Mid-Level Schools for Composition?

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm a high-school senior hoping to major in music composition, and I was wondering if there are any mid-level music schools that I have a reasonable shot at getting into. I noticed that most of the schools on my applying-to list are quite competitive (ie: Curtis, NEC, Peabody, etc.) and my chances of getting into them are slim at best. </p>

<p>I'm a proficient (but nowhere near virtuoso) pianist, and I've composed several pieces of varying instrumentation and length, and I'm hoping to finish my first piano concerto (and first orchestral piece) in time for portfolio submissions. I can link to some of my work if it would help gauging any suggestions you give. Also, I would prefer schools that are friendly to tonal music, as my music is tonal. What schools do you think I would have a fair shot at getting accepted into?</p>

<p>Thanks for any help you can offer!</p>

2

<p>Not sure if I’m allowed to bump here, but I guess I just did! Sorry, but if anybody has any answers or suggestions to this at all, I would greatly appreciate it. I desperately need some safeties/mid-level schools to apply to! Thanks!</p>

3

<p>Are you determined to go only to a conservatory? The best option for a safety school would be a non-auditioned one - such as for a BA in music at a liberal arts college where you can pursue a composition track. As for whether or not a school is receptive to tonal music - I recommend listening to the music of the composition faculty to get an idea of their aesthetic.
There are dozens and dozens of very good, and maybe even wonderful, composition programs out there - in public and private schools. What state do you live in? What are you looking for in a school, besides being admitted and being allowed to write tonal music? Will finances be an issue? Academics? Size? Location?</p>

<p>You also say you’ve written pieces - have they been recorded live or are they midi or scores only? Have you been studying composition privately - or writing on your own?</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the response! I would prefer to go to a conservatory, but if I don’t get accepted into any, I would be happy going to a liberal arts college, as you mentioned. I am an Ohio resident, and finances very well may be an issue. Apart from that, all I really care about in what school I go to is the quality of the composition department. I have been studying composition on my own mostly, but am now taking AP music theory (which is sadly not proving very helpful)</p>

<p>I have written several pieces, but still need to record them (which I plan to before portfolio submissions). So far, I’ve written 4 solo piano pieces, a duo for piano and cello, and a piano quartet. I’m hoping to finish a hymn for SATB choir and string trio, and a piano concerto before portfolio submissions. However, the chances of me completing the last one in time are looking grim, so I may have to submit just one or two movements. </p>

<p>What non-auditioned liberal arts colleges can you recommend for me? My GPA is around a 3.95, and my SAT score will probably [rather, hopefully] be around 2000-2100 when they come in this week. </p>

<p>Thanks again for the response, your help is greatly appreciated!</p>

5

<p>I hope you are not underselling yourself. You have a great academic record and it would seem also that you have made a pretty good start to composing.</p>

<p>Oberlin is not known for its tonal composing, or I would suggest that!</p>

<p>Ithaca and Lawrence are two that occur to me, Hartt at U. of Hartford, maybe Boston Conservatory. UNH and UMass. SUNY Purchase. I know the East Coast better than other areas so others will have ideas. These are for BM’s.</p>

<p>I just posted a long post to someone who asked about applying without recordings, which might be helpful for you to read-? Sorry, my fingers are too tired to write some of it again!</p>

<p>I know composers who have been happy at MacAlaster, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Vassar, Clark University (Worcester MA), Brandeis, Harvard, and Yale. Kenyon is near you: have you checked that out? Lots of liberal arts colleges have great music programs, as do some state schools.</p>

<p>You could apply to Bard, which has both a conservatory and college (double degree is required of all conservatory students, meaning a BA/BM) but also students in the college have a lot of musical opportunities, which is unusual for a school with a conservatory as well.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>In Ohio, I would look seriously at Bowling Green State. Jennifer Higdon did her undergrad there - and she’s a tonal composer. I know some of the performance faculty are really interested in building up composition programs for young composers all over the state of Ohio - so they’re very engaged in supporting budding composers. (They just held a conference on the subject.)</p>

<p>Look into Baldwin Wallace. And De Pauw. And maybe any of the colleges known for musical theater - because the composition departments may trend more conservative. (As in not avant-garde.) And the ones known for choral music like St. Olaf and Luther. Also look into Drake in Des Moines. And maybe SMU in Texas. Illinois Wesleyan. I’m throwing names out there - I don’t know the composition faculty - you’ll need to do some research - but the point is your choices are wide open.</p>

