<p>I am an undergrad student in music theory/composition. I have been excelling in all of my music courses and especially love music theory and music history. Recently, I have realized that I have a very strong interest in going to graduate school for music (probably composition, but definitely not performance).</p>
<p>How do Northwestern and University of Chicago compare to each other for grad music programs? The only other school very strong in my mind is U of Iowa, but if I go to grad school, I think I want to be in the Chicago area.</p>
<p>I would especially appreciate insight from any current music students/graduates of these schools.</p>
<p>Northwestern and U of Chicago are both top schools for graduate work in music. You can’t go wrong with either one of them. Chicago is probably considered a notch better for academic music programs - theory, composition and musicology. Composer Shulamit Ran is at Chicago, Charles Rosen was there for years. Northwestern is much stronger in performance, which you say isn’t your concern, but has to be a positive for composition students wanting their pieces to be performed. I don’t know anything about U of Iowa, sorry!</p>
<p>The music dept at Chicago is stronger, as a whole, than Northwestern’s, but it is true that we do not have a performance degree program and Northwestern has a School of Music so that is an important difference. We do have a great composition faculty at Chicago though. Besides Shulamit Ran, we also have Marta Ptaszynska who’s great, Kotoka Suzuki, Howard Sandroff, and John Eaton, as well as Augusta Read Thomas who will be joining the faculty in the autumn.</p>
<p>Hi OP,
We highly recommend Northwestern Bienen SOM, in general. Incidentally, they are going to build a glamorous new music building on the lake.
Not certain about your specific needs - therefore recommend visiting - easy enough to visit both schools in one trip.
City of Chicago is certainly an outstanding place to be for musicians - that is clear</p>