<p>Hi everyone! I'm a junior and am starting to seriously look at schools. I think that I'd like to major in music, does anyone have experience with the music department at Carleton? I play flute and sing and would like to continue doing music in college even if I don't end up majoring in it. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>My daughter is in the Carleton choir, and just joined an a capella group. The a capella groups are very popular, and there are several of them. They will have auditions shortly after the fall term begins. The choir gives 3 or 4 concerts a year, plus a trip (they just got back from performing in New Orleans). The repertoire is quite diverse - very few "dead white males".</p>
<p>Not sure about instrumentals, though.</p>
<p>It depends on what you want your focus to be.</p>
<p>The music program at Carleton is theoretical and analytical, which can certainly be interesting. But if you like the performance aspect more, you probably won't like Carleton's music major.</p>
<p>I was sort of in a similar situation to you. I wanted to keep playing and singing, but I didn't want to go for a Bachelor of Music or even a music major. </p>
<p>That's a long-winded, convoluted way to say my main point: If you want music to be your focus, you'd probably be happier somewhere else. If you want music to be a side hobby that you enjoy, Carleton might be okay.</p>
<p>Carleton shares some of the private music instructors with St Olaf. Carleton also has had some sort of very generous need based music scholarship program for individual lessons in the past. It is not a conservatory school by a long shot. However, I talked with one Carleton alum that went to D's high school a decade+ before and who, through rigorous self application, became a professor of music in Michigan. </p>
<p>That said, D had some pressure to apply to Julliard etc as the hs band director's best chance in a decade. D has a performance 'wind and 3-4 others for breadth. Her senior year it took 2 months for her to decide that she wasn't a performance music major. This delay was almost fatal to the timing of academic applications due in January, with 5 AP courses weighing also. Basically, it is extremely difficult to marry a BMusic to B-anything else in less than 5 or 6 years at higher level schools (sometimes MMusic). BMusic is a bigger time monopolist than anything I've seen in engineering or architecture programs. (Julliard-Columbia/Barnard, New England Conservatory-Tufts or Harvard, Hopkins-Peabody, Rice-Shepherd, Rochester-Eastman, Case-CIM etc.) Oberlin seemed closest to the possibly shortest, most flexible for an outstanding talent. The BA programs are much less demanding time wise but not much recognized for a musical performance career.</p>
<p>BA Music may be doable as a double major. For now, D is a science major at Carleton without the double major, but has had lessons, and is happy with all her instruments. This summer is definitely the time to try to sort out the possibilities. You might want to look over St Olaf, too which has a HUGE music program and involvement (I believe the statistic is 1 in 3 students participate in music activities). Although it is the flagship Lutheran college, it is open and acceptable to all faiths and backgrounds with a well kempt student body.</p>
<p>You might check out this list too.
<a href="http://www.excel-ability.com/Music/Programs/MusicSchools/MusicSchools-USA.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.excel-ability.com/Music/Programs/MusicSchools/MusicSchools-USA.html</a></p>
<p>An acquaintance of mine majored in music at Carleton. He then applied to a PhD program in music at Yale in Orchestration, was accepted and is now writing music for video games, movies and won the Tony award for The Lion King play. He makes more money then his MD wife! I would say it has a fine music program and the fact that it is theoretically based can be a very positive thing, depending on what you're looking for. If you want to purely be a preformance major though, maybe it isn't the best choice.</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation. I would like to keep up with my instrument, but I don't really want to make it a career. I am actually very interested in the more theoretical parts of music too. Do they have good classes/professors for stuff like music theory?</p>