<p>My D wants to stay on the East coast maybe the NorthEast and get a Masters and eventually a PHD/DMA in composition. Ideally she would also like to continue with classical voice studies too, if a second area or an instrument is permitted. She is majoring in music at a Ivy league university and will have a decent composition portfolio. But she is not getting very much information from the college, perhaps it is because the undergraduate music department is sort of small.</p>
<p>Any suggestions on graduate schools in the North East for composition? Also, does she have to go somewhere for a masters and then go somewhere else for the PHD level?</p>
<p>Plus, do any of the graduate music schools have a reputation for funding their graduate students and which are the most generous?</p>
<p>The most important issue for your daughter is to find a composition teacher whose style is most interesting and inspirational to her. She needs to research living composers, do a lot of listening with an emphasis on genre and style, find out where these composers teach, and THEN check out the schools with which they are affiliated. Funding for graduate music students tends to be low, but those graduate students who can teach lower level music theory courses may have access to more money. (Music is very expensive to teach, all of the one on one instruction, and there are few if any grants given to support professors and their graduate students, unlike the more lucrative science fields.) Good luck to her.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack, but this resonates with me because D2 - the one who’s not a music major - is a junior currently and is making noises about studying music history in grad school. She’s taken some (apparently very inspiring!) music history classes and has done some music performance, but she’s already got two majors outside of music. </p>
<p>Does she need to major in music history in order to pursue this kind of degree? Would she be expected to audition or perform as a grad student?</p>
<p>Yale School of Music and Curtis are both tuition-free…for starters…</p>
<p>any more news on which graduate schools more likely to give good funding for masters in composition-music. We already know about Yale and Curtis. Yale is impossible to get into–we have heard that from many students with amazing credentials. I do not know the statistics re Curtis.<br>
But which grad schools, even PhD programs or DMA programs take students right out of college and give high funding in today’s economic climate? Prefer East coast location.</p>
<p>I don’t think Curtis has a Master’s program in Composition. They have it at the undergrad level and as a diploma program. As far as I know, the only Master’s degree they offer is in their Opera program.</p>
<p>I think the level of financial support will depend on the strength of the candidate. I know of composition graduate students at all the Ivies (not including Yale School of Music,) Northwestern and Michigan who have full institutional support. And I’m sure there are many others, as well (we haven’t gotten to that stage of investigation yet.) But the costs may vary for different students at those same programs - that I don’t know. As for Curtis - yes, it’s a diploma program but composers do go there after receiving an undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>Thank you for the clarification, SpiritManager. The Curtis catalog makes it appear that the Diploma program is a subset of the Bachelor’s program, with diploma candidates required to do a slightly longer concert of their compositions. I didn’t think they would have someone who already had a BM in composition retake undergrad music theory and history classes, so perhaps they allow students like that to place out of those classes and spend most of their time on applied studies in composition. Undergrad theory and history classes would certainly make sense for someone with no degree at all or a degree in a different field.</p>
<p>I don’t know the particulars for the diploma program for composition at Curtis. Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe someone with hands-on knowledge will clarify for us further.</p>
<p>My son is graduating in May with a degree in composition and minors in piano and conducting. He is considering a 1 year degree program at USC in film scoring. Does anyone know anything about the program or anything similar? He wants to compose music for film and already has experience having had two summer internships as well as working with student film makers as an undergrad.</p>
<p>^All I know about that program is that it’s NOT funded and it’s not an actual grad degree so I believe (perhaps erroneously) that it has to be cash-flowed.
NYU has a scoring grad program. UMich has very strong comp grad program with ample opportunities for scoring and several profs who score. Umich funds; not sure about NYU but would suspect it may.
But obviously there would be a decided advantage to the LA locale, which I suspect makes the USC program so attractive.</p>
<p>UCLA also has a graduate film scoring program which rivals the USC one. (And should be cheaper than the 50K+ price tag.)</p>
<p>^Good to know. My son had mentioned UCLA re: MFA but not MMus. Maybe he meant both 
Too soon to tell what he will get up to!</p>
<p>Not sure what the actual degree is at UCLA - just know the program is very well respected & connected to the industry. I’m still mostly at the hearsay stage about all this - and, so far it doesn’t look like that’s the path my S is on.</p>
<p>Temple has a MM and Ph.D. program in composition. I know of at least one vocal performance BM who is in the MM comp. program there.</p>