Overall, Julliard is the most famous, in New York. Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh is excellent in all the arts; Westminster Choir College, part of Rider University in New Jersey, is a small liberal arts school with a superb music program; Berklee College of Music in Boston is an excellent music school, of course. Any of the Ivy League schools have top music programs—which illustrates the importance of the arts in education.
Also, Catholic universities place emphasis on the arts in education, so their music programs are usually some of the strongest. Notre Dame, Georgetown, etc. Have great music programs. I know Oberlin College in Ohio has a very good orchestral school, I'm not sure how they are with vocal performance.
For performance and classical training, Julliard is the most famous. Next add Peabody Conservatory and New England Conservatory to the top tier for performance. Berklee in Boston has an extremely up-to-date and practical curriculum for those who want to perform/compose in non-traditional styles.
You can study turntable scratching there! None of these that I just mentioned have what I call good music education programs—programs for people wanting to train to be music teachers. For that, you must go to Michigan State University, Michigan University, Univ.
Of South Carolina, Temple University. There are more. In fact, my opinion on university music education programs is that they are decades behind the times.
The greatest researcher and author in the field is all but neglected with the exception of the schools just mentioned. In my opinion, students in music education need years of study in the body of research of Dr. Edwin Gordon. Orff and Kodaly training programs, and Suzuki to some extent, don't have the power and the research behind them that Gordon's Music Learning Theory has.
For those serious about performance and performance only, many of the highest tier candidates don't pick the institution, but rather they pick the teacher with whom they want to study. If you want to study piano with Leon Fleisher, one of the greats, you audition to go to Peabody. If you aren't promised that you can study with him, you go to the school that has your second favorite teacher.To further complicate matters, consider Coltrane and other greats.
They didn't really even go to school. Music and all music was their school. They practiced without eating and learned from the masters whether they were teaching in schools or not.
They would just pick up an album and learn by ear from the geniuses of and before their time. That's REAL music learning, but it's not for the faint of heart. I'm not as familiar with schools outside the US, so it's hard for me to comment.
Many of the European, Asian, and other conservatories are stuck to older traditions than are those here in America. Still, great artists come out of any system. How's that? They have the inner drive, passion, and extremely high music aptitude (potential to achieve in music).
This phenomenon of music aptitude is my specialty. Ivy league schools are good but only for small niches. Composition at Cornell is good.
Theory at Princeton. It depends what your purpose for going to school is specifically.
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