 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ben
Date: 2006-10-04 01:52
For someone interested in a primarily performing career (yes, I know how hard it is to get any job in music!), what’s the real value of graduate school? I have a good friend finishing her DMA in flute at Eastman; she feels like she never has time to practice, since there’s such a big academic component for her degree. She didn’t realize it before she started, but is close to being done now. Also, I’d imagine most people with a Masters or Doctorate do not have a good playing or teaching job (at least, one that pays the rent and a car payment).
I guess if one goes somewhere where it’s not a financial drain, they’re working with a helpful and inspiring teacher, and they feel like they have enough time to practice and prepare for auditions, it would be a great situation! But, it’s hard to find all those things in one place; Yale and Colburn come to mind, though.
So assuming someone is a good player, and already has a good enough resume to audition for many professional orchestras, what would be the most helpful?
1) Going to a school with a better reputation and working with a great teacher, but getting a bunch of debt, too. Better for a resume if one applies for a teaching/performance job, and better place perhaps to make contacts, but without much security after graduation. What does one do when you’re out of school, have $60,000 in debt, and no time to practicing enough to be competitive in an audition while paying it back?
2) Go to a school that isn’t as great overall (lower quality orchestra, chamber music, etc.), but has a great teacher, and where they might also be more likely to help financially. So, perhaps one could graduate after a couple years with a much smaller debt to repay, but if they aren’t in an area where they could freelance and make contacts while in school, where do they go from there? Move to a major city as an unknown? Hope to have a job before they graduate?
3) Live as cheaply as possible getting a job to make ends meet (private teaching + waiting tables), practicing as much as possible and studying with good teachers in the meantime. No graduate degree to help with college teaching, but still having all the advantages of being in a big city to freelance and study with good teachers, without a huge student loan hanging over your head. Going back to school would always be an option, of course.
I’d be interested to know what people think, especially if you went to graduate school for music. If so, what you’re doing know, and how do you think it helped or not?
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Author: am0032
Date: 2006-10-04 02:51
Getting a masters degree is a great idea even if you don't plan on university teaching. It is a two year degree(one at some places) and just gives you a taste of what a DMA will be like. It's not unbelievably difficult because it's not a terminal degree. You really grow a lot musically during your masters especially if you find a different teacher that is more discriminating than your undergrad teacher. Being around excellent players in the school setting can also push you to excel along with competing for the better ensemble spots. Not to mention you will be getting additional ensemble experience that will be more difficult to get "in the real world". You also never know if your feelings might change about being only a orchestral/military band performer. The performing jobs that actually pay a living wage are becoming more and more scarce. I recommend the masters for sure and the DMA when/if you are fully committed to becoming a university professor.
Adam
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2006-10-04 03:49
Graduate school is a great way to buy yourself some time, keep you performing, meet lots of people, and have a fancy piece of paper with which people assume you are more important.
I'm looking at graduate school as well right now, though I'm going the composition route, with the ultimate goal of becoming a composition professor. The bonus of that is that at lots of places you're pretty much guaranteed a full ride assistantship (i.e. you teach theory courses) if they accept you. I imagine it's somewhat less so in performance, though.
For me, I'm hoping to go the composer/performer route, and while I'd be going for a composition degree, it gives a great 4-5 years of performing in ensembles, meeting people to start ensembles of my own, and generally being surrounded by cool music people. Plus all the writing of music, of course, without which being a composition major is kinda out of the question.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: vin
Date: 2006-10-04 14:04
If you want a performing career, get the best teacher you can, someone with a track record for helping students master the clarinet, expand as musicians and, most importantly, win jobs. Yehuda Gilad, Larry Combs, Mark Nuccio are some names that come to mind. Getting an orchestra job or any other kind of performance job is too hard to do without the very best tools. A suggestion might be to get into one of these studios, move to the city, take a year off, save up money, live cheaply, take lessons with the teacher, practice your ass off, then go to school the next year. Some people don't do very well though in such an unstructured environment- you have to know yourself.
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