p>Interesting… Other than obviously providing me with plenty of nice pianos to practice on, any idea how I would be affected by the above situation as a CCM student?</p>
<p>Sorry we had to reschedule CCM due to the weather here…so won’t be there until later this month. We did visit in the fall, and tour, my S sat in on a class.</p>
<p>But by “facilities”, other than piano, I meant practice rooms, performance spaces, even the food court/dining hall. All connected so in inclement weather you don’t have to go outside. Pretty outdoor spaces, too. </p>
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<p>Good question.</p>
<p>I honestly haven’t the foggiest idea how the recent political skirmishes at CCM would (or will) affect your career as a student (or that of my son; an applicant this semester). I was merely sharing some perspective on the generalized political landscape at the school over the past few years.</p>
<p>My D is a student at CCM. Last year, students were invited to sit in on Q and A sessions with all the finalists for the position of Dean. I know that she went to most of them, and was thrilled with the final decision. I can’t speak for everyone, but my D said she didn’t experience any disruption due to issues regarding the Dean. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.</p>
<p>thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>I remember reading a couple of years ago about the turmoil relating to the Dean at CCM, and I had forgotten that the pianos were a central part of it. </p>
<p>We loved the campus and music school facilities, too. S and I will be there this weekend for his jazz trombone audition.</p>
<p>I was very surprised to see on CCM’s website that they are still accepting applications for all majors but MT. Apparently CCM has unfilled interview/audition slots.</p>
<p>jazzcat we’ll be there Saturday too, for bass guitar.</p>
<p>Compdad I was surprised that we were able to reschedule due to snow two weeks ago without any problem. I do believe that in order to get a scholarship you had to apply by Dec 1 (or so we were told at the time). Maybe they are making room for as many as possible?</p>
<p>Speaking of audition slots, I’d love to know past year #s for # of applicants for each instrument and how many were accepted. Anyone know where that might be found? I’ve tried to find it a few times without success, though I haven’t called admissions to ask.</p>
<p>Not sure this is an especially relevant statistic for this discussion; but during my S’s voice audition today at CCM, there was a listing of 556 students auditioning for both graduate and undergraduate slots in all disciplines. Not sure if I actually heard this…or if I was dreaming…but something tells me they’re trying to fill 30 slots in voice.</p>
<p>Also not sure how many of those 556 applicants were for voice…but what I can say is that my S initially appeared (after a quick scan of the list of invitees) to be one of only TWO men auditioning today for the BM (undergraduate) program. The numbers, as you might expect, were far greater for the MM (graduate) program.</p>
<p>Actually I was auditioning there yesterday too and I was somewhat shocked to see only 6 or 7 BM auditions for piano, with three of them being listed only as concentration status, so music ed, music history, music BA or what have you. Like voice, piano had a multitude of MM, DMA and AD auditions though.</p>
<p>Hey PM12, how did your audition go ?? What was your general impression of the facilities and campus as a whole ?? I’m curious where CCM now falls out on your list right now…</p>
<p>It went well, thanks! My thought about CCM is that it’s like a friendlier Eastman or NEC, only attached to a state university and all the fun that brings with it. The facilities were high class and better than most of the out east conservatories. The rest of campus seemed very interesting architecturally but I’m not too big of a fan of either the surrounding areas or the hilliness (walking up three flight of stairs to get up a hill could very easily get annoying) but it’s not a huge deal. However, CCM itself was really amazing in pretty much every way a conservatory can be and it jumped from a far second on my list to being tied with Lawrence.</p>
<p>Excellent; we’re residents of Greater Cincinnati, and I’m always interested in the opinions of those who don’t have a personal/regional sort-of dog in UC’s hunt. </p>
<p>Comparing CCM favorably to Eastman and NEC would seem to be quite a compliment. Of course, I’m still a rookie at the entire subject of Conservatory studies; so please bear with me if my comments appear woefully simplistic (or downright ill-informed). I do find myself wondering if you had a chance to play one (or more) of those new Steinways the school now owns.</p>
<p>My son’s first choice is CCM, and he’s presently dealing with the “well, I did OK…but I could have done better” kind-of post-audition blahs. Beyond the quality school in general (and the reputation of his hoped-for instructor), some of his focus on CCM has to do with the fact his ex-classmates (some whom he doesn’t especially care for) had essentially no luck gaining acceptance to CCM as part of the BM program. In other words, he’d appreciate an opportunity, so-to-speak, to jam a CCM acceptance back in their faces. </p>
<p>Regardless, best of luck to you with whatever your future holds. And if you end up at CCM, perhaps you’ll come across my son one day (and please let me know if you decide t go that direction).</p>