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The Conservatory of Music’s Brass division provides world-class training with some of today’s finest performers. The stellar faculty includes such luminaries as trumpeter Brian Olson, Canadian Brass member trombonist Achilles Liarmakopoulos, and tubist Andrew Madej. The focus is on developing a solid technique while studying both the classical canon as well as more contemporary repertoire and extended techniques.
The composition program develops the unique musical voice of each composition student through exposure to a broad range of compositional styles. Each student, both undergraduate and graduate, receives private composition lessons for each semester they are in the program. Residencies are available within the Conservatory of Music’s numerous ensembles as well as in the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music. Collaboration opportunities abound with students in the television and radio, theater, art, film, and performance and interactive media arts programs. The composers produce seven or more concerts each year with additional performance opportunities on the programs of the Biannual International Electroacoustic Music Festival, conTEMPO New Music Ensemble, Brooklyn Electroacoustic Ensemble, and Computer Music Showcase. Master’s composition students may enroll in selected courses of the M.F.A. programs in media scoring and sonic arts. Additionally, six to eight prominent composers give seminars each year to the composition students as part of the Brooklyn College Composers’ Forum series.
The Conservatory of Music has a rich array of conducting faculty, featuring expertise in orchestral, wind ensemble, operatic, choral, and contemporary performance practice.
The guitar program focuses on solo classical and contemporary concert repertoire, as well as ensemble skills. The core of our instrumental training is rooted in the standard and modern classical guitar repertoire, but we also incorporate the electric guitar as part of building the skill set needed by the contemporary professional guitarist. The guitar ensemble is the forum where these skills are developed, and, to date, the Conservatory Guitar Ensemble has given the first performance of more than twenty new works for classical and electric guitars. Our guitar students are usually distributed evenly in numbers between graduate and undergraduate, and, similarly, between international and domestic. Over the years, we have graduated students from Asia, Europe, South America, and North America, many of whom have built impressive professional careers as performers and educators. Of recent graduates, one is currently a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, while another is the director for the Guitar Department at Mersin University in Turkey.
The harp program offers several possible undergraduate and graduate degrees to harp students of a high level who intend to perfect their ability in becoming professional musicians. Next to serious work on technical advancement, flexibility of sound, and informed interpretation there are many performance and learning opportunities available through the Brooklyn College orchestral, chamber music and new music departments, as well as through possible collaborations with other CUNY-affiliated schools. Undergraduate students will receive additional regular guidance through technique and orchestral excerpt classes, while graduate students will be guided through the preparation of auditions and competitions, time management, and preparation for professional life.
The jazz studies program represents a commitment to the future of jazz. In addition to traditional jazz studies, an emphasis on global rhythms, alternate notation and improvisation techniques, and contemporary practice ensure that the student will be prepared for performance and study of jazz as it is practiced by today’s innovators. Internationally-recognized faculty, an expanded ensemble program, a Conservatory Big Band, and access to New York jazz resources—coupled with the low cost of CUNY tuition—make this excellent program competitive, progressive, and encompassing of the entire jazz story.
Media scoring exists in the world in between sound and screen. As viewers, we identify and empathize with characters, and music is there to support their stories and emotions. Music weaves through the narrative, living in spaces between and around dialog. We compose soundtracks from the perspective of storytellers, layering music with sound, and informed by aspects of the visuals such as light and color. As a media scoring student, you will study the technique and practice of placing music and sound to picture. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of the creative, technical, historical, and analytical tools necessary to become an expert in the art and business of music for media. In addition to many scoring, recording, and music editing projects, the M.F.A. will culminate in a completed score for a film, television show, video game, or comparable narrative visual media. Learn more about the Media Scoring M.F.A. program.
