Posted by Tony Antonuccio on March 11, 1999 at 16:11:51:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Majoring in Music posted by james on March 10, 1999 at 21:17:54:
I didn't mean to sound as if I was writing off large schools. Indeed, my son auditioned at two. Both profs readily stated that assistants would be giving the lessons to freshmen. And, at the more famous one, mostly seniors and grad students actually had lessons with the very famous prof. On the other hand, Curtis is very small but highly reputed.
I believe that there is an ideal size, a critical mass. All students should have the benefit of personal weekly instruction by the professor. The music college should be large enough to field quality ensembles to keep everyone busy. This way, if you are not yet the best, you'll receive the instruction and work to get you there. Large studios and competitive ensembles are not exclusive to large schools.
Bottom line is that different size schools provide different advantages to particular students. I was just trying to point out that one need not attend a state tuba "factory" to get a quality education.
Now, if you are a grad student then a large school might be ideal as you'll likely be teaching plenty of freshmen.