Rating conservatories

[pianowelsh]

It just occured to me how warped the way we assess the quality of music schools is. We decide on the basis of how famous a player the staff members are and the difficulty level of getting in and sometimes the quality of graduates..BUT surely we should see how they actually train musicians.  We should look at what sort of talents they take in..its arguably much easier to prepare a Kissen for a concert career than to take an average player and get them up to international competition level..which is what is expected of many conservatory profs.. It must be recognised too that many who are the best teachers have not got amazingly distinguished performing careers.

[thalberg]

Pianowelsh this is true!

A pianist with great potential is often overlooked and allowed to languish at a great music school where the "stars" are taking all the attention.

The best scenario is to find a teacher who really *teaches* so that you can really improve and actually GET SOMETHING for your exorbitant tuition.  But these teachers are usually not famous, as you mentioned.....so how do you find them?  If you are so lucky as to find one, then you have a non-famous teacher and a non-famous school on your resume and so you can forget about getting a good job.

One time I took my entire conservatory phone directory and called EVERY pianist in it to ask where they did their undergrad and who they studied with and if the teacher was good.  ONE person studied with a good teacher--whom I had never heard of--at an obscure school.  This student's testimony was remarkable.

I WISH I would have gone to that school.  I auditioned and got in, but I feared that my resume would look bad if I went there, so I didn't go.  I stayed at my famous school with my apathetic teacher.   The next year, the teacher at the obscure school took a job at Peabody.  I made a bad decision!!!