What schools should we consider?

honestmom
Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:19:33 +0000

My S is a senior looking to study composition and go into film scoring. We looked at a ton of schools that were mostly classical, and he is a contemporary composer. I would not recommend Berklee for classical composition. I have also read that its film scoring program has 300 students in it, and is mostly a “learn how to use this scoring software” program. My S applied there, but it’s last on my list for that reason. Also, you must audition on an instrument at Berklee.

Some suggestions that we looked at:

NYU (has a film scoring concentration within its comp.program)
James Madison (we LOVED this school; it is NOT into film scoring but has a good comp. program otherwise and unbelievable performance facilities, also pretrty reasonably priced even for out of state))
Temple (very small and competitive comp. program, but academics are not as tough as some of the other schools; has no instrumental audition requirement for comp. but tough theory/comp. test and interview. Playing piano is a must there.)
Belmont University - it has both a classical and commercial composition program; both require an instrumental audition. The commercial composition program includes film scoring.

Others:

USC
UCLA (the dean at JMU told my S, “if you want to be a film scorer, go to UCLA”)
Michigan

If your S is a junior, you have time to look into some summer programs and other avenues to get his music performed and recorded, find a private comp. teacher, etc. I would also suggest stepping up the piano study and practice. Many music schools require a piano audition for comp., and at JMU we were told that “most” comp. students compose on the piano or at least play it well.

NYU has a master’s program in film scoring, which is also an option if your S wants to get a traditional classical comp. degree. I would also suggest looking at colleges that have film programs, even if the comp. program doesn’t offer scoring courses. (Check out the CC forum on Visual Arts for lists of film programs.) An enterprising student can find opportunities to work with film students and get experience that way.

There are other posters here with experience with classical comp. programs. Search for posts by SpiritManager and compmom.