# Top MM Composition Programs



## Guest (Jan 30, 2013)

I'm going to be applying to grad schools soon for composition and I'm wondering if anyone here has any recommendations. My current teacher, Anthony Iannaccone, has made some recommendations of his own. Here's my list so far:

University of Texas at Austin (Grantham/Welcher)
University of Michigan (Daugherty/Chambers)
University of Missouri KC 
Michigan State 
Bowling Green State
Florida State
maybe Indiana University and/or Cincinnati Conservatory

I'm trying to limit the list generally to smaller schools where I have a better shot at getting some kind of graduate award like an assistantship or fellowship. The first two are a stretch but they're my top 2 choices. I'm open to other suggestions, and I'm sure there will be others who can benefit from this info too. 

So, any thoughts?


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Mark Camphouse and George Mason.*

One. I am a big fan of Iannaccone. I have recordings of twelve of his works.

Second. Iannacone's list is great. I feel presumptions in making any suggestions. Just because a composer has a reputation does not mean he will be a great teacher. I personally know Mark Camphouse. He is a great guy and teaches at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. There music department is not a top tier school like the ones on your list, but it appears that Camphouse is a great teacher. Our band commissioned a piece from him. See: http://www.talkclassical.com/23100-do-composers-have-any-3.html#post399371


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## Guest (Jan 30, 2013)

Yeah, Dr. I has told me many times that big schools with big reputations are not always the best schools and that I can do just as well (if not better) at a smaller school where I won't have to sell myself into slavery over tuition and where I won't get suffocated by a big personality. Jennifer Higdon did either her MM or DMA at Bowling Green, so there's a case in point. So thanks for the recommendations! I will run them by Tony. 

Also, have you listened to any of Iannaccone's choral works? EMU's choir is singing several of them now and they're awesome.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Jeff N said:


> I'm going to be applying to grad schools soon for composition and I'm wondering if anyone here has any recommendations. My current teacher, Anthony Iannaccone, has made some recommendations of his own. Here's my list so far:
> 
> University of Texas at Austin (Grantham/Welcher)
> University of Michigan (Daugherty/Chambers)
> ...


I've heard Florida has a lot of jazz, and then they get cruise-ship gigs. I'm here at UT, and I think the music department is very good. Dan Welcher seems like a great guy. He appears on the radio, and has put on some daring shows. It's big on classical guitar. You should tell us more about yourself, what instrument you play, etc.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

The mechanics for your potential study place has everything to do with the teacher with whom you will be studying your major subject.

Unless you are extraordinarily brilliant and can 'produce' in flourishes, you will not have the time or money enough to double major in comp and performance -- your instrument becomes a minor, and only a few are of a protean talent enough to do both to a maximum of 'great.'

I heard the Camphouse commissioned piece, as mentioned above in this thread. It is a very fine journeyman composer's piece tailored to fit the wont and ability of the group who commissioned it, and a very 'accessible' cautiously conservative modern sort of writing. I believe the band tradition, especially in the southern state schools, also includes this sort of musical fare.

Carnegie Melon is a school for hot dogs most suited or drawn to 'the school of the new complexity.'

Every school, dependent upon the teaching staff, has its strengths, and those often fall within criteria of both a harmonic and aesthetic realm. What is most important is to match 'what you would like to do, how you think you want to write,' -- to a teacher most in accord with your musical aesthetic. Otherwise, you're at a great school, with a fine staff and reputation, and a fish out of water hungering for your particular type of air.

One colleague of mine got his master's in comp in Austin, Tx: his prof was a conservative who pushed atonality while not believing in it himself, and who also lectured endlessly about retro-conservative sonata-allegro and symphonic form. My colleague learned well enough from that prof, but it was not for him, as a student, a situation where the prof could steer him in the direction he wanted to go, nor would I call that very 'giving' of that Prof. 

In contrast, Darius Milhaud pulled his student Steve Reich aside and told Reich that he thought Reich was most interested -- against all the current trends of those decades -- in composing tonal music. That was a canny and generous teacher, pushing the student in the direction where his greatest strength and keenest interest lie.

You want first and most:
...the prof who can guide you along your own path, and a generous prof at that

secondarily, a decent assigned teacher for your instrumental minor, thirdly, a decent peer group -- as stimulus and available performers to read through or perform your compositions. 

All those first; Name and 'prestige' of institution, last.

P.s. by 'Michigan State' I assume you can only mean University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. A fine music department, but I have no idea 'what kind of comp' is currently being taught or produced there; you need to look into, again, names and the quality and style of what is being taught there.

Florida, other than the tiniest of cultural pockets in a university, is one of America's greatest cultural wasteland states. I'd avoid it like the plague.

Indiana Bloomington is most about performance, and Opera.

I also think it would be remarkably healthy for you to attend some place not remotely 'Southern,' (the only one 'not' being Cincinnatti) because staying regional does not expand your thinking, something else which is most appropriate for university, and before you get further 'settled' into full adulthood. People and thought are similar everywhere, while from one major demographic region in the states to the next, you will find differences, and those differences are good to make part of your environment.


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## Guest (Jan 30, 2013)

Thanks for the lengthy replies!

By Michigan State I actually mean Michigan State University in East Lansing. Not a renowned comp program but a good school and one to keep at least lower on the list. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has Michael Daugherty whose music I admire (and whom I've met and talked to on a few occasions, nice guy), so it would be higher on my list. 

I've been looking at all the schools my teacher recommended and checking out the faculty to see who best fits my needs. UT Austin has Donald Grantham whose music I really admire, so he's my first choice. He's also a fantastic orchestrator, so I feel like I could learn a lot from him. Welcher is good also, he visited EMU and I had the chance to speak with him a few times. 

Thanks for tips on Florida and Indiana. I've been iffy about both, and a friend of mine getting his DMA at Indiana warned me that the comp faculty there is ultra-modern. Probably not for me.

I play piano, but have only been playing for the better part of 4 years so I still lack technical efficiency. So I'm definitely more fixed on composition over performance. Maybe that will help determine my choice of school...


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