I'd like to hear opinions on the best places for a double bassist to study. Your top 5 or 10 schools. Why are they the best? Did you go there? I'm looking for all of the things that go into making the school the best. Instructor, location, surroundings, atmosphere, etc. Also what schools should a double bassist avoid and why?
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Double Bass Top schools for bassists
- Thread starter Barongket
- Start date
This will go well. Why won't you try and search the forums for that topic, since it's been debated for years and years and years. The audition winners thread is also particularly useful; KPO has even annotated the list with the schools they studied at.
Curtis.
It really depends on a lot of things, there is no "best", just which school youll be able to work the best at.
It really depends on a lot of things, there is no "best", just which school youll be able to work the best at.
I've been looking into colleges going into auditions this year and I'm also interrested in peoples thoughts. Here's a good list of schools that I'm considering in alphabetical order:
Boston U- great bass program, faculty on the Boston symphony orchestra. I've noticed the orchestral excerpt isb competition has been won by primarily bu students.
Cleveland institute of music- smaller bass program, great faculty with Max Dimoff and Scott Dixon.
Curtis Institute of music- definately the most selective of the schools, only 7 bass players and low acceptance rates. Has quite the dream faculty with Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer also teaches occasionally.
Eastman- seems like a solid bass program, Vandemark has a reputation of teaching great bassists and Zimmerman, one of the better teachers of our time was a long time teacher.
Rice- the first choice among many grad as well as undergrad students. One of the most solid grad programs in the country.
Indiana U- deinately the largest of the schools with 40-something bass players. Also has a fantastic faculty, even though Hurst is retiring I'm sure somebody great will be brought in with their resources.
Michigan State- definately a "bass school", the bass program exceeds the rest of the music department from my understanding and definately some great teaching from Budow.
NEC- another good bass performance school in Boston. Haven't looked to much into it, I'll know more after my audition.
I know I'm leaving some out but these are the places I've looked into, I don't know if that helps.
Boston U- great bass program, faculty on the Boston symphony orchestra. I've noticed the orchestral excerpt isb competition has been won by primarily bu students.
Cleveland institute of music- smaller bass program, great faculty with Max Dimoff and Scott Dixon.
Curtis Institute of music- definately the most selective of the schools, only 7 bass players and low acceptance rates. Has quite the dream faculty with Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer also teaches occasionally.
Eastman- seems like a solid bass program, Vandemark has a reputation of teaching great bassists and Zimmerman, one of the better teachers of our time was a long time teacher.
Rice- the first choice among many grad as well as undergrad students. One of the most solid grad programs in the country.
Indiana U- deinately the largest of the schools with 40-something bass players. Also has a fantastic faculty, even though Hurst is retiring I'm sure somebody great will be brought in with their resources.
Michigan State- definately a "bass school", the bass program exceeds the rest of the music department from my understanding and definately some great teaching from Budow.
NEC- another good bass performance school in Boston. Haven't looked to much into it, I'll know more after my audition.
I know I'm leaving some out but these are the places I've looked into, I don't know if that helps.
Just take a lot of lessons and visit a lot of places. Don't write off schools just because some 16 year old on the internet doesn't think they fit his/her standards.
I think that what he meant was that, while there is no universal "best choice," there many be individual "best choices."
It was meant to be a form of sarcasm, as while curtis is considered by many to be the "best", it may not be the right fit for a lot of people (if you could somehow get in)
Regardless, the point to be made here is that there is no "best" school for everyone. Or in my case, three "best" schools that i cant decide between...
Most audition winners in the past 10-15 years have come out of Rice and IU, but it's more important who your private teacher is than the school they're teaching at.
When I was there auditioning for the jazz program, I think I heard something about Budrow retiring pretty soon.
Yeah, That's completely not true to my knowledge. I studied with him this summer at Interlochen, and then visited him this fall at MSU, and at no point did he even mention retiring. He is still recruiting for his already large studio, which I don't think he would be doing if he planned on retiring.
Well Prof. Hurst at IU announced his retirement completely without warning; he heard all the auditions and recruited me and others to be in his studio this year, only to announce that it would be his last once semester started. Not saying it would be the same with Budrow, only something to mention.
@AClark. Hey it is Nick Blackburn, your stand partner from all state last year! Here is my plug for CCM and why I chose to go there. Al Laszlo is an amazing teacher who uses violin pedagogy, basic physics, and common sense to explain double bass playing. Taking from him for only the past month has improved my playing a lot. He also is very supportive and is helping me apply for summer fellowships and prepare for different auditions. The studio here also plays at a very high level. It is nice to come in as a freshman and know you are at the bottom. Two sophomores here got jobs in the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, one being appointed principal. We also have members of the Lexington Philharmonic and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra as students here. Also if you are from Louisville you get in state tuition!
