SUNY Purchase ....It's not Juilliard

musicprnt
Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:21:39 +0000

Kind of a different take on this topic, and it kind of deals with the very idea of what makes a music conservatory (or any college for that matter) good or better or best.

Juilliard has a worldwide reputation in the music world, a name that is known far and wide, and has a track record of success in terms of its graduates (success meaning people who have become top level performers or teachers). Going there, someone has name recognition and also the potential to network, which is important of course.

However, I could also argue that Juilliard (or any top notch conservatory) is not “X” (fill in the blank with some other program). At any top school there are high level teachers and programs, but there also are ones who aren’t so great. A student might do really well going to a smaller school that has a really topnotch teacher in their instrument/specialty, rather then going to a top level school and getting lost. I have seen schools (Bard currently comes to mind) that seem to be developing a top notch program, where a student could get potentially a world class education riding the wave of 'the next Juilliard" that might work better then the ‘real thing’. I also kind of wonderay (and this is my speculation only) if at a big conservatory a student who has potential, but just hasn’t been really triggered yet, doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, perhaps not getting the best of faculty, whereas at a smaller program they might have more chance at the better faculty.
Anyway, thought I would throw that out in the discussion to add a different perspective.