European conservatories for violin, musicology, conducting

College Majors Music Majors
1

<p>I posted a query in the International forum yesterday about diploma requirements for European conservatories and got a good response. (Anyone can feel free to add to that, of course.)</p>

<p>What I’d like to ask here is, does anyone know which European conservatories are feeders into real opportunities for either violin, conducting, or musicology? It’s really the violin performance that my daughter has been studying the most, but we know how stiff the competition is, and she is one of those kids who is interested the overall aspects of classical music, not just instrumental performance. That’s why she’s looking at several options. But we also know that a good school is necessary to make her chances of a career realistic. I’ve heard of some in Germany (which would require German), the ones in Amsterdam and Helsinki, and the Royal Academy (which can all be done in English, except for some of the specialized programs, I think). </p>

<p>Here’s the thread I posted yesterday, in case you would like more background: </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/1302813-european-conservatories-diploma-requirements.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/1302813-european-conservatories-diploma-requirements.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>But the short version is that she is an American student with pre-college violin experience in both the US and Italy. I posted here about this last year too, but got locked out of my old account when I changed my e-mail, so I made a new one. Now I can’t even find my old posts! I also partially answered someone’s query in this forum, yesterday, about European schools.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>The conservatories (those that begin at around age 8 or so) in the EU have a “graded” curriculum which makes evaluation easier each year and at the culmination of studies. With regard to some of the questions you posted in another thread, if you are not comfortable enough with the language to deal with the administrators at the conservatory your D now attends, perhaps there is someone at your/your husband’s company who could help decipher things? Or even contact the US Embassy and ask if they have any suggestions.
As for which “higher” institutions offer “real opportunities”- this is a question that I’m not sure can be answered with any definitive degree of certainty. In great measure, it depends upon just how good your D plays. Violin is extremely competitive and there will be ensemble players, both orchestral and chamber, as well as those who are so far and above the rest that they seek careers as soloists. There are so many schools which prepare students to work in the performance fields: just look at the roster of any major symphony orchestra and the list of the soloists who perform each season. What Europe does offer is the opportunity to study with a wide variety of teachers. Begin asking around now, whom does your D’s current teacher recommend, where did the performers your D admires study, etc? Like it or not (and I don’t!), while there are a few female conductors actively working around the world, the overwhelming majority of professionals in that field are male,so that’s limiting in itself. Musicology is something studied in depth in post-graduate study or not necessarily even within a conservatory setting. To confuse things even more, the course of study in Europe can be very different than it is here, so it’s wise to begin to look ahead even further to make sure things fit together for graduate school ( or maybe don’t and let the chips fall where they may and just have your D find the right teacher and place for her and have her live in the moment, take advantage of the varied opportunities available to her and enjoy herself!).
Just the chance to study and make use of other languages will be valuable!</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your reply, Mezzo’sMamma. </p>

<p>Just wondering, what did you mean by “graded curriculum which makes evaluation easier each year and at the evaluation of studies”? Do you mean that the curriculum is standardized and that therefore I should be able to look at any conservatory to recognize the level? That’s true, although execution would no doubt vary. Also, the Bologna Process reforms have really upset the apple cart, at least here in Italy. Most students are in the old system, but my daughter is in the new, so it’s really confusing and no one can tell us much.</p>

<p>The issue with the local administration is that they simply won’t commit to an answer about the diploma. I did go ask, with a translator who attends the school and is familiar with the policies there as any student, and was told that no one knew. (And they probably didn’t, as I don’t think they’ve ever had another American student!) Finally I wised up and found an Italian friend who “knows someone” at the Education Ministry, and she’s going to ask them. Weird as it may sound in the US, this kind of run-around is quite typical in Italy, at least in the public sector. </p>

<p>Before we left, I asked a couple of US schools about grad school transfer, and they inevitably said it all depended. But I’m not terribly worried, since it’s impossible to predict exactly where things will head. I’d just like to figure out what we need to do to graduate and pick a short list of undergrad schools.</p>

<p>As far as competitive skill-level goes, I understand your point, and it is indeed hard to guess where any given student stands when you only have the parent’s word for it. And I’m pretty sure that my daughter is not in the running for a solo career ;-). My basis for asking about competitive schools is simply that 1) She is a little impatient with the peer level where she is now and 2) If she can’t get into a school that provides realistically competitive training in a hyper-competitive field, perhaps it’s better to make a Plan B on the front end. But being from NYC, we are at least somewhat familiar with the playing field, so to speak.</p>

<p>Very good point about the orchestras. I will have her look into that. I’ve also asked her whether her teacher will make recommendations. He’s a little proprietary, but I’ve told her to ask anyway.</p>

<p>The all-male conducting situation is curious, isn’t it? We’ve had some discussions about that. And yes, musicology is a different can of worms as well. My reason for asking about those at present is simply to create a database that might help us choose between schools A and B eventually, if it comes to that. </p>

<p>Wouldn’t it be nice just to have a handy “guide to music schools in Europe” like they have for liberal arts schools in the US? Having just moved to Europe on relatively short notice, I know very little about the educational system here. And, as opposed to what happens in the US, most kids in Italy just attend the local university while living at home. Heck, as it’s taken me all year just to get residency, settle into an apartment, and learn how to carry on a conversation! So I was hoping I had a little more time to figure this out. But being told a week ago that my daughter is ready for college level violin two years earlier than I anticipated makes me think I need to get started sooner rather than later.</p>

4

<p>You’ll find that musicology is not exactly central to the curricula of most European conservatories; in the US, a student of your daughter’s interests could be directed to a university music school with strong musicology offerings (Indiana, USC, Boston University) or to a double-degree program (Harvard-NEC, Juilliard-Columbia, Hopkins-Peabody). As performance programs within universities are scarce in Europe, and conservatories rarely have academic and financial resources sufficient to retain serious scholars, the serious pursuit of both performance and scholarship under one roof is not so easily attained at the conservatories. A number of universities – Oxbridge comes most immediately to mind – have substantial traditions of performance studies, though. </p>

<p>The Freiburg hochschule might be a good option. There is a superb violin teacher of international significance (Kussmaul), an American conducting teacher, and considerable academic activity, with good relations with the University of Freiburg as well. Royal Holloway University and the RCM have some sort of relationship – possibly a joint degree? Both of those schools have very fine faculties and extremely successful graduates. </p>

<p>Leaving aside conducting and musicology, some other schools with particularly good student outcomes for violin include Koln, Lubeck, Rotterdam, and RNCM (Manchester).</p>

5

<p>Hey, thanks, Fiddlefrog! That’s really helpful information. </p>

<p>Meanwhile, the Italian Ministry of Education has responded that they won’t take anything for a diploma but the Italian exit exam, the maturita’, so that makes us even more inclined to look outside of Italy. I read on a website that they might allow APs if she already had a year of college in the US, but that sort of defeats the purpose of attending college-level conservatory here while finishing the APs online.</p>