<p>I also second Lawrence Conservatory as worth considering.</p>

<p>Know that a conservatory like Curtis - they only accept 1-2 composers per year - and those composers usually have won national awards and had their work performed at some level by professional ensembles. (Other than that - of all the top tier conservatories - it is known as the most tonal.)</p>

<p>It’s too late probably for your applications, but not too late for the next 10 months - you should get yourself a private composition teacher immediately. You’ll be astonished at the leaps and bounds you can make in your work when you have a wise person to guide you.</p>

7

<p>Thanks, I will definitely look into these schools! I actually emailed the Oberlin Comp department chair a few weeks ago concerning their avant garde reputation, and he said they have improved a lot in tonal music teaching. Not sure if that’s reliable though. Spiritmanager, I do fully realize how stupidly competitive Curtis is, I’m more applying just for fun to say that I did than anything. Also, I’m in the unfortunate circumstance where I live in South Korea and don’t really speak Korean, so it’s nearly impossible to find a composition teacher for me. </p>

<p>What kind of good liberal arts schools with non-auditioned music comp programs are there? I really need to apply to at least one safety.</p>

8

<p>You could get a composition professor via Skype. Contact the Mannes School of Music extension program - I know of one professor there who is teaching someone long distance. You might be able to approach other extension or prep programs and find out if someone’s willing. It’s easy enough to send files electronically, after all.</p>

<p>One of my son’s composition teachers is now a professor at College of Charleston, and he is terrific. Although he’s more interested in contemporary classical (not particularly tonal) he also studied movie scoring with Jerry Goldsmith, and has written movie scores. So a professor can have both interests. That’s another school you should check out.</p>

<p>Another conservatory is San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Not sure if anyone there supports the kind of music you’re interested in writing, but check it out.</p>

<p>And for some reason we haven’t mentioned USC which has so many composition professors, someone might be up your alley. And check out Vanderbilt, too.</p>

<p>Btw. After I posted I looked up Drake and they do not offer composition - so don’t bother with that one.</p>

<p>You see - there are so many places. Many many many of the schools in the US which offer music, also offer composition.</p>

<p>The other thing for you to consider is that, never having studied composition, you are just beginning the journey - and you’re probably tending to write the kind of music you’ve heard a lot of and are used to playing on the piano. As you study and your ears open up, and you’ve heard more, and written more, and learned more - you may find your aesthetic taste changes dramatically.</p>

9

<p>Spirit Manager makes a really good point about how your composing might change, and your musical tastes for that matter. Who knows, in a few years you might love the TIMARA program at Oberlin!</p>

<p>Several years ago, we visited Oberlin twice and I can say for certainty that they were trying to change the program in favor of more diverse compositional styles, including more tonal music. This kind of change can take a few years but may have started to settle in more at this point. </p>

<p>So with apologies for my earlier comment, I would say sure, maybe visit or talk with them, and see how things are going with that change. But Oberlin is not really mid-level either…</p>

<p>There are lots and lots of non-audition college programs that you might like. Maybe look at the music department pages of schools you might like for other reasons, and choose the ones you like. Look at requirements for the major, course descriptions, faculty, and distribution requirements. Opportunities to “do” music, and classes or lessons in performance. I tried to list a few above and Spirit Manage listed a lot of really good ideas, which should help.</p>

10

<p>Thanks for all this help! I’ve been frustrated lately finding that almost every school I look at wants a performance audition on top of a portfolio, when I simply am unable to pass a performance audition. I’ve also been unable to locate any liberal arts schools with a non-auditioned music program, they all seem to require an audition of some sort. Sorry, but do any schools come to mind to you that don’t require an audition? Thanks again for all of this help! You don’t know how much it’s appreciated!</p>

11

<p>Chwaga - Compmom and I have both listed a number of colleges in the posts above that are non-audition either to major in music itself, or, if majoring as a composer, not requiring an instrumental audition. Also, the instrumental auditions are not significant - they are not going to reject you if you’re not a virtuoso pianist, if the rest of your application is strong.</p>

<p>“I know composers who have been happy at Macalester, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Vassar, Clark University (Worcester MA), Brandeis, Harvard, and Yale. Kenyon is near you: have you checked that out? Lots of liberal arts colleges have great music programs, as do some state schools.”</p>

<p>I recommend you get the book The Colleges That Change Lives as most of those schools are likely to be supportive of music composition.</p>

