<p>My son, a high school junior, has had approximately 6-7 years Euphonium experience. He has approximately 4-5 years Trombone experience. He has played intermittently in the All County Band (Euphonium), and several other local organizations in both instruments (alternately). By all accounts, he would perform better at the Euphonium in his college/music school auditions but he would probably be more flexible and far more valuable (to an Orchestra, music program etc.) were he to concentrate more on the Trombone. Has anyone had a child enter a music conservatory/college/school on the Euphonium (via audition) only to switch to the Trombone mid-stream? Is it possible to audition on the Euphonium and double major (in Euphonium and Trombone). Any other suggestions would be very much appreciated.</p>
<p>Well, Captain Obvious here, but it seems to me that any conservatory that is solely an orchestra based program - such as Juilliard, or Cleveland, or Curtis - isn’t going to have a whole lot of use for a Euphonium. Many (I don’t know how many - my experience isn’t big enough) schools that allow you to major in more than one instrument make you audition on each one anyway.</p>
<p>You might want to have him contact the music dept of a couple schools (your local state u, for example) and ask the brass dept chair directly. Any school that has a band and/or marching band emphasis would love to have either, I suspect.</p>
<p>Where DS is, the trombone students are occasionally asked to play the euphonium for wind ensemble concerts. I don’t think anyone is “majoring in” euphonium. They major in trombone. However, I would think having that experience on the euphonium would be a good thing for those occasional pieces in the wind ensemble that have that instrumentation.</p>
<p>While you may be unaware, many music schools and conservatories do offer majors in Euphonium (Eastman, IU, Boston Conservatory to name a few). Hence the question remains and is probably best answered by parents or students with low brass knowledge.</p>
<p>Brasswindparent…the info I gave you came from the low brass players at my son’s school. I’m sorry if you thought I was talking about ALL schools. I was not. My post starts with “At DS’s school”. Binx had the best suggestion. Call the schools. Also, a lot depends on what your low brass player wants to do. There is limited orchestration that includes Euphonium. There is extensive orchestration for wind ensemble. If your trombone/euphonium player wants to play in an orchestra, trombone would perhaps be a better choice. But only the schools themselves would be able to advise you. Also your student will want to know the quality of the wind ensemble vs orchestra at the school. At the top places, they are of similar quality. At other schools, the orchestra is the top ensemble…and sometimes is a better ensemble overall. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>At Juilliard, there is no Euphonium major, according to my S. He says when a euphonium is needed, one of the trombone players doubles on it. He said it is an auxilliary instrument there, much like the Wagner tuba is for horn. </p>
<p>Brasswindparent, I see you are a new poster; perhaps you’ve been lurking for awhile and already know this, but I don’t believe there are many low brass players / parents represented on this board. (There may be a tuba player or two.) That is why I, parent of a horn player, and Thumper, parent of a trumpet player, both tried to help. If you feel you really need only low brass responders, perhaps there is a trombone and/or euphonium board out there (as I know there are for horn and for trumpet) that might have more of the information you’re looking for. It seems you already have a few conservatories in mind, so contacting them directly might also provide some good info.</p>
<p>Once you find out your answers, perhaps you’ll stick around and help future trombone and/or euphonium players.</p>
<p>I am going to college next year as a euphonium major. The three schools that I got into (Eastman, Potsdam, and Ithaca) all said that I would be able to study trombone as well, as euphonium jobs are rare. However, even though the jobs are rare, the premier military bands are great jobs. I also thought that I might mention that there was a euphonium player graduate from Eastman last year who is doing his grad work at Yale, who made it to the finals of the euph. military band auditions recently. My teacher said that he has heard this particular student on both and that he plays equally well.</p>
<p>If he is better at euphonium than maybe he should pursue it. I like playing euphonium better, even though I can play trombone almost as well switching to trombone permanently was never something I really considered. I don’t know if he has ever studied with a pro player, but they will also be able to tell you if your son has a shot on euphonium or if he should dedicate himself to trombone.</p>
<p>I hope that was helpful, if you have any more questions feel free to ask me.</p>
<p>Brasswindparent-
I am one of the (few) low brass player parents here.
You are lucky to get help from thumper and binx…they have extensive knowledge that I, and probably many others, find very useful.</p>
<p>I second the suggestion to locate a euphonium specific website/organization that can give you more specific info.
A wonderful young woman we know (and a great tuba player) runs a website
<a href=“http://www.tubanews.com%5B/url%5D”>www.tubanews.com</a>
It might give you some connections for euphonium as well.
Best of luck.</p>