<p>To some extent it probably depends on what OP means by “music scene”. Music is all over the place at Oberlin, my impression is the greater “music scene” is quite robust and quite open to all. A lot of people play instruments there, whether they are in the con or not. So in other words people like Josh Ritter and Liz Phair could emerge from there and have a great experience playing music in that kind of scene without being part of the conservatory.
[Oberlin</a> Alumni Magazine: Spring 2003](<a href=“http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/spring2003/story4.html]Oberlin”>http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/spring2003/story4.html)</p>
<p>Or, from this article, seems like Jennifer Koh too:
<a href=“Contemporary Music at Oberlin Conservatory - The New York Times”>Contemporary Music at Oberlin Conservatory - The New York Times;
<p>With respect to the more formal “academic” music training there is undoubtedly a difference between the college and the conservatory that can be highly significant, but whether this negatively impacts you depends in part on you.</p>
<p>IIRC there are some instruments where really good college students can get a music teacher from the con faculty, others no. But that isn’t necessarily a problem, because the con students who do teaching can be really, really good. These people are well on the road towards being trained to be ,or already are, professional musicians. My D1 was taught by a conservatory student, she said the student was the best teacher on her instrument she’d ever had. The student had prior teaching experience, from “the music store back home”, and was obviously great at her instrument. And teaching it.</p>
<p>IIRC there is a music major in the college, but it is not a performance major. I don’t recall all the details of how and if students in the college enroll in Con courses, but there have been posts on this topic. IIRC con students get fist dibs, in some cases there is room for others, other cases not.</p>
<p>There are performance groups for non-con students, and also some mixed performance groups.</p>