Wisdom of changing intended major from performance to composition?

marimbamom
Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:53:43 +0000

Hi Spiritmanager,
I think my son is looking for somewhere where he can immerse himself in music, somewhere he will have the freedom to develop his own compositional style, but also be given the tools and solid musical foundation to accomplish this. I think he would like to continue to study percussion with a private teacher just because he loves it,but for pleasure rather than seeking a performance degree.
Somewhere with classical composition training but with the opportunities to incorporate technology and perhaps computer generated sounds into his compositions.
This is why Peabody appeals to him because they have a computer music BM with a composition tract. He also likes the TIMARA and regular composition program at Oberlin. But from what I have seen both Peabody and Oberlin take a very small number of students each year into these programs so they are probably very much reach schools.
He quite liked the programs at Northwestern and University of Michigan but thinks that academically they will be too tough to get into. He has a 3.8 GPA, but so far not very impressive SAT’s.
I think eventually he might like to do film scoring or possibly even scoring for video games. He enjoys a lot of different classical and contemporary composers so it is hard to pinpoint what direction he will go in.
My concern is that he will apply to all these places and not get into any of them!
So he needs to find a few places where he would probably be accepted academically and
which have a stong music program. From reading many of the audition experiences on CC
it seems that music admissions are totally unpredictable.
I am constantly amazed at the tenacity of the parents who go through this process and their hardworking and gifted children who are determined to follow their musical dreams.