Hello! I am currently a freshman at Connecticut College in New London, CT and have decided recently that I would like to transfer. There were a lot of things that I loved about Conn: the beautiful campus, great faculty/professors, many career and internship opportunities, but the music/vocal program was not one of them. I felt very under-challenged for my level of training (I am trained classically and have performed in various advanced/competitive choirs), and was shocked when the majority of students at Conn College did not even know that there was a choir. However, I absolutely adored the Theater department and will be sad to leave it behind.
Academics and receiving a strong liberal arts education are still immensely important to me, but I need to be challenged musically and vocally as well (and intend on pursuing a career in classical voice/opera if my dreams play out).
Can anyone give me any recommendations of strong liberal arts colleges with top-notch choral/vocal performance programs?
Thanks so much!
There are some great programs in Minnesota: Macalester. St. Olaf.
Lawrence Univ. in Wisconsin is great, too – the top choirs include both conservatory vocalists and liberal arts majors.
Hanna just listed the two I was going to point out, St. Olaf and Lawrence.
Great recommendations above. Four more to check out: Muhlenberg (big in musical theater and voice), Gettysburg (has Sunderman Conservatory) , U. of Puget Sound and Furman (the last two both have very strong schools of music). Luther has a huge vocal program, but is more of a step down in academics from Conn College than the others listed.
If you happen to be a devout Christian, Wheaton in Illlinois is another top contender. If you’re interested in actually pursuing a B.M., then Oberlin and Bard should be on your list.
Thank you so much for all of the helpful suggestions! This is a big help for me.
Saint Olaf and Lawrence are definitely on my list. And I will check out the ones you mentioned, Rayrick! Oberlin is on the list for sure. I toured Bard a few years ago and didn’t really care for it, but I can say that its music is great!
Does anyone know anything about Bowdoin, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence and Grinnell’s vocal programs? They all seem to have good choirs and great academics, but I am not sure otherwise. Kenyon, Vanderbilt, Yale (reach!), McGill are also on my list.
Ask in the music major subforum http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/
Just to clarify, Lawrence, St. O and all the schools that I listed qualify as LACs where music is a very big deal. There are a whole bunch of other LACs with music departments that are smaller in scale but still considerably stronger than average. Vassar is often mentioned in that context, along with Williams, Skidmore, Wesleyan and others. There are several threads in the music major forum on this topic. I don’t know much about vocal music at these schools, since our search was focused on instrumental, but, as @bopper said, the music major forum is a good resource on this.
Though not a LAC, the University of Rochester would be worth looking into. Hamilton has a 60 member choir that performs on tours and seems well-run and popular.
Concordia Moorhead is another possibility–similar to St. Olaf & Luther. I didn’t make the campus visit, but ds & husband definitely were unimpressed w/ Macalester in terms of support for music programs; our kids’ high school has better &more practice rooms than Mac does.
Thank you! I just posted in the music major thread.
@Emeraldcity23 I’ve heard really good things about the voice faculty at Sarah Lawrence! Vassar and Grinnell have strong music departments, but I don’t know anything about voice specifically. Vassar’s choirs seem very strong though, and theater is a pretty big deal there. Don’t know anything about Bowdoin.
Thank you so much @lalalemma ! I will keep Sarah Lawrence high on my list, and look into the others as well.
See my detailed reply on the music forum. Yes, Vassar has excellent choral program!
“ds & husband definitely were unimpressed w/ Macalester in terms of support for music programs; our kids’ high school has better &more practice rooms than Mac does.”
?? That’s some high school! How long ago was your visit? I did a tour of every room in the new music building at Macalester as the guest of the choir director last month. Gorgeous facilities. Amazing recital hall with adjustable acoustic technology. All Steinways. (And wonderful choir director, though I might be a little biased there as we sang together in college before he went to get his Ph.D. in choral conducting.)
Did Mac’s building just open? It was fall of '13 that he visited. I don’t know about it being some special high school, just fairly large w/ 1100 students currently, and previously 1900 before the district built another high school.
The fine arts center at Mac is, in fact, brand new (or at least newly expanded and renovated). I can attest that it is lovely. Found a little video from the designers, actually: https://vimeo.com/73896568. Apparently it won some sort of design award.