Choosing a college with a good music program

gadad
Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:01:17 +0000

I live in GA as well, and have a daughter who was both academically talented and wanted to pursue voice, so I did a lot of research a couple years ago. If you’re serious about voice (that is, making a career out of voice), it’s nearly impossible to have it both ways. But if your vocal ambitions are not so dominant, there are a few places at which the Vocal Performance curriculum doesn’t totally obliterate any other potential study opportunities. In the South, Furman and Vanderbilt both have nice music schools with Voice programs, while actually encouraging double majors - a rare thing in the field of music. In the University System of Georgia, Georgia State probably has the leading Voice and Opera program, but you’d have to check out the feasibility of a double major - I’d think GSU’s program would be pretty pre-professional. Columbus State is developing its school of Music into the a prominent conservatory-level university program. I don’t know where its vocal program is right now, but again, I doubt it’d be double-major friendly. U.Ga. has a voice program that would probably fit your needs.

All the recommendations that I just gave you are for Music Performance programs leading to a B.Mus. degree. Be sure that you know the difference between a B.Mus. and a B.A. The B.Mus. is a performance degree, typically requiring 70 - 100 academic hours of your 120 or so in college (Furman, the last I checked, was 50-something hours - hence the possibility of double-majoring). A B.A. in Music is a liberal arts degree (usually 30 - 36 hours) for those with an interest, not those who are seriously pursuing performance. You may find some campuses with B.A. programs who have voice instructors on retainer - Davidson did a couple years ago - but they will not have a degree in Music Performance per se.

If you want to explore B.A. programs which may offer access to known Voice instructors, you might want to send a private message to “lorelei”, a College Confidential participant who is a former university Voice and Opera professor. She dispenses very good advice and insight.