Top Music Schools: Opinions Wanted

In no particular order:

Juilliard, Eastman, Oberlin, Peabody, Indiana University, Rice, Curtis, Manhattan School of Music, Colburn, New England Conservatory, Boston University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Cincinatti Conservatory of Music, Northwestern.

In my opinion, the best schools for bass are Curtis, Rice, NEC, BU, IU, CCM, CIM and maybe Colburn.

There's a bunch of different ways to rank schools. If you're shopping, the best things to look at are (1) who the teachers are and (b) how many/what jobs their graduates are getting. Some schools have better records than others.

 

all you need to know.

 

Are you looking for jazz or classical (or both)?

 

If you're looking for jazz bass don't forget Purchase! Todd Coolman, Doug Weiss and Kermit Driscoll all in the same place!:scowl:

 

University of North Texas in Denton - particularly for jazz.

 

i would also include USC among the top bass schools. Dennis Trembley and David Allen Moore are in the LA Phil, Nico Abondolo is top call for film scores, and John Clayton is John Clayton.

 

Berklee and University of North Texas (North Texas State).

 

I would also recommend Bowling Green State U. in Bowling Green, Ohio. The program there is great, and you'd also be near my father, who is a great teacher.

 

I did a degree there. They had a wonderful music building (approx.shaped like a piano). It was a pretty awful town though. Bereft of any good local places to play out, or go hear live music except on campus.

 

Toledo is 20 minutes away, Detroit about an hour, as is Cleveland. That's two large cities and one medium within 1/4 tank of gas. There is kind of a bizarre culture there that seems to want to ignore the rest of the world, though. You'd have to rise above that.

 

Don't forget Ann Arbor. But Bowling Green itself was a miserable place to spend time.

 

There is a lot going on in Ann Arbor. I never went up there too much. With Rusty's in Toledo I never had to venture too far, unless for work. I played Detroit some, but Cleveland a lot.

 

Hey Paul, I always thought that 1 was followed by 2. I've been out of the loop. When did it change?

On the basis of (b), you have to have Manhattan School of Music in the top group. At least that's how it was a couple of years ago.

 

I checked the list of audition winners on this forum, and only found one name attached to Manhattan.

 

How about members of the Met, NY Philharmonic, and Chicago Lyric - to name only a few...

 

When did the members of those orchestras go to Manhattan? Was it recently, or 40 years ago? I was under the impression that the question pertained to what schools are like today.

 

Well David Grossman went to MSM pre-college then Juilliard and Dan Keckler (sp?) went to Manhattan.

 

David Grossman's teacher (pre-Levinson) was Linda McKnight of MSM. She also taught John Feeney (principal, St. Luke's), who as a teenager beat Edgar Meyer in a competition. MSM has a formidable bass faculty.

 

What you also have to take into consideration is what the programs in the school are like such as the orchestras and non-bass related classes. For this reason I would rank a lot of places higher than schools that might attract people with teachers like BU or USC. You have to consider what you'll get out of performance experiences. I'm sure that you'll learn more playing under Otto Werner Mueller than you will under most people for example.