Strong LAC + Blues = ?

College Majors Music Major
1

Would love thoughts on strong liberal arts schools with opportunities to play blues/jazz. My son is a very talented blues guitarist considering studying pre-law with a possible music minor, and wishes to have the opportunity to play with like-minded musicians both on and off campus. GPA 94.5 taking APs and honors level classes, elected a ‘prefect’ (school leader) by school community for his senior year, Nat’l Honor Society, member of Honor Council, varsity athlete, tour guide. Working on getting his scores up this summer although SAT/ACT tests are not his strong suit.

A merit scholarship would be awesome but not critical. My initial research shows most scholarships are geared toward classical musicians. Thank you!

2

Hamilton offers a good participatory jazz presence from what I’ve heard, and had B.B. King speak on campus at one time. The local area would not be famous for jazz, but off-campus opportunities could nonetheless be researched. Hamilton would be tops for pre-law.

3

Rhodes College in -why not?- Memphis.

4

I would look at the Little Ivies (an informal grouping of top LAC’s) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ivies
Many of these have excellent music departments and will even find a teacher.

Another resource is Colleges that Change Lives- a website,national fair, and, originally, a book by Loren Pope.

There is an excellent book entitled “Creative Colleges” that I found useful and is apparently still available online.

For schools that de-emphasize or don’t require test scores, http://fairtest.org/university/optional Many of the most selective schools are on this list, including little Ivies like Tufts, Middlebury, Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Bates, Wesleyan etc. Hamilton is of that caliber too.

I know a jazz musician who went to Tufts and majored in sciences but did a lot of gigging and may have intersected with friends in the NEC double degree program there.

As I wrote in your other thread, I am not sure what “pre-law” means, because students can major in anything and go to law school. In fact music majors do well with admissions to professional schools. Does he want to do history, or economics, or something else? Or is he looking for specific law- oriented programs?

Let us know his preferred location, size (it would seem small is the top choice), academic major, and “vibe.”

There are some great schools in all parts of the country so I didn’t mean to focus on the Northeast :slight_smile:

And, yes, once again, the Double Degree Dilemma is useful for some- an essay posted up top on this forum.

5

Wesleyan’s jazz program is pretty well known within the industry. A junior faculty member recently won a Macarthur (Genius Award) Fellowship:
https://www.middletownpress.com/middletown/article/Wesleyan-University-music-professor-wins-12290678.php

6

I don’t know of any LACs that are specifically known for a jazz/blues scene. If I had to find some, I might start by looking into LACs that are noted as being particularly urban, or particularly funky, or both. This would thin it out quite a bit, because many LACs are neither particularly urban nor particularly funky.

Possible candidates might include Occidental (both), Macalester (both), Reed (both), Wesleyan (funky), Oberlin (funky), or Rhodes (urban).

7

Wesleyan doesn’t have a jazz program per se, that I can find anyway. It is best known for its focus on world music http://www.wesleyan.edu/music/aboutmajor.html

There are a couple of jazz courses listed and 4 jazz ensembles/orchestras. It is a great school for music if you are interested in diverse musical genres, from many different cultures.

The faculty member cited, Tyshawn Sorey, like George Lewis at Columbia, Vijay Iyer at Harvard, and others who are listed as colleagues, are hard to pigeon hole as strictly jazz since they are also involved in experimental and “new” (contemporary classical ) music areas as well. Sorey would be a wonderful professor to study with.

8

The University of Puget Sound could be another “both”. UPS is a largish LAC (despite the name) in the Seattle metro area (actually Tacoma). They are funky and appear to have a large music program, including jazz.

https://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/undergraduate/music/ensembles/instrumental-groups/jazz/

9

A potential problem with U.of Puget Sound is that they have a School of Music with a BM degree. Sometimes that means the non-music majors have fewer or lesser opportunities in terms of teachers and performances. Sometimes not, but it is worth checking out. https://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/undergraduate/music/at-a-glance/ It IS a liberal arts environment. There IS a minor in music.