Musicology focuses upon scholarship in the various fields of music through research, learning, and teaching. It studies music as an art form and cultural phenomenon, in all its multifaceted forms, both live and electronic, notated and un-notated. Musicological study includes the changing interactions of music and society over the course of time; the histories of dissemination, reception, and transmission; the close study and analysis of musical sources and related documents; music history and musicians’ biographies; relevant critical theories; and evolving performance practices over time, among many other things. Its topics are as diverse as are the myriad types of music available to listeners today, ranging from four centuries of Western concert music to jazz, to the latest popular music, to music from other cultures around the global. Since the Conservatory of Music is closely affiliated with the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music (HISAM; founded in 1971), with its significant collection of musical Americana, a semiannual journal (American Music Review), and special events, the musicology program’s curriculum and offerings have a strong emphasis upon American studies. All M.A. students are encouraged to develop, research, and write an original thesis on a topic of special interest—one that might conceivably be published in a refereed journal or lead to a fuller, more comprehensive treatment in a doctoral thesis. Graduates from the M.A. in Musicology Program have gone on to careers as music professors, music librarians, researchers, published writers, music archivists, dealers, artistic managers, early-music performers, and television/film documentarians, among many others. The main professional organization in the United States for this field is the American Musicological Society.
The Conservatory of Music’s strong Music Education program is dedicated to preparing students to teach music in a wide variety of environments, and particularly for the challenges of the urban public school system. Students are thoroughly steeped in classroom management and instrumental, vocal, and general methods as well as being advised and supported through the process of teacher licensure.
The Conservatory of Music provides a broad overview of various musics through history to non-music majors with its Introduction to Music courses, part of Brooklyn College’s general education “Pathways” program.
The Conservatory of Music features many opportunities in the area of music technology, including:
Further information is available at the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music website.
The percussion program offers thorough training in traditional methods and techniques along with extensive exploration of contemporary techniques. Attention is given to world musics and jazz alongside the classical and modern literature, introducing the student to the enormous breadth of the modern percussionist’s palette.
The piano programs at the Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College offer students in the performance and education degree courses an in-depth study of the repertoire for the instrument, developing stylistic interpretive skills and emphasizing performance practice in all styles of music. The required Piano Repertory Classes help students enhance their knowledge of piano repertoire and interpretation by means of weekly open studio classes, which give students the opportunity to play for their peers and the experience of regular public performance. Additionally, a Piano Practicum class provides students with the fundamental tools needed for accompanying and sight reading in professional situations. The distinguished faculty is unique at Brooklyn College as they are active performers as well, specializing in areas of standard piano literature, contemporary music, and jazz studies. The students are further encouraged to premiere new music written by their colleagues in the composition department, which fosters a unique and healthy environment and strengthens relationships between pianists and composers.
Sonic arts is an approach to composing music and sounds using new technologies. Electronic and software instruments open new possibilities for musical expression and sound design, which become two aspects of the same artistic practice. As a sonic arts student, you will study studio techniques as methods to realize creative vision. You will also study new media composition in weekly lessons and courses. The sonic arts curriculum is deliberately flexible, allowing each student to pursue his or her own artistic and professional goals, whether experimental, commercial, or both. The M.F.A. will culminate in a major new work, which may be purely musical or multimedia, possibly completed in collaboration with visual or performance artists. Learn more about the Sonic Arts M.F.A. Program.
The Conservatory of Music’s string program provides private lessons and foundational training with some of the most distinguished musicians in the world. String majors are afforded a wide variety of performance opportunities, in solo, chamber, and large ensemble contexts, and are instructed and coached by dedicated teachers and performers. The program is designed to develop skilled performers with a great breadth of fluency in their instrument’s repertoire, encompassing the standard solo, ensemble, and orchestral literature as well as more contemporary works and performance practice. The conservatory offers a broad range of performing experiences: string studio concerts, which provide students the opportunity to perform solo works; chamber ensembles; working with conservatory composition majors to present performances of new original music; the conTEMPO New Music Ensemble, where students perform classic modern repertoire alongside new cutting-edge compositions; and the Conservatory Orchestra, the programs of which feature a rich mix of classic and modern repertoire, and which also accompanies the celebrated Brooklyn College Opera Theatre productions every year.
