<p>Hi. does anyone know any particularly good professors for piano performance major for the following schools:
Northwestern, Eastman, Oberlin, Univ of Michigan, Indiana, USC, Carnegie Mellon...
Thanks.</p>
<p>Frank Glazer at Eastman, Menahem Pressler at Indiana</p>
<p>Ursala Oppens at Northwestern</p>
<p>tt43vah-There are many fine teachers at each of the schools you mentioned. You will want to read everyone's bios to see whom you feel would fit you best. Another way to see who's students are doing well is to check the competition winners of major college competitions. The same teachers show up every year. Also, check the TCU Cliburn festival site under Young Artists from 2005. <a href="http://www.pianotexas.org/2005/youngartists_participants.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.pianotexas.org/2005/youngartists_participants.asp</a>
These are the up and coming pianists, make note of their teachers and colleges or conservatories.
Some of the most well-known performers are not necessarily the best teachers. Also if you have particular deficiencies you will want to honestly address these with the teachers you meet. Because this relationship is so important, it is essential that you meet with teachers before making a decision. Far more money, time and emotion will be expended if you don't get a good fit.
As for specific teachers, this is highly personal among students but these are the ones our son checked out: U of Mich-Logan Skelton, Eastman-Doug Humphreys, Oberlin - Haewon Song, Alvin Chow, Angela Cheng, Peter Takacs, Robert Shannon.
I hope this helps.</p>
1 Like
<p>I'm a voice major at NU, but I've heard great things about Buccheri from accompanists.</p>
<p>Also perhaps you can ask your private teacher - he or she should know your learning style and personalities well enough to make some recommendations for you, especially if he or she knows some profs from those schools. At the schools you mentioned, the choice of professor depends more on how well you fit with him/her than his/her fame, etc.</p>
<p>Andre Watts at IU.</p>
<p>thanks for your suggestions. they were very helpful.</p>
<p>it depends what you want, also: whether you want someone who has a big name and has connections but may not be able to help you improve as much, or vice versa, not as many connections but who can help you improve a lot. Most teachers are like that, or have neither. One prof who has an equal portion of both is Daniel Pollack at USC. Big name, plus will tell you a bunch of stuff you probably never knew about the piano before.</p>
<p>My son is a Junior. Excellent grades. Also studies piano in well regarded conservatory. He wants to continue studying music but also wants to get a BA. He will be applying to joint programs at Columbia- Juilliard, Harvard- NEC & JHU/Peabody. Does anyone have feedback on piano performance undergrad degree at: Oberlin, Stanford, Rice, McGill, Carnegie-Mellon, Yale, Northwestern,Williams, Swarthmore, Dartmounth, Vanderdilt, Weslleyan, Bowdoin, Duke, Columbia, Princeton? Is there an exchange between UPenn & Curtis? How good is BaRD in Academics?</p>
<p>My son is at Bard (in the conservatory). He had the academics to go anywhere and I was concerned that the peer level would not be up to his weight. I was mistaken! Both the students and the professors are fantastic. Some amazing folks teach at Bard. Probably more MacArthur fellows than anywhere (ok - I have no facts for that.) Some of the top intellectual minds in the New York region find their way to Bard to teach. Definitely check it out.</p>
<p>I think this is the best thread on CC discussing what makes Bard unique: <a href=āhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/bard-college/814857-i-dont-get.html[/url]ā>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/bard-college/814857-i-dont-get.html</a></p>
<p>And, for piano, I donāt think you canāt quibble with the professors: Richard Goode, Peter Serkin, Jeremy Denk, & Melvin Chen.</p>
<p>Curtis students can take Penn courses, but not the other way around, and thereās no double degree.
