Music at Berkeley

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I have some questions about the music program at Berkeley. I play piano and flute and I'd really like to continue in college, but I don't really intend to have a career in music or whatever. So I'd like to know...</p>

<p>1) What are the University Symphony and Wind Ensemble like? I would reallllllllly like to continue playing flute in an orchestra, and seeing that we have to audition to get in, is it difficult to get in?</p>

<p>2) What does being a music minor entail? I want to continue taking private piano lessons, so if I were a music minor, would I still be able to take private lessons with a professor? Or is that only for music majors?</p>

<p>3) I'm currently undecided as far as majors go, but if I were to double major as a music major and something else, how difficult would it be? (Extremely hard question to answer, I know =X!) Maybe I should rephrase that... how difficult is the music major? I'm mostly interested in private lessons and music performance, not particularly in the music theory/history aspect.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance :)</p>

2

<p>i dunno about everything, but for the 1st one, i have two good friends in the orchestra and they love it, it was pretty competitive to get in though. My buddy and i go to their concerts and get rowdy when they finish, it's fun.</p>

3

<p>My kid was in the orchestra for 4 years -- enjoyed it immensely; the conductor, David Milnes, selects challenging pieces and there are several concerts a year, a concerto competition, and noon concert series. You do have to audition to get in. There are no performance major -- lessons are private, though there is a small subsidy for music majors (it was $15 per week...almost nothing). There are many fine teachers in the area, including from the SF Symphony and SF Conservatory; there is a list of local teachers posted in Morrison, but you are not bound to stick with the list. There are chamber music opportunities too, with coaching by local musicians and some instructors. There are also oportunities to play in the orchestra for chorus performances. Another option is to audition for the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra, which accepts students until the are 21 -- it is a first-rate youth orchestra and will be touring next summer -- the tours are spectacular and are heavily subsidized. There is no cost for the YO.
The music department is one of the best in the country -- the undergraduate major requires study of music history, ethnomusicology, and performance. It is "difficult" but you may find it to be well worth it.</p>

4

<p>They say the department focuses on and is strongest in composition, not so much performance.</p>

5

<p>Hey, I'm a music minor and I have taken University Chorus for a few semesters in the past. I assume U-Symphony is similar in its competitiveness. Most people who audition have trained for a number of years and are pretty good, so auditions are pretty difficult. Also, a lot of people who audition are intended double majors (music and another major). But there are quite a few minors as well in the upper divs. </p>

<p>If you are a music minor you can't take lessons for free, but you can pay for them from a private instructor. I don't think you can take it from a professor if you are a minor. </p>

<p>Doubling in music and another isn't that hard. I heard the hardest classes in the Music major deal with Harmony.</p>

6

<p>The Music Department is probably strongest in Music History (Taruskin literally wrote the book on the history of western music), although they have had strong composition as well (it is not, however, the "focus" of the department -- that is clearly musicology, i.e., music history and ethnomusicology). They are a top-ranked graduate school. The undergraduate program has been very rigorous, in terms of requirements for musicianship, though that may be changing.<br>
The faculty do not offer lessons (they do not have performance faculty, except on some keyboard instruments) -- so being a major or minor will not matter -- in any case you have to find a private teacher. And the subsidy is so small that it doesn't really matter either. The price for lessons with a good teacher in the Bay Area are around $100 an hour.<br>
Yes it is competitive to be in the orchestra (many of the top players are/were also in the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra), but there is a wide range of ability; they also bring in ringers sometimes and community members to fill in empty spots, and sometimes the concerto winners are not enrolled at Cal, which means there are opportunities for students out there.</p>

7

<p>i am a music minor and my roommate is a music major, so i've been exposed to the music department here at Cal, either directly or through discussion with my roommate. i guess i'll address your questions the same way you presented them:</p>

<p>1) i've seen the symphony several times, some of my friends are in it, and i plan to audition for percussion sometime in the future. it's an excellent ensemble that plays, like stated before, interesting and challenging pieces. yes, an audition is required, and just like getting onto almost any list at Cal, there is some competition...especially with flute since only two or three are taken.</p>

<p>wind ensemble is another excellent option, especially since the competition for getting in is not as fierce as orchestra, and based on my own personal experiences with the two, wind ensemble tends to be more laid back and demands less time than orchestra.</p>

<p>2) here is the webpage describing the music minor:</p>

<p><a href="http://music.berkeley.edu/minor.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://music.berkeley.edu/minor.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>on it, you'll find the requirements, which consists of 3 lower div classes and 5 upper div (at least one being performance like wind ensemble or symphony)...so that averages to one music class per semester, or so.</p>

<p>it also has information on skipping the lower div classes, if you have the musical proficiency and wish to do that. basically, you can probably skip 20A or both 20A & 20B if you've done a lot of sight singing and solfege...if you don't know what that is, you probably need to take those classes.</p>

<p>and a nice thing, i think, about the music minor is that you don't have to declare it or anything. you just sign up and take your classes and then when you've finished them, you fill out a petition and they award you with your minor...nothing too complicated.</p>

<p>and as for lessons, unfortunately, lessons are only available for music majors. lessons are expensive, and the funding for the music department has recently been cut they've cut down on the number of private lessons they're offering...even to music majors.</p>

<p>3) double majoring is pretty popular among music majors, so with careful planning, it is very reasonable. many students are able to handle both music and another major. however, much like every other major that is a "practice" at Cal (theater, film, architecture to some extent, etc.), there is a focus on theory rather than performance. so although there are many performance opportunities through the music department, the focus is on theory and history and ethnomusicology, which is why you earn a liberal arts degree, a bachelor of the arts degree, as opposed to a bachelor of music degree.</p>

8

<p>once in the practice room hallway, i saw someone crying on her friend because she didn't get into orchestra.</p>

9

<p>how hard is it to place out of the introductory courses? i've completed level X on the certificate of merit, so how well-prepared would i be?</p>

<p>and maybe this question is too vague, but does anyone have any examples of a typical piece a pianist would use for part two of the placement exam?</p>

10

<p>ruyi, you are probably referring to the intro courses for the music major, not the minor. from what i've heard, pretty much everyone takes the intro 49A, B & C classes because no one really passes out of them...i've been told that the theory placement test is one of the most difficult like ever.</p>