<p>hkstrpd,</p>
<p>Bard has a new conservatory that appears to want to serve that demographic. Even with some top name teachers, they appear to be having more trouble getting going than one might expect. They are a special case in that they require all music majors to also major in some non-musical field. They also do not yet have a complete symphonic orchestra, which is more important to some students than others.</p>
<p>There are a number of schools that have recently (in relation to the trends you mention) overhauled their performing arts facilities or announced plans to do so - Susquehanna, and the Universities of Maryland and Virginia, to name a few. Oberlin is starting down this road for its Jazz program. Typically, this requires a lot of money either from very large individual gifts or a big special fundraising campaign. A lot of things have to go right to get it to happen, but there are schools out there that have noticed the trends you mention and are trying to do something about it. It takes a while to get the physical plant in place, longer to get a good faculty signed on and longer still to get students to notice and create the critical mass needed to make the program successful. I am not familiar enough with the history of the conservatory at Rice to know how long it took there, or why it may have been quicker to happen there than elsewhere.</p>