The Conservatory of Music boasts one of the premier vocal studies programs in New York City and the country. The illustrious voice faculty includes some of the world’s premier performers and pedagogues—including Jack Li Vigni, Gregory Lamar, Patricia McCaffrey, Mark Schnaible, Amy Shoremount-Obra, Laquita Mitchell, and Neil Semer—and offers top-rate professional training, preparing students for the challenges of operatic performance and other vocal pursuits. The Opera Theatre, directed by Isabel Milenski, produces at least one fully staged opera production—such as its spring 2019 production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Along with opera scenes concerts and smaller productions, students enjoy weekly coachings with Music Director Violetta Zabbi. Malcolm J. Merriweather conducts the conservatory’s choirs, which include the large Symphonic Choir and the Chamber Choir, Conservatory Singers. In recent years, Conservatory Singers has performed with New York Philharmonic and rendered performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s St. John Passion, and Whitbourn’s Annelies with full orchestra and soloists.
Video clips: Brooklyn News12 story: Virtual Performance, New York 1: Virtual Performance
The woodwind area of the Conservatory of Music develops dynamic woodwind players for the global music arena. Woodwind students are prepared for professional music careers in performance and education by offering a wide range of experiences that create leadership skills and musical personality. Each student, undergraduate and graduate, is offered weekly private lessons with expert artist faculty. Contemporary and experimental performance opportunities go hand-in-hand with traditional studies in solo, chamber ensemble, and orchestral performance. Students participate in innovative courses such as contemporary ensemble, electronic music ensemble, and jazz ensemble that are taught by leading New York City artists. The woodwind area produces students with a comprehensive background in traditional performance who will become leaders in evolving forms of musical expression.
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The guitar program focuses on solo classical and contemporary concert repertoire, as well as ensemble skills. The core of our instrumental training is rooted in the standard and modern classical guitar repertoire, but we also incorporate the electric guitar as part of building the skill set needed by the contemporary professional guitarist. The guitar ensemble is the forum where these skills are developed, and, to date, the Conservatory Guitar Ensemble has given the first performance of more than 20 new works for classical and electric guitars. Our guitar students are usually distributed evenly in numbers between graduate and undergraduate, and, similarly, between international and domestic. Over the years, we have graduated students from Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, many of whom have built impressive professional careers as performers and educators. Of recent graduates, one is currently a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, while another is the director for the Guitar Department at Mersin University in Turkey.
The harp program offers several possible undergraduate and graduate degrees to harp students of a high level who intend to perfect their ability in becoming professional musicians. Next to serious work on technical advancement, flexibility of sound, and informed interpretation there are many performance and learning opportunities available through the Brooklyn College orchestral, chamber music, and new music departments as well as through possible collaborations with other CUNY-affiliated schools. Undergraduate students will receive additional regular guidance through technique and orchestral excerpt classes, while graduate students will be guided through the preparation of auditions and competitions, time management, and preparation for professional life.
The jazz studies program represents a commitment to the future of jazz and the new Master of Music degree in global and contemporary jazz studies is a reflection of that. In addition to traditional jazz studies, an emphasis on global rhythms, alternate notation and improvisation techniques, and contemporary practice ensure that the student will be prepared for performance and study of jazz as it is practiced by today’s innovators. Internationally recognized faculty, an expanded ensemble program, a Conservatory Big Band, and access to New York jazz resources—coupled with the low cost of CUNY tuition—make this excellent program competitive, progressive, and encompassing of the entire jazz story.
