<p>Steogsaurus, I can’t tell if you are also skilled at singing, dancing, and acting. If you were to do a BFA or BM in Musical Theater, you would not only have to be able to sing, act, and dance to be admitted, but that would be a huge chunk of your coursework. Now, you also could go into musical directing (or composing) if a MT major. BUT…big but…if you ONLY want to do musical directing and composing, another degree would be more suitable (such as music composition). To be clear, you could become a musical director or composer after being in a BM or BFA in MT program (several people have done this) but you can’t focus on that in your coursework as the main thing and so if you are not interested in being a performer at all, don’t do this degree as it is not a good fit. </p>
<p>That said, my own kid has a BFA with a focus on MT (from NYU/Tisch). She is musically inclined. The bulk of her training in college (ouside the liberal arts component) was in singing, acting, and dancing and related coursework. The focus of the training was not musical directing or composing. HOWEVER, my D has worked professionally as a musical director, arranger, and composer (she is not unique in this regard as some other BFA in MT graduates have done this too)…and did this throughout college and now beyond college. But she did not go to school to become this or wasn’t trained in her program really do do any of this. Throughout college, she musically directed, composed, and arranged. She has a career as a performer but is very involved in songwriting, composing, and musically directing. She wrote a musical that is being further developed with interest from producers and such. And she is paid to musically direct and to also accompany in professional theater and in educational settings. So, someone with a MT degree can indeed do this! But if this is ALL you want to do, a BFA or BM in MT might not be the right path for you as most of the training is in singing, dancing and acting. A friend of hers who started in the BFA in MT program at Tisch who is very skilled as a MT composer, actually switched to music composition in Steinhardt at NYU midstream and is doing well in that area post graduation. He gave up being a performer on stage. He has a lot of training in the composition aspect. My D is not formerly trained in musical directing or composing and you would not be either if you did a BFA in MT, but if you were skilled at it, like she is, you could still pursue it. But you have to understand that these MT programs are not really training you to be an MD or a composer. If you want your training to focus on that, then a music composition degree is more suitable. The music composition degree may not focus on MT but you have to explore what styles of music are possible in the music composition program. If you are really into this, keep in mind for down the line that NYU/Tisch has a unique graduate (MFA) program in Musical Theater Writing. </p>
<p>So, in sum, major in MT if you want training in acting, singing and dancing and then also get very involved in musical directing and composition. If you only want to train in musical direction and composition, you need more of a music degree that focuses in composition. </p>
<p>If you still go the MT major route, make sure to get very involved in musical directing on campus…student directed musicals, a capella groups, and so on. See if you can take any composition classes. Write songs and musicals and stage these. But don’t do a MT degree program if you have no interest in singing, dancing, and acting yourself.</p>