| Of course I was not knocking Jason Robert Brown. He is a fine composer and creates some demanding music. We've done two of his shows at Oklahoma City University.
MusThCC hit it right on the head (thanks). I was using JRB as an analogy to what others schools choose for their students to work on. I know of a couple of friends at other MT schools who learn 5 songs each semester for their rep. They choose whatever they want and it's all MT music. They don't know any art songs, opera arias and such. They don't explore the other musical options of classical music. There's a world outside of Andrew Loyd Webber!! (now awaiting the "why are you bashing Webber" message).
Now, that's fine and you don't have to work on classic rep to make it on Broadway. But classical rep is much more demanding (in terms of voicing, structure and such) than the majority of MT music. At OCU, students lean four MT songs and four classic songs each semester. As stated above, that's what sets OCU apart from many other programs.
This is my opinion. If it doesn't agree with yours, that's quite fine. As I said above, OCU is a demanding program and not right for everyone. |