<p>I am a serious musician and I'm thinking of playing in an ensemble in college. I was wondering what colleges have the best orchestras/conductors/overall ensemble experience. I'm not looking at conservatories, but rather double majoring in music along with something else.</p>
<p>I don’t know if there’s any actual ranking of orchestras. I would rather look at the schools you’re considering and try to talk to the orchestra directors and possibly players about their experience.</p>
<p>In my experience, there can be quite a large amount of variance between music programs and orchestras at different colleges. Where at some colleges the level is quite high, at others they aren’t very impressive at all, and may remind you more of a high school orchestra. Some schools have one ensemble reserved for music majors and one for other players, while some combine the two.</p>
<p>I’ve really enjoyed majoring in music at Brown, and here we have a very small music department. Only perhaps 10-20% of the players in the orchestra here are music majors, but the level is incredibly high (for recordings, you can go here: [Brown</a> University Department of Music](<a href=“Music | Brown University”>Music | Brown University)). Feel free to contact me with any other questions!</p>
<p>Thank you so much! I just listened to all three of the videos on the website, and they are INCREDIBLE. Brown is actually one of my top-choice schools anyway, but I wasn’t sure of the strength of their music program. How has your experience been with the music department/ its professors and the university in general? </p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>I agree that the best thing to do is make a longer list of universities based on academic/social criteria, and then investigate the orchestras, rather than the other way around. Don’t forget to look at the smaller ensembles – at Harvard, for example, many of the best musicians were more into chamber music than symphonies, so the Bach and Mozart Societies attracted a number of the strongest instrumentalists some years. Most larger universities will have several strong ensembles.</p>
<p>You might look at Lawrence, Oberlin, and St. Olaf, for LACs with excellent academics and music. The first two have conservatories, but I’m pretty sure you can double major.</p>
<p>Rice, but it is a performance major.</p>
<p>You might consider posting this in the Music Major forum.</p>
<p>Schools that often attact excellent nonmajor musicians include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago etc. Some LACs also have relatively high level musicians, which could translate into strong orchestras. A number of schools with attached conservatories also have nonmajor/noncon orchestras, including Bard and Oberlin.</p>
<p>Depending on your instrument and interest, there might also be ample chamber music opportunities available.</p>
<p>I have listened to many performances by some of the schools I’m interested in. In particular, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Brown, USC, and University of Michigan stand out to me the most. I love some of the liberal arts schools, like Swarthmore, Pomona, Carleton, and Reed, except I’m afraid that their orchestras may not be as strong because they are smaller schools. Is this generally true for smaller institutions?</p>
<p>Bumping :)</p>
<p>[Gettysburg</a> College - Gettysburg College Symphony Orchestra](<a href=“http://www.gettysburg.edu/sunderman_conservatory/ensembles/orchestra/]Gettysburg”>http://www.gettysburg.edu/sunderman_conservatory/ensembles/orchestra/)</p>
<p>Furman University in South Carolina has an amazing orchestra and music department, I am told.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt has a rather infamous Music School and Orchestra.</p>
<p>Davidson College also has a very good orchestra.</p>
<p>Time for me to shamelessly advertise the oft-overlooked Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State.
[Mary</a> Margaret Johnson - J.S.Bach Concerto in D minor BWV 1052 ( I. Allegro) - YouTube](<a href=“Mary Margaret Johnson - J.S.Bach Concerto in D minor BWV 1052 ( I. Allegro) - YouTube”>Mary Margaret Johnson - J.S.Bach Concerto in D minor BWV 1052 ( I. Allegro) - YouTube)
[Beethoven's</a> 5th mvmt 4 - Timpanist view - YouTube](<a href=“Beethoven's 5th mvmt 4 - Timpanist view - YouTube”>Beethoven's 5th mvmt 4 - Timpanist view - YouTube)
[Ravel-</a> Daphnis and Chloe (part 2), Appalachian Symphony Orchestra - YouTube](<a href=“Ravel- Daphnis and Chloe (part 2), Appalachian Symphony Orchestra - YouTube”>Ravel- Daphnis and Chloe (part 2), Appalachian Symphony Orchestra - YouTube)
I wish I had more videos to show. Just wanted to point out another great NC option besides Davidson.</p>
<p>Indiana University</p>
<p>All of the orchestras everyone’s mentioned sound really good and appear to have good programs. </p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about any of the liberal art schools, though? Particularly Swarthmore, Pomona, and Carleton?</p>
<p>There are many threads and a lot of past wisdom about this subject in the Music Major Forum - lots of information for anyone, not just those majoring in music. Do a search of the forum with the word “orchestra” in the Thread Title and you’ll find lots of information. Here’s one, for instance: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/634244-college-orchestras.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/634244-college-orchestras.html</a></p>
<p>Those who post on the Music Major forum are very generous about sharing what they know about studying and playing music in college- whether as a performance major pursuing a BM or someone just playing music on the side - much more so than here in a general forum.</p>
<p>I know Pomona has a small orchesta and a few other music ensembles that are not too rigorous. They are combination courses between all of the Claremont schools too, so you’ll see students from each of the schools. My sister was in a non-audition ensemble, but I don’t know what it was called, sorry.</p>