Please help! Seeking good grad schools for composition

Warning: longish post ahead.

I was hoping to get some feedback from former and current composition students. I graduated from Western Michigan University last spring with a BM in composition and am pursuing grad school for next fall. Unfortunately I'm stuck on where to apply and time is obviously running short; hence the post. At this point, I lack both the funds and likely the portfolio to get a master's at one of the biggies, e.g. NEC, Eastman, Yale, which are probably the easiest places in the U.S. for me to name that have a reputation for producing talented composers.

So my search for a grad school has two main criteria:

1. A good teacher I can make a real connection with

2. Available assistantships or other financial aid

The logical thing in a search for good instruction seems to be to look at state schools with respected music departments. I don't have a good sense of where to investigate outside my corner of the country, though.

I don't expect a mentor to fix all my problems and I definitely take responsibility for my artistic development. What I am seeking is excellent technical instruction from a professor willing to make a personal investment in dedicated students. My own personal musical principles are abstract ones where every note counts and the musical line always has direction and purpose. Contrapuntal coherency in particular is important to me. I need clear and honest guidance without any particular styles (including jazz, world music, and electronic music) being forced down my throat.

I have a few wild leads on schools that might have decent programs but know absolutely nothing about the teachers. Here's a short list of what I've collected:

1. University of Colorado, Boulder: Daniel Kellogg

2. University of North Carolina, Greensborough (Gregory Carroll, Mark Engebretson, Alejandro Rutty)

3. University of Iowa: David Gomper

4. University of New York, Buffalo: Jeffrey Stadelman

5. University of Maryland, College Park: Lawrence Moss

6. University of Southern California: Marta Ptaszynska, Erica Muhl

7. University of Illinois: Erik Lund

8. University of Texas: Yevgeniy Sharlat

9. University of North Texas (Joseph Klein, David Bithell, Andrew May, Elizabeth McNutt, Cindy McTee, Jon Christopher Nelson, Phil Winsor)

I know this is a lot of information to ask about, but if you can tell me ANYTHING about any of these instructors or schools, both positive or negative, I'll be incredibly grateful. Perhaps more importantly, I would also LOVE recommendations outside of what I've already found. Please feel free to send me a message if you don't want to publicly post something (I promise confidentiality should you wish to issue a warning against someplace).

Of course I'm open to regular old discussions as well as sharing music with anyone interested. Again, thank you all so much!

Forgive the dumb question:

What's the benefit to a graduate degree in composition, other than the funny letters after your name?

As far as suggestions go, I go to UNT, and it is a wonderful place.

Anyway, for looking for schools, you listed the faculty, but I would suggest learning about each teacher and finding teachers you would like to study with based on similar aesthetics and their style. It wouldn't hurt to even email professors about your interest to find out more.

Other questions to ask are where, how much, and size. Maybe Alaska has a great program but you decide you love the heat of Florida. Alaska is probably out. Like Corbin was saying, if you get into Columbia and have $5.38, then you might not choose there. Financial aid is a helper, so also consider what schools have proportions of aid and if you could get a position as an assistant.

Also, size is a factor. A larger school is more likely to have grand resources, but in a smaller school you might get more personalized attention.

At North Texas, the faculty have very wide interests and strong talents, and I cant imagine a better collection of musicians to teach music. Not to say other professors at other schools aren't good, but the variety and skill offered here is outstanding. There are many opportunities in Electro-Acoustic music, with many fabulous studios and excellent faculty in that area. If you favor acoustic music, the school has about 1600 students to pull from, all who are talented musicians. (Except for maybe me...)

Anyway, if this helps or not, just things to consider. Feel free to PM me. Good luck on your search!

Hi,

I'm a current master's student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, but I did my undergrad at UNT. I don't want to post a whole lot of stuff on this thread, but I just went through grad school apps last fall, so if you need any feedback on what I found doing my research, I'm open to talking on AIM or MSN.

AIM: patpit77

MSN: patpit77@hotmail.com

UNT is a great school. It's rather large, which is very good for finding performers for your work. Every studio has at least a few talented performers. The number of students in the composition studios isn't a huge concern as a grad student because you'll have priority for studio choices. While I was studying, I spent a year in David Bithell's studio and a semester in Cindy McTee's. I also took several courses with Joseph Klein and still keep in touch with all of them to some degree. In my experience, none of the professors there have a teaching method that really pushes a particular style, which is very nice. Looking at each professor's work, you can see where their focus lies, but all of them have worked in a variety of media. If you have an interest in electronic music or intermedia, UNT has resources that you won't find at many other public institutions. The proximity to Dallas-Fort Worth puts you near two very high-quality symphony orchestras, as well as several museums, chamber music societies, new music ensembles, and other venues that offer musical performances. The College of Music at UNT also makes scheduling your own recitals relatively easy compared to some schools. Housing and property costs are also very reasonable in Texas.

Now for the bad news. First and foremost, UNT is a public university and therefore doesn't have a huge amount of money to give for financial aid. If you have experience with electronic music, you can get an assistantship with CEMI, though you'll be competing with the other grad students. These positions often go to master's students, though. The composition TF positions are pretty much always taken by doctoral students. If you can't get an assistantship, you can arrange for employment on campus for an in-state tuition waiver, which makes the tuition more reasonable, but you can't expect many scholarships or grants. I managed a large scholarship from the university as an undergrad, but that was for SAT scores, so that won't help you...sorry. Also, even though the system UNT uses for scheduling recitals is convenient, the large number of students can make arranging performances a little difficult (they program about 800+ performances a year in the CoM).

