Hi. High School senior daughter is interested in music (vocalist); and specifically loves musical theater. We are still exploring schools and would love to know if anyone knows of music schools that offer the musical theater genre within the school. e.g. UColorado Boulder offers MT in both school of music and school of theater - and the one in school of music is something my D would like more. (Degrees | College of Music | University of Colorado Boulder) Looking for other similar programs. Also, note that we are not seeking conservatories but a regular university or college. Also, I understand that almost all universities and colleges offer a separate Theater program, AND MANY have a Musical Theater concentration in their Theater school - so I am not asking for that scenario either. Thank you all.
@SG1071 I would suggest you look through the musical theater forum here for some info. There are lots of threads (some older but current info can be verified) that talk about varying programs.
Thank you. I tried, but MT kids are generally interested in overall performance and not looking into music schools - because most music schools do not give them what they want/need to be an all-rounder performer. So, I did not find any, but if you have a particular thread in mind, please let me know.
I’m a little confused. If your daughter wants to work in the musical theater field, she needs to be well rounded in singing, dancing, acting. The trifecta. So…in my opinion, any program that offers this would be great…whether in the school of music…or not. But that’s my opinion.
Are you considering LACs such as St. Olaf that have excellent music programs (both BA and BM) as well as a Theater major and a Musical Theater concentration?
You misunderstood my question. She DOES NOT want to work in the musical theater field if she did, we needed to look into MT schools/departments/colleges not music colleges. But she likes the musical theater genre of songs, which is VERY different from the classical genre. Even in many musical competitions, there is a musical theater genre (e.g., CS competition, NATS, etc.), and those do not require dancing. But in our resrecah so far we only found UColorado who does some MT in music school. So we are looking for tips on music programs with a special focus on MT songs.
Thank you. No, I haven’t looked at that school yet, but from what you are describing, they seem to have music and MT separate. How does a music student learn MT songs as part of their music course? Do they allow it, or are they just classical-based?
Ah! So she wants to study the type of singing that is done in musical theater, not classical music only. Is that what you mean?
Yes.
I’m not sure about the technicalities of how students do both, I just know that they do. I bet you could email the schools you are interested in and ask. Does your student know what other features in a school are desired? Location, price, size etc?
Just to clarify: In other words, they offer a Bachelor of Music in Musical Theater (BMMT) as opposed to BFA in MT (which is offered in the drama schools).
Since this option is pretty limited, I am looking for anywhere - and will look into those limitations later.
This list is a few years old, but may prove helpful: The Top 10 B.M.us Musical Theatre Programs for 2018-19 — OnStage Blog
Schools on the list that are not strictly music schools include:
- Baldwin Wallace
- NYU Steinhardt
- Oklahoma City
- Belmont
- Catholic U.
- Arizona State
- U. of Central Oklahoma
- Southern Illinois - Edwardsville
- UNC - Pembroke (which is also a great financial deal)
I have no expertise in this area, but it seems that most MT concentrations include some acting and movement classes. If she does not want to perform in MT, but just likes that genre of music, I think she would just have to investigate vocal performance programs and look for those that allow for more classes in modern music and have professors that are known for that genre.
In addition to th programs listed above…
James Madison University (JMU) in VA has a BM in Music with an emphasis in Music Theatre through the School of Music. This program completes the same music core as all music majors and studies a combination of classical and musical theatre in their voice lessons. They take their acting, musical theatre, theatre, and dance classes in the School of Theatre and Dance, and can audition for all operas, operettas, musicals, and plays.
JMU also has a BA with a major in Musical Theatre in the School of Theatre and Dance that is more like a BFA and more integrated in terms of balance of musical theatre, theatre, and dance than the BM in the School of Music. These students take their voice and music classes in the School of Music, and can audition for all operas, operettas, musicals, and plays.
The two programs audition and are administered separately. While they have some overlap of faculty, they are very different in structure, emphasis, and student learning objectives, with the School of Music program likely more what your daughter is looking for.
University of Illinois U-C has a Lyric Theatre major, that may be of interest to your daughter.
Northwestern University offers a certificate in Music Theatre that is available to both theatre students and music students.
Florida State offers a BM Music Theatre option through the Shcool of Music alongside their BFA in Music Theatre.
Manhattan School of Music offers a BM in Musical Theatre.
Just reiterating some of the programs from above that my D had friends/acquaintance attend:
Oklahoma City University - well-known for both classical and MT and cross pollination (as opposed to the silo system separating classical and MT at many schools).
Arizona State - another program that seems to allow both
St. Olaf - my D is in a performance now that has a graduate of St. Olaf in it - she can do classical but leans MT. St. Olaf is an example of a small, flexible liberal arts school. By looking at their annual list of performances (which I think any student can audition for) you can see the breadth of styles. So even if it doesn’t say BM MT (just simply BM VP) that doesn’t mean that the student body doesn’t do a variety of voice study. One of the best MT vocalist (imo) in the twin cities is a graduate of St. Olaf. She does not have a classical voice but went through St.Olaf and is quite skilled and successful in MT.
I have also heard about Univ of Illinois and Baldwin Wallace as being flexible in voice style.
Besides checking out the semester by semester curriculum, you may want to also check the performances available (opera, operettas, MT) and check who can audition.
In the end the program AND teacher are important. So you will want to be sure her teacher allows MT and has experience in MT. Some schools can be more classical leaning but the teacher may be more flexible in style so that may still keep that school in the running. Then you want to be sure that she can audition/participate in the schools’ performances and/or extracurricular shows, particularly in MT.
You may want to avoid some of the big classical schools as they can be less flexible…but I still know students that left those programs to do MT…and they simply wanted the great musical foundation from a VP program. So…it always depends on the student too.
I hope that this helps.
I can speak more to the University of Illinois Lyric Theatre degree. My daughter applied and was accepted there but OOS cost didn’t make sense for us since she had great in-state offers. This major cross trains in MT and opera. The audition requires singing (32 bars of 2 contrasting pieces, one being lyrical in nature) and a 60 second monologue–no dancing. There is no prescreening. The first two years kids train in classical voice in order to establish good healthy technique. The last two years they train in MT voice. Here is a great podcast explaining the program and how it came to be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZx7WzF87Qo
We have seen a couple of their productions. They were excellent and the casts were well represented by all levels of students–undergrad and grad. The major is very flexible and can be tweaked to include more or less of one style of singing, more/less dance, more/less acting, whatever a student wishes to specialize in.
We also know a student there currently who is technically a vocal performance major (not Lyric Theatre), but he is regularly in the Lyric Theatre productions. Seems to be easy to cross over. That might also be an option for your daughter as well.
As stated above, Oklahoma City and Arizona State would be good programs to look into too.
My daughter ended up choosing IU Jacobs School of Music for vocal performance but is hoping to add an outside field in musical theatre. That is also an option your daughter might consider, but I’m not sure it meets all her parameters. Also, this outside field requires an audition during the fall of freshman or sophomore year, so it isn’t a given that a student will be accepted into it. B.S.O.F.: Musical Theatre: Undergraduate: Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance: Indiana University Bloomington
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Northern Arizona University also has musical theatre offerings alongside opera in the school of music.