I think the list of schools you asked for feedback on can be broken into categories. Iāve included some feedback on particular schools along the way.</p>
<p>Great music schools: Rice, Northwestern, Oberlin</p>
<p>Pretty good music schools: McGill (may belong a category up, not sure about the piano department), Carnegie-Mellon (have not heard good things from pianists there), Vanderbilt (the least prestigious of these programs, but one thatās growing rapidly and seems to do a good job with students)</p>
<p>Liberal arts programs with vast opportunities for performers: Yale, Columbia</p>
<p>Liberal arts programs with strong musical resources but not conservatory-caliber opportunities: Stanford, Swarthmore, Williams, Wesleyan, Princeton (Princeton is making a concerted effort to climb up a category)</p>
<p>Liberal arts programs without great performance resources: Duke, Dartmouth, Bowdoin</p>
<p>I hope this helps. Please understand that this is a very general list, and Iām not a pianist; for all I know, thereās a terrific piano teacher at Duke or Dartmouth or Bowdoin.</p>
<p>fiddlefrog has a great list. In addition to those colleges, and bard, thereās CIM/Case, and Peabody/JHU</p>
<p>Iāve heard that although Curtis says that itās possible to take classes at Penn (I believe the suggestion is no more than one per semester, and not starting until after freshman year) - actually doing so can be very difficult and is not actively encouraged.</p>
1 Like
<p>At Northwestern Iām studying with Giles. If you have any questions about NU feel free to ask! I really love the program here! There arenāt a whole lot of people in undergrad piano so youāll definitely get a lot of attention if you come.</p>
<p>McGill has a wider range of music student than Rice, Northwestern or Oberlin, meaning that its weakest music students would be unlikely to gain admittance at those three but its best students are as good or better than the best at NW or Oberlin (and as good as those at Rice but not betterāRice is a very competitive admit for music). Academically the music theory/history etc. at McGill is probably stronger than Rice, NW or Oberlin (S is at McGill and sat in on music classes at one of those aforementioned schools and found them very slow (and a considerable number of the students even slower). He has found challenge at McGill. I would place McGillās Schulich School ahead of Carnegie-Mellon and Vanderbilt in terms of the calibre of average student, but C-M and Vanderbilt certainly have other strengths. </p>
<p>Sara Laimon teaches many of the better piano students at McGill and seems well-liked by them. She taught at Yale for a decade.</p>
<p>Couple of points (not about the specific schools or anything)</p>
<p>-As other have said, people who are great performers donāt necessarily make great teachers, there are top level performers who if conventional wisdom is correct, arenāt great teachers (and likewise, lot of great teachers who arenāt big on the performance side of things necessarily).</p>
<p>-Trying to go for āthe great teacherā may not be a smart strategy (even assuming they are great teachers as well as performers). A lot of teachers at that level still are performing, and they limit the number of students they have. A Jeremy Denk or Meneham Pressler (as hypothetical examples, since I donāt know anything about them) may only have 1 or 2 students they teach at a time, and very likely may have no openings on a given year (always great to inquire of the schools you are interested in, and ask them how many openings a given teacher is expected to have).</p>
<p>-More importantly, the āgreat teacherā might not be right for you, student/teacher relationships are very individual in music instruction, it is more akin to a master/apprentice and so forthā¦a teacher who works great with one person may not work well with another. Just because X taught Jeremy Denk doesnāt mean X is right for the next talented piano student that comes alongā¦you get the idea.</p>
<p>I agree with others, I think it is great to tap into sources like CC, to ask about their impressions, that can help narrow the search, the reputation of a school does have meaning to a certain extent from peopleās experiences, hearing that they have a competitive music performance program or not, for example, is important, as are the reputations of teachers in general. Once you get past that, though, I would recommend strongly, if at all possible, to actually meet the teachers at programs you are thinking about who you think might be a fit, and try a sample lesson, if at all possible. You might find that a teacher with not quite the name works wonders, while the ānameā seems like a mis-match, and it happens (put it this way,a lot of students of āfamous teachersā, often famous because they were great performers) do nothing in the end, and an up and coming teaching turns out incredible performers who end up making waves.Dorothy Delay, who became a demi god in the violin world, was a pretty unknown assistant to Ivan Galamian until she turned out Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, and she became a go to person, to give one example, someone who got her before she became famous was getting a great teacher but simply was unknown:)</p>
<p>from Ursula Oppenās bio:
After 14 years as the John Evans Distinguished Professor of Music at Northwestern University, Ms. Oppens is now a Distinguished Professor on the faculty of Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music and CUNY Graduate Center.</p>
<p>Daniel Pollack is joined at USC by other fine faculty. Chair of the department is Alan Smith. Others are John and Antoinette Perry, Sung Hwa Park, Norman Krieger, Stewart Gordon, Joel Clift and Kevin Fitz-Gerald. For the harpischord is Lucinda Carver.</p>