Speaking on the schools you mentioned before, if cost is a big issue, you should still apply to Yale. I applied and was rejected, but if you do manage to get accepted, they offer full tuition grants to all performance and composition grad students. Unfortunately, that's why it's so hard to get in. I'm currently attending Bowling Green mostly because of the great assistantships they offer. They don't have many doctoral students, so most master's students end up with an assistantship, which covers the full cost of tuition. They don't have any huge names on faculty, but Burton Beerman and Marilyn Shrude are both respected experienced names. Also, Mikel Khuen and Elainie Lillios both went to UNT. The scope of the program here isn't quite so wide as UNT, but that's partially because it's a much smaller program.

When I was applying, I applied to Eastman, Yale, Michigan, BGSU, UNT, University of Texas, and Peabody, and interviewed at and was accepted to Peabody in addition to BGSU, so if you have questions about any of these school, I'd be happy to discuss.

9. University of North Texas (Joseph Klein, David Bithell, Andrew May, Elizabeth McNutt, Cindy McTee, Jon Christopher Nelson, Phil Winsor)

Hello. I'm a first year Masters' Student @ University of North Texas (though I worked on my post-baccalaureate study of composition here since 2006). The UNT-Composers list-serv just got wind of this thread, so it is possible there'll be more UNT Composers coming here to answer your questions.

Unfortunately, the topic of choosing the right school is not an easy one, and it would be easier for me to answer particular questions regarding our program. I will go on record as saying that I'm extremely happy with UNT, and I'll try to give a few general pointers about our program. If you wish to know more, please let me know what compositional / performance interests you have, and if you need to know anything about the program itself.

So my search for a grad school has two main criteria:

1. A good teacher I can make a real connection with

2. Available assistantships or other financial aid

While I can't comment much on financial aid, I would say that my main reason for happiness at UNT is the faculty. Since you may familiarize yourself with their music by following links to their respective websites from our division page (Division of Composition Studies) I'll mention that the department is incredibly friendly. This healthy atmosphere may not be the most "unique" thing about the school, but this part of the program goes a long way.

Due to the diverse nature of faculty, you are likely to find someone who will cater to your compositional interests.

My own personal musical principles are abstract ones where every note counts and the musical line always has direction and purpose. Contrapuntal coherency in particular is important to me. I need clear and honest guidance without any particular styles (including jazz, world music, and electronic music) being forced down my throat.

I am trying to understand what "being forced down my throat" means, but it is likely that I do not understand it due to the fact that nothing is forced down mine... One of the remarkable things about UNT is that it caters to both electronic as well as acoustic composers. To provide anecdotal evidence - recently, Elliott Figg has defended his Masters' thesis with a neoclassical baroque repertoire, focusing on music written for just intonation and custom alternative tunings for the harpsichord. At the same time, we have a Doctorate student working on interactive computer music works with dance, as well as an upcoming Doctorate defense for a piece for chamber ensemble and tape. Our faculty does not consist of "computer" composers as it does not consist of "acoustic" composers. Every member of the faculty had experience working within electro-acoustic music, just as every member of the faculty has experience with purely acoustic works as well. Every semester we have an electro-acoustic show (UNT Centerpieces) and two shows mostly dedicated to acoustic music (UNT Spectrum). If you are worried that a faculty member will make you write jazz - that's silly. Ditto for "world music" (what's that?) and "electronic music" - the latter can be catered to within your supporting area and UNT is quite famous for its jazz program, if such musicians are ever desired.

I can't comment on the negatives of the institution unless I know more of what you are interested in, apart from the fact that parking sucks and the university punishes commuters (fact!). UNT is a good school for music performance, which means that there are guaranteed to be at least some very skilled musicians that would play your stuff. I would feel rather silly making blanket statements such as "UNT is probably a bad place for a film music composer" because that means nothing in practical sense (if you're after good orchestration chops, UNT will most certainly deliver).

A good place to start is the Composition Student Handbook, which will give you an overview of our program. After that, I suggest looking at faculty pages, checking out their music, and seeing if there's anything interesting you find there. If everything on those goes against your gut, seek elsewhere - we're all different people, and grad school is not a good time to be stuck in a place you don't want to be in. If you are interested in recent student works from UNT, I am certain they can be made available.

Last but not least, we do have some excellent facilities for those interested in electronic side of things. The Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (the website of which is under development) provides several excellent options for production and realization of tape, interactive, and intermedia works. In particular, at the moment we have three 8-channel studios, one 2-channel studio, and one studio dedicated for multimedia production. Our Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater (MEIT) is owned and operated by CEMI Staff. It boasts a 16-speaker system (two rings of 8-channels each, one above another), internally developed diffusion system for such. We have excellent facilities for recording as well, supported by Music Computing Lab.

Looking forward to answering any specific questions you may have (if that is necessary). And whether you choose UNT or not, I wish you the very best of luck with your search for a graduate program.