<p>Participation in ensembles varies from program to program. For most, if you’re a music major, then you automatically can perform in the college’s ensembles, sometimes are even required to. If you’re talking about a School of Music or Conservatory, however, within a college - that will vary from school to school. For instance, at Bard Conservatory, conservatory composers do not play in the conservatory orchestra without a special very competitive audition, but are welcome in the college orchestra - which is open to all students (although an audition is required for that, as well - just not to the higher standards of playing of the conservatory orchestra.) At many schools, everyone is welcome to audition for all the ensembles, regardless of majors. There is almost always, even with the universities with Schools of Music/Conservatories, separate ensembles open to the rest of the student body.</p>
<p>Can I still participate in ensembles as a theory major/minor?
You can at USC. An audition is required of course.</p>
<p>Jimi, University of Michigan is another school that has neuroscience undergrad, and grad program plus an outstanding conservatory and excellent theory faculty. (Not to mention occasional preferential admits to its med school by students who achieve at a particular level as a UMich undergrad…)</p>
<p>From the school of music standpoint, there are two approaches:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>BMUS in theory, in which case neuro would need to be a second degree…no cakewalk, I am sure…</p></li>
<li><p>Bachelor of Musical Arts, in which your theory concentration can be paired with a cognate field of study (neuro is in LSA)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Here’s a link if you’d like more info. Dual degrees at UMich are not for the feint of heart…but you sound genuinely passionate about your fields of study, so I suspect you’d enjoy…and if you didn’t, both LSA and SOM are very very strong places to land if you ended up choosing differently!</p>
<p>[UM</a> School of Music, Theatre & Dance - Department of Music Theory - Degree Programs](<a href=“http://www.music.umich.edu/departments/mustheory/bm.htm]UM”>http://www.music.umich.edu/departments/mustheory/bm.htm)</p>
<p>Composition and theory students who pass the audition can also play in NEC ensembles. Our son played violin and viola in NEC chamber quartets all four years so far. He also played both instruments in the Tufts Symphony Orchestra. He could never make the NEC orchestras work with his very full schedule.</p>
<p>It is particularly tough to pair NEC orchestra with Tufts lab sciences as they are scheduled at the same time.</p>
<p>Hello Jimi,</p>
<p>I found this page trying to look for relevant graduate programs for me, but I am currently majoring in both Music (BA) and Neuroscience (BS) at Drake University in Des Moines, IA. We have a strong music program and I think part of the reason our science programs are so good is because we have one of the most competitive PharmD programs. I know at least at Drake it is possible to do this in four years. I know the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota also has really solid programs in Music and Nsci but I don’t know if you can do it in four years.</p>
<p>My son will be a dual degree (physics - music performance) student in a 5 year program. Something to consider about schools such as Eastman/Rochester and Peabody/Johns Hopkins is the fact that classes are taken at two totally separate campuses. Students must take a shuttle between the two campuses. While this is very possible, it makes for creative scheduling, especially when lab science classes are involved. </p>
<p>In addition, my son found that, when visiting music programs, several of his potential professors were not very supportive of dual degree students if one of the degrees was outside of the field of music. They were very honest and said that scheduling becomes too difficult and fragmented. They advised my son to think long and hard about a music performance/science combination IF he wanted to study with them. We appreciated the honesty.</p>
<p>Look into Oberlin College. Science department highly rated. Neuroscience degree can be used toward Pre-Med.
Conservatory has a new state-of-art Jazz Building. Many Conservatory students double major in Neuroscience. Faculty is excellent.</p>