I see a couple of jazz courses, one history class that mentions blues, and a few jazz orchestra or ensemble entries. Almost all schools will have extracurricular jazz. Puget Sound;s curriculum is mostly traditional classical though.

For purposes of contrast, Lewis and Clark is a liberal arts college with a BA program in their music department (as opposed to school of music). https://college.lclark.edu/departments/music/ The linked page mentions jazz musicians right away along with a diverse set of interests. This would have 1/4=1/3 classes in music for a music major as opposed to the 2/3-3/4 for a BM. Since there is no BM program, the best opportunities would be available to all students in terms of performance, I would think.

These are West Coast schools obviously but there are numerous possibilities in all parts of the country. Urban or near urban might be best but there might be exceptions to that too.

10

Wesleyan is a liberal arts college. Its emphasis is always going to be on seeking broad connections between highly specialized disciplines. Thus, I always have to be careful when describing “2 or 3 courses” as a " program ". African American music, of which jazz is certainly a variety, is an integral part of Wesleyan 's wide-ranging and well-regarded music program.

Within the department, I believe Professor Sorey would be in the direct line of succession of retired professor, Anthony Braxton, a previous MacArthur winner who was likewise difficult to pigeonhole, but who was certainly comfortable in the jazz idiom and indeed mentored more than his share of future jazz musicians during his tenure.

11

Wesleyan definitely has great jazz faculty and an atmosphere conducive to collaboration.

Hamilton has one really amazing jazz prof, Doc Woods, but the school is super small and he told my jazz guitarist son that he would have to travel to Syracuse to get the level of play he was looking for. He gave my son an amazing two hour lesson when we visited.

Our son ended up deciding to go the BM route with a double major in Math at USC. USC has great jazz/blues/rock/world music profs and they offer a BA in Jazz Studies which allows quite a bit of flexibility to take courses outside of music.

12

Oberlin College in Ohio
https://www.oberlin.edu/conservatory/divisions/jazz-studies
Lawrence University in Wisconsin https://www.lawrence.edu/conservatory/areas_of_study/jazz_improvisational_music/degree_requirements/degrees
Bard in NY
http://music.bard.edu/jazz/
All three are liberal arts colleges with music conservatories

13

It would seem that the original poster would want to check the schools listed above by Sue 22 to see if the best opportunities go to the BM students, since he wants to do pre-law and at the most minor in music. The extracurricular opportunities, on and off campus, would seem to be the priority and many liberal arts colleges without conservatories might fit the bill better.

But check the details for each school above: every school is different. For instance, the Bard Jazz Program is not in the conservatory. It looks great.

The Oberlin and Lawrence links above are for conservatory programs, meaning 2/3-3/4 classes in music, so would not seem to fit the goals of the OP unless they change.

14

Bard Jazz does look good and it is a regular music major, not in the conservatory as @compmom said. Lots of arty music types at Bard!

15

Besides music what other things is your son looking for in a college? Small versus Large, Urban vs College Town, East Coast vs West Coast, Competitive vs Less Competitive, Seminar classes vs Lecture classes, Progressive Liberal vs Conservative, Sports?, etc…all those things should play a role in his making his decision. The important thing is for him to land at a school where he can explore all the things he wants to explore (including with his music and his interest in law) while also socially happy and comfortable.

I can speak for the East Coast in that our high school had a very competitive and successful Jazz program and every year there were talented Jazz musicians who went off to LACs. Many continued to play, some are now professional musicians despite not attending conservatory. The schools they tend to go to are:
U of Michigan
U of Massachusetts
Northeastern
Northwestern
Tufts
Brown
Harvard
Columbia
NYU
New School
Reed
Oberlin
University of Rochester
McGill
Emerson
Wheaton in Norton MA
Clark University
Wesleyan

16

Glad Clark was mentioned, a great schools that is often missed. One of the Colleges that Change Lives. The CTCL website can be a great resource, by the way.