Musicology focuses upon scholarship in the various fields of music through research, learning, and teaching. It studies music as an art form and cultural phenomenon, in all its multifaceted forms, both live and electronic, notated and un-notated. Musicological study includes the changing interactions of music and society over the course of time; the histories of dissemination, reception, and transmission; the close study and analysis of musical sources and related documents; music history and musicians’ biographies; relevant critical theories; and evolving performance practices over time, among many other things. Its topics are as diverse as are the myriad types of music available to listeners today, ranging from four centuries of Western concert music to jazz, to the latest popular music, to music from other cultures around the global. Since the Conservatory of Music is closely affiliated with the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music (HISAM; founded in 1971), with its significant collection of musical Americana, a semiannual journal (American Music Review), and special events, the musicology program’s curriculum and offerings have a strong emphasis upon American studies. All M.A. students are encouraged to develop, research, and write an original thesis on a topic of special interest—one that might conceivably be published in a refereed journal or lead to a fuller, more comprehensive treatment in a doctoral thesis. Graduates from the Conservatory’s M.A. in Musicology Program have gone on to careers as music professors, music librarians, researchers, published writers, music archivists, dealers, artistic managers, early-music performers, and television/film documentarians, among many others. The main professional organization in the United States for this field is the American Musicological Society.
The Conservatory of Music’s strong music education program is dedicated to preparing students to teach music in a wide variety of environments, and particularly for the challenges of the urban public school system. Students are thoroughly steeped in classroom management and instrumental, vocal, and general methods as well as being advised and supported through the process of teacher licensure.
The piano programs at the Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College offer students in the performance and education degree courses an in-depth study of the repertoire for the instrument, developing stylistic interpretive skills and emphasizing performance practice in all styles of music. The required Piano Repertory classes help students enhance their knowledge of piano repertoire and interpretation by means of weekly open studio classes, which give students the opportunity to play for their peers and the experience of regular public performance. Additionally, a Piano Practicum class provides students with the fundamental tools needed for accompanying and sight reading in professional situations. The distinguished faculty is unique at Brooklyn College as they are active performers as well, specializing in areas of standard piano literature, contemporary music, and jazz studies. The students are further encouraged to premiere new music written by their colleagues in the composition department, which fosters a unique and healthy environment and strengthens relationships between pianists and composers.
The Conservatory of Music’s string program provides private lessons and foundational training with some of the most distinguished musicians in the world. String majors are afforded a wide variety of performance opportunities, in solo, chamber, and large ensemble contexts, and are instructed and coached by dedicated teachers and performers. The program is designed to develop skilled performers with a great breadth of fluency in their instrument’s repertoire, encompassing the standard solo, ensemble, and orchestral literature as well as more contemporary works and performance practice. The conservatory offers a broad range of performing experiences: string studio concerts, which provide students the opportunity to perform solo works; chamber ensembles; working with Conservatory composition majors to present performances of new original music; the conTEMPO New Music Ensemble, where students perform classic modern repertoire alongside new cutting-edge compositions; and the Conservatory Orchestra, the programs of which feature a rich mix of classic and modern repertoire, and which also accompanies the celebrated Brooklyn College Opera Theatre productions every year.
The Conservatory of Music boasts one of the premier vocal studies programs in New York City and the country. The illustrious voice faculty includes some of the world’s premier performers and pedagogues—including Jack Li Vigni, Gregory Lamar, Patricia McCaffrey, Mark Schnaible, Amy Shoremount-Obra, Laquita Mitchell, and Neil Semer—and offers top-rate professional training, preparing students for the challenges of operatic performance and other vocal pursuits. The Opera Theatre, directed by Isabel Milenski, produces at least one fully staged opera production–such as their Spring 2019 production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi–and one concert performance each year with the Conservatory Orchestra, conducted by George Rothman, along with opera scenes concerts and smaller productions. Malcolm J. Merriweather conducts the conservatory’s choirs, which include the large Symphonic Choir and the chamber choir, Conservatory Singers. Conservatory Singers present one stand-alone concert each semester as well as a joint concert with the Symphonic Choir, the latter often accompanied by a chamber orchestra. Recent programs have included dynamic performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana and Handel’s Messiah.
Video clips: Brooklyn News12 story: Virtual Performance New York 1: Virtual Performance
