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Double Bass World Class Universities with Best Music Departments for Double Bass
- Thread starter Sattmann
- Start date
Thinking more and more along these lines as well. One idea we'd had was perhaps NYC with Columbia and their joint program with Julliard, and if not that, then for all the other opportunities there in NYC like NY Youth Symphony and so forth. Thank you for the thoughts.
If she's more into pop than jazz, then the UofMiami has turned out some pretty remarkable players, IME. For jazz in the States, UNT, Bloomington seem to be the most competitive schools. For the "scene", NYC and Boston offer a lot of options. There's a lot of great players here in LA too, but they're very spead out and my sense is that there are fewer opportunities for student players than in NYC and Boston.
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but most "World Class Universities" have very high academic standards for acceptance.Their adjacent Music Departments will probably have very high standards for acceptance, as well.
So, I guess my question is : How "qualified" is your daughter to perhaps secure a spot (Double Major?) in a parallel Orchestral Bass program at a World Class Univ.? The entry level for participation in those programs is very high, and I wonder if at some point the Academic Program would (should?) become the main focus of her decision...i.e., just accept whatever Orchestral opportunities are available, even if those Orchestral Bass positions are less than the "World Class" academic programs.
(For example: The Eastman School of Music, a.k.a. the Music Dept. of the Univ. of Rochester, is not really looking for volunteer members (Dual Majors?) of their Orchestras - The full-time Music Majors populate those positions, while the (non-Eastman) Univ. of Rochester students focus on their purely "academic" goals.)
Maybe list the possible World Class Universities, choose the best, and then take whatever Orchestral Possibilities are available there.
Also - Private study with a Professional Orchestral Bassist is a real good option, if that school is in a Major Metropolitan Area with a Professional Orchestra.
(And...Throw out any World Class Univs, located in locales without a Pro Orchestra.)
Good Luck.
So, I guess my question is : How "qualified" is your daughter to perhaps secure a spot (Double Major?) in a parallel Orchestral Bass program at a World Class Univ.? The entry level for participation in those programs is very high, and I wonder if at some point the Academic Program would (should?) become the main focus of her decision...i.e., just accept whatever Orchestral opportunities are available, even if those Orchestral Bass positions are less than the "World Class" academic programs.
(For example: The Eastman School of Music, a.k.a. the Music Dept. of the Univ. of Rochester, is not really looking for volunteer members (Dual Majors?) of their Orchestras - The full-time Music Majors populate those positions, while the (non-Eastman) Univ. of Rochester students focus on their purely "academic" goals.)
Maybe list the possible World Class Universities, choose the best, and then take whatever Orchestral Possibilities are available there.
Also - Private study with a Professional Orchestral Bassist is a real good option, if that school is in a Major Metropolitan Area with a Professional Orchestra.
(And...Throw out any World Class Univs, located in locales without a Pro Orchestra.)
Good Luck.
Yep One of the best bass departments in the State and it's the Harvard of the South; plus it's in a world-class Metropolitan city like Houston. Best and most diverse cuisine in the country too.
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The thing is, NT is a great music school, but pretty mediocre for other courses of study. I mean, it's not just a total party school like Southwest Texas, but saying "Engineer from UNT" isn't the same thing as "Engineer from Rice".
I'm not sure anyone mentioned Northwestern. I had a great experience there. It's been a lifelong perk that I was able to make friends in all sorts of fields and disciplines while still going to a great conservatory. I didn't double major but it was nice to have incredible academic classes while getting world class music instruction. Also, Chicago is great.
Yes! In my experience, at least 1/2 of the benefit of going to college to support a future career is building a network of friends. For me, that network is how I got into my primary jobs that made up my whole career (35 years). Transparency: I went back to college in my late 20s when I finally had good career direction.
Rice is a world class university apart from its music department; Univ. of Rochester is a good private university apart from its music school; NT is pretty mediocre apart from its music school, and I don't know anything about UCSD at all. I assume the UC schools vary widely in their quality. The first three are noted for the high quality of their music programs and I'm assuming UCSD is too.
OP was asking about not only the quality of the music school and bass program but also about the school that surrounds those.
Another thing to learn about would be how integrated or separated the music students are with the rest of the school. I have a distinct impression, which might be wrong, that Rochester and Eastman, and NT Music vs. the rest of NT, are quite separate entities; whereas I know that Rice music majors are well integrated into all the rest of student life.
OP was asking about not only the quality of the music school and bass program but also about the school that surrounds those.
Another thing to learn about would be how integrated or separated the music students are with the rest of the school. I have a distinct impression, which might be wrong, that Rochester and Eastman, and NT Music vs. the rest of NT, are quite separate entities; whereas I know that Rice music majors are well integrated into all the rest of student life.
Yes, and,...physically, they are situated on 2 separate Campuses about 3 miles apart.
Also, too - the U of R (not Eastman!) used to be known as a "safety choice" for students who didn't get accepted at their First Choice Ivy-League schools!
UCSD is good in hard sciences, engineering and CS. Looking at the music department , ~25 faculty, many Integrative studies, only bass is Mark Dresser, not orchestral . but as @DonKasper summarized the problem and solution - strongest academics, music will fall into place -as well. And it's not like you are missing any opportunites in great schools in big cities .
Might be worth both of your whiles to peruse Jason Heath's long-running (1065 episodes today) podcast Contrabass Conversations , many episodes interviews with successful players young, mid-career and older faculty on career paths and lives in music.
Might be worth both of your whiles to peruse Jason Heath's long-running (1065 episodes today) podcast Contrabass Conversations , many episodes interviews with successful players young, mid-career and older faculty on career paths and lives in music.
