Piano Conservatories

[ktack]

Hi all, I'm not really sure where on this forum this post would go. Anyways, I'm in High School and my teacher said I should start thinking about which conservatories to look into. I am not yet a senior, yet the ones I'm interested in give me an idea of which summer programs to take place in. Which ones are the best?

Thanks!

[qpalqpal]

New England Conservatory
Julliard School
Oberlin Conservatory

[ktack]

THanks. Anymore? i'm actually quite interested in San fransisco conservatory and eastman, but I dont know where those fall among places like NEC or juilliard.

[49410enrique]

https://www.curtis.edu/

https://www.peabody.jhu.edu/

also not trying to say only these, in my neck of the woods these have very very good reputations on the piano performance side of things
https://music.unt.edu/  i.e this guy attracts some incredible talent to study with him and i've seen/heard his students, they're awesome
https://music.unt.edu/faculty-and-staff/detail/112

https://www.baylor.edu/music/ same deal here, i know this lady, and many of her studnets, they are freakin awesome, and she is a great person in addition to an incredible teacher
https://www.baylor.edu/music/piano/index.php?id=47471

also good
https://music.rice.edu/

also
https://www.music.tcu.edu/faculty_j_feghali.asp  he's awesome. won the cliburn a while back and has done wonders for the program since he became artist in residence.

what i'm getting at here is that yes some schools with have great prestige and reputations, rightly so in many regards, but it is more important you go perhaps where you connect most with the teacher/artist you want to study under. also dig around as seen from above some schools at are not 'on the radar' of most when it comes to great conservatories have incredible artists and teachers in residence.

PS
a really small school (also in TX) , i know this lady too,  incredible pianist and teacher, i've played for serval masterclasses by her and i absolutely love her teaching style and performance outlook, if i had the time/money and logistics to do graduate study with her I would totally go here.
https://hr.umhb.edu/profile/Schumann/Michelle


you should probalby put a list to gether and make plans to visit the schools and meet the artists you are considering if at all possible, this will give you a really good idea of who you 'click with' and where you might find a 'best fit'.

good luck!

[pianoman53]

Everything is about what you think. Dominique Merlet is considered one of the best teachers in the world, but I'm not really fond of either his, or his students, playing. I love Bashkirov, but I know many who doesn't like him at all. There are also some unknown teachers who, to some students, are way better than some of the known ones.

Another thing you should think about is "What if you don't get the teacher you wish for?". If you don't completely blow the judges away, while applying to a big school, there is a quite a risk that you don't get the teacher you wanted as your prio one. Sometimes, your prio 1 and prio 2 are more or less the same, but sometimes it's Do or die with one teacher.


The best advice I can give you is to listen to couple of teachers, and their students, and then go and take a lesson. Maybe they play well, but the way they teach doesn't suit you.
You chances to get the teacher you want also increases a lot if you show that you really want to study for him/her.

[avguste]

Great question and most people already answered the question.

Another point to take into consideration is whether you want to remain in the USA/North America or move to Europe or another territory.
It also depends on what you are looking to do in the future. Are you looking to be a concert pianist?

[ktack]

I am looking to stay in the US.

I guess a better question is who are the best undergraduate conservatory level professors in the US?

[pianoman53]

If you read my last response carefully, you'd see that I said that not every have the same opinion about teachers. There will never be a question to those sort of answers, since so much of it is taste. The only thing you can do is ask your own teacher, and then try to take lessons from teachers you find interesting. Look up some names on youtube and spotify, or whatever, and then try to make an appointment where you can have a lesson with them.