My son wants to someday be a conductor. He has actually organized his own chamber orchestra here in SF to learn to conduct but he’ll have to wait until his MA to study formally. He is a good cellist and strong academically. His conducting mentor/teacher recommends him go to a good liberal arts college or ivy league to be as well educated as possible before doing an MA in conducting, studying music and liberal arts together. Our solution has been to look for a double degree at colleges with conservatories such as Oberlin, Peabody and Bard to allow him to pursue performance, music theory, etc. as well as a liberal arts degree in either German language or history. The same as everyone else, we’re applying to a lot of schools but these three stand out with their 5 year double degrees. Can anyone who has already done the research and/or chosen one over the other share what you know about these programs in terms of doing a double degree and the strengths of both the conservatory and the liberal arts colleges? Of course financial aid will play a part, too.
As an aside, being in California we’re also looking at more straightforward BM at USC, UCLA and Colburn as well as east coast conservatories. But in this thread we’d like to focus on the double degrees. Thanks in advance!