University of Texas Austin. Joel Braun is a phenomenal pedagogue.
Everyone, please just stop. These are fantastic bass programs that you recommend, but what makes a bass program fantastic is the bass teacher. Most of these bass teachers at these elite music schools will not accept or are not allowed to accept non-bass-performance majors. You can always ask, but the answer is usually "no," especially if the potential student is waffling on their bass ambitions.
Many schools will have institutional restrictions on who can participate in ensembles or take lessons. A number of schools will have an entirely separate apparatus for non-majors.
Another option, touched on but not suggested explicitly; continuing to work rigorously at the bass while earning an undergraduate degree in an unrelated discipline, then getting a Masters degree or postgraduate diploma in performance. It’s what I did, and now in my mid-30’s working full time as a professional musician I do not regret for one moment my undergraduate Math and Spanish degrees. They were from my local public university and didn’t cost me a penny, so when I wanted to get the fancy conservatory degree I could afford (literally) to do so without taking out giant loans and only working part time.
Another option, touched on but not suggested explicitly; continuing to work rigorously at the bass while earning an undergraduate degree in an unrelated discipline, then getting a Masters degree or postgraduate diploma in performance. It’s what I did, and now in my mid-30’s working full time as a professional musician I do not regret for one moment my undergraduate Math and Spanish degrees. They were from my local public university and didn’t cost me a penny, so when I wanted to get the fancy conservatory degree I could afford (literally) to do so without taking out giant loans and only working part time.
Good point, but I understood that the O.P.'s daughter was seriously considering being a performance major. She prefers to do that in the context of a university with a good academic reputation rather than at an exclusively music conservatory/college. Maybe I misunderstood.
My post wasn't directly helpful to the OP, but this post might be helpful.
OP, building on my previous post, it sounds like you need a place that has a high-powered bass program that one can participate 100%, even if they are majoring in something else besides music. Like I said, this cuts you out of most of the top double bass programs in the country because the bigshot bass bass teacher(s) at the bigshot music schools will not accept non-performance-majors into their studio and even if they wanted to, the music school may not allow the bigshot bass teacher to accept someone who is not focusing their studies 100% on double bass performance. Yes, there are always exceptions, but you will have to ask around to see if the target studio and school is one of those exceptions--good luck with that . . .
It sounds like you need a prestigious place that has a culture of nurturing & supporting those students who have interests in high level bass playing on the level of competitive professional preparation, as well as a non-musical academic field. Elite liberal arts colleges are great for this. The problem is that you have to make sure that the bass faculty is not a dud, meaning, at the very least, even if the bass program at a private liberal arts college is not a bigshot name brand studio that outputs oodles of winners of full-time major symphony jobs and true soloists & chamber musicians, you may still find a great sleeper pick if the bass faculty is a full-time symphony audition or solo competition winner with a real solo/chamber career, because at minimum you will be studying with someone that really knows what it takes to succeed professionally because they have done it themselves. You have to be real careful to make sure that the bass faculty is not some person that just went to school forever & never actually made any kind of significant professional living as a bassist.
So identify the prestigious school brand first to see if it's prestigious enough for you, then make sure that they have the academic program that your kid is interested in and that their academic program is indeed good and not just riding the coattails of the larger university's brand reputation, then google to see if they have a bass faculty that is a full-time symphony player or soloist or at one time, were.
St. Olaf in Northfield, MN, Reed College (in Portland, Oregon), DePauw University (in Greencastle, IN), and Bard College (in upstate NY near NYC) come to my mind as examples of the above you should check out. Since you give us so little info, and rightfully so because this is, after all, talkbass, I'm taking a stab in the dark with this suggested list.
OP, building on my previous post, it sounds like you need a place that has a high-powered bass program that one can participate 100%, even if they are majoring in something else besides music. Like I said, this cuts you out of most of the top double bass programs in the country because the bigshot bass bass teacher(s) at the bigshot music schools will not accept non-performance-majors into their studio and even if they wanted to, the music school may not allow the bigshot bass teacher to accept someone who is not focusing their studies 100% on double bass performance. Yes, there are always exceptions, but you will have to ask around to see if the target studio and school is one of those exceptions--good luck with that . . .
It sounds like you need a prestigious place that has a culture of nurturing & supporting those students who have interests in high level bass playing on the level of competitive professional preparation, as well as a non-musical academic field. Elite liberal arts colleges are great for this. The problem is that you have to make sure that the bass faculty is not a dud, meaning, at the very least, even if the bass program at a private liberal arts college is not a bigshot name brand studio that outputs oodles of winners of full-time major symphony jobs and true soloists & chamber musicians, you may still find a great sleeper pick if the bass faculty is a full-time symphony audition or solo competition winner with a real solo/chamber career, because at minimum you will be studying with someone that really knows what it takes to succeed professionally because they have done it themselves. You have to be real careful to make sure that the bass faculty is not some person that just went to school forever & never actually made any kind of significant professional living as a bassist.
So identify the prestigious school brand first to see if it's prestigious enough for you, then make sure that they have the academic program that your kid is interested in and that their academic program is indeed good and not just riding the coattails of the larger university's brand reputation, then google to see if they have a bass faculty that is a full-time symphony player or soloist or at one time, were.
St. Olaf in Northfield, MN, Reed College (in Portland, Oregon), DePauw University (in Greencastle, IN), and Bard College (in upstate NY near NYC) come to my mind as examples of the above you should check out. Since you give us so little info, and rightfully so because this is, after all, talkbass, I'm taking a stab in the dark with this suggested list.