<p>Hey !!</p>
<p>Me again, still wondering where I'll apply.
So, here is the thing :</p>
<p>I went to a music intensive course this summer. It was really great, everyone was always working, like really passionate about learning how to play better. It was so motivating ! We were allowed to play from 7 AM to 10 PM. Students could perform every week, there were almost always available pianists, and we were eating with the teachers at the end of the day. They would tell us things about them learning music, or things about composers, give us general tips about practicing, well, you see the thing. I dream of studying in the kind of environement, where you are really and fully nurture, musically and academically.</p>
<p>Do you know any school like that ?</p>
<p>There are many, many, music schools and all go about their business in unique ways. You need to give us a whole lot more to go on if anyone is going to be able to offer advice. What is your instrument or voice type, what is your level/ability as determined by teachers, judges,etc? What do you want to do with your life? Are you committed to a career in music or do you want another job and to keep music in your life as a hobby?How long have you studied? Location- what continent, country? How old are you? Which appeals more to you, a conservatory, music study within a large university or smaller college?
Ultimately, we can’t tell you where you should attend school. A GOOD school will give you precisely what you mentioned (although, maybe not the dining with the profs!), but it will be up to YOU to seek out what you need and reach out for it. If you can answer some of the questions I listed, I’m sure that you’ll get some information about schools you might want to look at.</p>
<p>I don’t know about conservatories, but at a lot of LACs we’ve been looking at, they’re promoting a program where students can “take a professor out to dinner” as a way of building community. (Reminder to self: offer to be test subject for similar program at my organization.) ;-)</p>
<p>stradmom, remember, when you write your bio to include yourself on the list of those willing to take part, make sure you specify that the meal can not come in a paper bag, nor may the waiter inquire,“Would you like fries with that?”!</p>
<p>I have a similar proposal in the works to volunteer to do on-site visitation for our students doing study abroad, especially the Caribbean marine biology class…</p>
<p>Bass-
Others have raised good points about how to go about this (and I am sure some of the other will buzz in, especially Violadad who seems keeper of the font around here of the threads that have come before:).</p>
<p>I want to add something else, that I doubt you will find a music program that matches what you had at the music festival you were at, music festivals are short term, special places that range from almost summer camp style of existence to Paris Island a la musique…music schools are like other schools, with a lot of students, doing all kinds of things, bureacracies and simply life that would make recreating such an experience at a college/conservatory difficult. Doesn’t mean there won’t be elements of what you are seeking (like a group of students truly eager to do music and share it with others), or that you won’t find a group within a larger community like that, or perhaps other elements (though professors sitting at dinner talking about music, I suspect isn’t going to happen too often, especially at big programs like Juilliard, NEC or the like…the profs besides teaching are also performing musicians, teachers of private students, etc…). I would be worried that you might take a wonderful experience like you had, where music turned magical for you, and assume it will always be like that, and then get disappointed that nothing matched that expectation. </p>
<p>It is sort of like what a chamber musician told me, he said that at times you get that magic performance with a magic group on a magic night, and it is like heaven on earth, then the next time you play you kind of wish you had missed the plane and weren’t able to get there in time…but music like everything else is about ups and downs, it is about compromises and reasonable expectations:).</p>
<p>I wish you luck on your journey, and may that feeling about music stay strong!</p>