Will not be accepted into New England Conservatory

cellocompmom
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:58:35 +0000

Is this teacher on the faculty of any of those schools? I would also be concerned about any teacher that would say such a thing. Are you a junior? There are many talented young composers out there. I think some of admissions depends upon how many spots there are that year. I think you should look at schools because you are excited about because of who is teaching there. Are there composers at Berkely you admire? My son is a classical composer and Berkely was not a school he considered because for him he did not feel it was a place for classical composers.

I would write a symphony because you want to write a symphonic work at the time rather than because you think it would help your portfolio. I know my son was encouraged to show in his portfolio that he could write for diverse instrumentation and in diverse styles and decided to put his sketches for a symphonc work aside for the portfolio in order to have more time to compete and get some smaller chamber pieces done and performed by professional musicians. Good luck.