<p>(This is a re-post...thanks to violadad for guidance in navigating the forums! Thanks also to honestmom and LGSmom for answering deep in one of these other threads. :-))</p>
<p>Hi--forgive me for posting a question that has doubtless been answered many times, but I'm looking for some school suggestions for my junior year son. He's a talented baritone (just performed in All-State) and also plays clarinet, bari sax (and tenor), and acoustic guitar (and banjo), performing in chamber music, jazz band, stage band, chorus and madrigals. His comp teacher says he has a real gift for composition. This same teacher suggests that a conservatory might be too limiting for him (we are close to Boston) and thinks a 4 yr liberal arts school with a strong affiliation with a conservatory (like Oberlin) would be the way to go. </p>
<p>He's smart, intense and self-motivated, but not a flat-out genius--and I think that schools in the south are probably not going to appeal to him (too hot). I've read many of the pages of this particular thread and there's so much information!! Any guidance deeply appreciated. Thank you!</p>
<p>Some schools with good liberal arts programs and strong music schools/conservatories (and not in the South!):<br>
Bard College and Conservatory (btwn 1.5 and 2 hours north of NYC; Bard requires a double degree of its music majors);
Lawrence University and Conservatory (Wisconsin; generally not as selective as Bard but still strong); Case Western University and CIM (while they are separate institutions, they seem to make it easy for students to study at both; CIM is very selective);<br>
Northwestern University with its Bienen School (Chicago),
St. Olaf College (less than an hour south of Minneapolis; very strong choral program and very high participation rate of student body in music; it doesn’t have a free-standing conservatory per se, but its music program is stronger than many schools that do).
DePauw University (Greencastle, Indiana an hour west of Indianapolis; has a school of music that probably is not as strong as any of the aforementioned, but still good; the liberal arts program gets good rankings).
This list obviously is by no means exhaustive, but a starting place. Some of these have either weak or non-existant composition prorams, but I’m not sure how important the composition aspect was. There is a range of selectivity (both academically and musiccally) within these schools.</p>
<p>Also:
University of Rochester & Eastman Conservatory - not just an affiliation; Eastman is part of Rochester. Students at Rochester not in the Conservatory can also take classes and, after audition, private lessons with Eastman graduate students.
Columbia & Juilliard (of course, probably the hardest combination to get into)
Johns Hopkins & Peabody Conservatory</p>
<p>I’ll put in a plug for Temple/Boyer! My son is so happy there that my daughter is reconsidering her former aversion to going to the same school as her brother (she’s not a musician, though).</p>
<p>mtiger, what does your daughter plan to study? One of my daughters just receive acceptance to Tyler as a transfer student and is trying to make a decision. I might PM you…</p>
<p>She is looking at either Bio or Environmental Science, with an eye towards Vet school. She also lives and breathes field hockey, and hopes to continue that in college. PM me if you like.</p>
<p>Peabody (mentioned above) does have composition. It is part of Hopkins but separate. It has its own dorms and is self-contained in a one square block area in Baltimore some blocks from Hopkins. There are buses that run between the campuses and around Baltimore. Students do double major–but not a lot of them.</p>
<p>Are you looking for a double degree program or just a BM where he could take advantage of the academic offerings of the college? Also, is he planning to apply for BM in performance in Voice, or for composition, or neither? It makes a difference for recommendations. For instance, if he plans to major in composition he could consider colleges without a conservatory but with a strong music program like Williams or Swarthmore. And Bard Conservatory does not offer voice, but they do have a strong program in the college itself.</p>
<p>Also, since you’re in Boston, I assume you’ve already considered the Tufts/NEC double degree program?</p>
<p>Just want to point out that many of the conservatories mentioned concentrate their instrumental programs on orchestral instruments, so if he wishes to continue to study baritone, sax, guitar, etc, in addition to composition, he will want to double check opportunities for these instruments.</p>
<p>Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland…
Case also has a very good music program on their own, which might really appeal to a kid who wants opportunities to play/sing in ensembles.</p>
<p>I guess what I’m not clear on is if your S intends to major in something else with a music minor, dual-major in music and something else, or major in music with access to outside interests.</p>
<p>I’m most familiar with the situation at University of Rochester/Eastman. I can tell you that Eastman has a top-ranked theory and comp department and that Eastman students have full access to the entire U-R course catalog. Busses run between the campuses every half hour so it’s not hard to get back and forth. Besides, in Rochester he’d rarely need to worry about the weather being too hot! :)</p>
<p>Thank you all for your excellent suggestions–and to answer your question about majors at this point it’s an unknown–his interests are so eclectic and so passionate that it’s just hard to tell where he will land. I think that’s why his comp teacher thought a university (or liberal arts college) with a conservatory affiliation would be better than a more narrowly focused music school or conservatory. If he could major in something today it would probably be anime and J-pop. </p>
<p>I’ll also add that he’s a natural in word-crafting–creative, debate, you name it. Probably the same part of the brain that’s at work with music composition!</p>
<p>USC and Thornton school should make the list to consider with the added opportunity to collaborate with the film and theatre departments and music programs that range from classical to jazz to popular music. We initially looked at USC, NYU and similar schools for the same broadly creative reasons.</p>
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