<p>And did you look at USC? I know for a fact that composers don’t audition - they don’t even have a scheduled interview.</p>

12

<p>The more I think of it the less I understand your trouble finding non audition schools. More ideas: Goucher, Bucknell, Skidmore, Grinnell, Carleton, Beloit, all the Ivies, MIT (great music dept.) Tufts, Williams et al.
Basically anywhere that offers a BA rather than a BM in music - one usually applies to the college itself, not the major.</p>

<p>If you weren’t planning to major in composition, what schools would interest you? I would start there and work backwards.</p>

13

<p>Maybe working from the other direction would work here: what are the schools that you are, actually, looking at? </p>

<p>We did not run into auditions at a single college or university that our daughter looked at, only at conservatories. However, as I said before, to help her application, she did sent scores and CD’s. But that was optional. I can’t imagine that you will find that most schools want auditions for a BA in music.</p>

<p>For conservatories, are you sure you aren’t misinterpreting the word “audition” for composers? You do attend an audition, but it consists of an interview, perhaps a review of your scores and CD’s, and sometimes a placement exam or composition assignment. But at many conservatories, it is not a performance audition with an instrument. They will specify an instrumental audition required, so forgive me if this idea of misinterpreting is way off, just a thought.</p>

<p>I think you should give Oberlin a shot, honestly. It is close and they are trying to change, and you may learn to like some of the offerings there. You could apply to both the college and the conservatory, and move from one to the other once you are clearer on what you want to do, and if you did not, say, get into the conservatory (and you probably have a good shot at it anyway), you would certainly get into the college, and work your way into the conservatory later. Bard would be another great choice. Ithaca, Lawrence, Hartt have conservatories. Near you, LAC’s like Grinell, Kenyon, MacAlaster, Carleton-???</p>

<p>If composition is your focus, you can pursue that at a liberal arts college or conservatory. There are differences of course, but it would probably be wise to apply to both.</p>

<p>Honestly, if you don’t yet have recordings ready, it is going to be tough to get portfolios done for conservatories. It takes time to make the portfolios, which entail copying and binding and labeling and keeping things organized. But maybe you have plans in the next week or so to get the recordings done.</p>

<p>Besides" Colleges that Change Lives," we found Pope’s other book, “Beyond the Ivies” helpful, but most helpful was a handy book called “Creative Colleges” with info on music, art, theater, dance and writing programs at all kinds of schools.</p>

<p>Sorry this is rambling. I got interrupted a few times. Good luck!</p>

14

<p>Sorry, I think I misunderstood the word ‘audition’! I’m working on getting recordings done in the near future, although I anticipate I’ll have some difficulty getting the scores bound and whatnot. Thank for all the help and support, I hope I’m not being a bother!</p>

15

<p>Oh, I’m glad that hunch was right. Don’t worry about getting them bound. Just go to a copy place and they can do it. Then just write or put a label on the front. People here can give you advice on that when you are ready.</p>

16

<p>A very important thing to keep in mind for a composition major is how well the student works with the professor he/she will be studying with. Although we always stress the student/teacher relationship, in composition more often than not the student will be writing “in the style of” the teacher for at least the first year or two. So not only is personality and teaching style important, knowing about writing style is too.
That makes applications dicey, because you might mesh with a teacher at a school you wouldn’t imagine getting into or the teacher at a relative “safety” school might not be a good match at all.
If you’re looking at schools in Ohio, put CIM on your list. It’s a very small dept, but well thought of.</p>

17

<p>The USC Thornton School of Music has a top notch composition faculty. The department chair is Donald Crockett. Other facutly members with national reputations are Morten Lauridsen, National Medal of Arts holder, Frank Ticheli, Stephen Hartke, Fred Lesemann, Erica Mull and William Biersach for electronic music. This may be my opinion, but I would not call this department a mid-level choice.</p>

<p>The Thornton School of Music is within the university. It is necessary to be admitted to USC as well as Thornton.</p>

18

<p>@GeorgiaGirl - USC is a top-notch composition program - with some of the best faculty in the country, no doubt about it. But compared to some other programs it is quite large. They used to enroll eight undergrad composers per year - which means 32 undergrads in all. Plus all the graduate composers. Admittedly, other top programs like Indiana and Michigan also enroll so many composers - and UMKC even more. But compared to places the OP mentioned like Curtis which only accepts 1-2 composers per year - USC has better admission odds! This is not to denigrate the program at all.</p>