Does anyone have any opinions about the music program at St. Olaf college. I got in there for trumpet performance and it is a top choice right now.
I’m from the area and St Olaf is highly regarded as a music school here. I often see teachers/alumni performing in the Twin Cities. Their choirs are highly regarded. I don’t know as much about the instrumental side of things as I focus more on VP and theatre. Still St Olaf is known as a strong music (and academic) school. Congrats on your acceptance!
Their orchestra won an award for best college orchestra in the country last year or the year before. They are REALLY good. Just check out this performance of Mahler 2: http://www.stolaf.edu/multimedia/play/?e=563
Not to disparage St Olaf’s orchestra at all, I have no idea of the quality, but be careful of listing awards without full info.
The American Prize awarded to St Olaf in 2013 was granted by this organization:
The American Prize is “administered by Hat City Music Theater, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Danbury, Connecticut The American Prize was founded in 2009 and is awarded annually.The American Prize is a series of new, non-profit national competitions in the performing arts providing cash awards, professional adjudication and regional, national and international recognition for the best recorded performances by ensembles and individuals each year in the United States at the professional, college/university, church, community and secondary school levels.” (from The American Prize website)
This was a competition that organizations paid to enter - not an impartial award to “the best college orchestra in the country”. Again, not to take away St Olaf’s accomplishment, but I’m sure there are many, many fine college/university/conservatory orchestras that did not to choose to enter this competition.
OP, have you had a lesson with the trumpet teacher? Ask about the possibilities of playing in orchestra - is that a possibility or can you expect only a band assignment for your first years? Are the instrumental performing organizations mostly made up of music majors or will there be many non-majors? (not that non-majors can’t be very, very good - just good info to have as you make assessments and compare places) Have you heard the trumpet students, the band or the orchestra in person? It’s terrific that you’ve had this acceptance. You can probably arrange to attend some rehearsals and maybe sit in on some lessons to help in making your decision.
All good info, @Momofadult. I can address some of it, because we’ve researched St. O quite a bit. First, fair point about the orchestra award (though they really are very good!). Second, St. O has two bands and two orchestras. A number of brass players play in both a band and an orchestra, though that’s quite a demanding schedule (though entirely manageable, I would imagine, for someone pursuing a B.M. and not a lot of other academic subjects). I’m sure brass spots in the top tier orchestra are quite competitive, and I don’t have any sense of the degree to which seniority plays a role.
There will be a lot of non-majors in the ensembles. One of the things that makes St. O attractive to a certain kind of kid (my son being one of them) is that you can pursue music at a high level there without doing a performance degree or even necessarily majoring in music. That being said, I’m sure the top ensembles have a lot of music majors and music double majors (quite a popular option at St. O) in them.
I know 2 musical kids who went to St Olaf as non music majors. They wanted to participate in the choirs. Within a year both had dropped out of the choirs due to the high level of expectation for participation. One mother told me her D didn’t find that working at that level was fun anymore. My impression has been that you need to be musically talented and dedicated to be performing at St Olaf. I don’t know anything about trumpet but if you connect with the teacher I’m sure you could grow there. In the end look closely at the teacher and performance opportunties at all school with acceptances.