Top 25 Schools according to The Hollywood Reporter




USC Los Angeles Thornton School of Music

Thornton offers the rigorous approach of a conservatory along with an equally strong focus on contemporary media music. The school recently added five new graduate programs, including arts leadership, community music, contemporary teaching practice, music industry and screen scoring, which teaches students the ins and outs of scoring everything from motion pictures to video games and even virtual reality systems. Daniel Carlin, director and chair of the screen scoring department, says Thornton's film scoring program is geared to prepare students for the jobs they'll likely get well before any real scoring gigs. "When students graduate now, you're going to have to earn a living primarily as a composer's assistant, and that is primarily technological duties — copying with notation software, programming, updating computers and doing stuff that composers are too busy to do."

TUITION $47,562 (in state)

NOTABLE ALUMNI Thomas Newman, Bruce Broughton

The Juilliard School

This 112-year-old New York institution remains world-renowned as the school that produces some of the world's most famous instrumentalists and composers, with a student population of approximately 600 from all over the world. Juilliard houses its music, dance and drama programs in the same building, allowing for cross-pollination among disciplines, and its student-to-faculty ratio is 3-to-1, so students can count on a lot of face time and direct instruction from teachers and musicians.

TUITION $38,228

NOTABLE ALUMNI Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass

Berklee College of Music

With a strong film scoring program and an emphasis on production, engineering and recording technology, Boston-based Berklee positions students to make the leap into the music business quickly. Despite the large number of students and a generous acceptance rate of 34 percent, class size at the college is relatively small, at around 11. The school offers the opportunity to join more than 350 student instrumental ensembles, as well as student-run record labels.

TUITION $41,530

NOTABLE ALUMNI Ramin Djawadi, Melissa Etheridge

UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

With departments in ethnomusicology, music and musicology, the Herb Alpert School boasts a progressive, multicultural approach to learning as well as high-profile public concerts and lectures that have become an integral part of the vibrant Los Angeles cultural scene. The school also offers a manageable total student population of fewer than 500, a 20 percent acceptance rate and affordable in-state tuition of $13,260, and students can take courses in jazz, techno and even heavy metal, along with media music.

TUITION $13,260

NOTABLE ALUMNI Randy Newman, John Williams

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Founded in 1917, this private institution manages to blend the grand traditions of a classical music education with an influence — and a generous infusion of cash — from Silicon Valley and its video game businesses. "San Francisco Conservatory is getting very noticeable and good and should be looked at if you want to get into gaming, because Google writes them a massive check every year and they've grown exponentially," notes composer Larry Groupe (Line of Fire).

TUITION $43,700, including fees

NOTABLE ALUMNI Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin

Eastman School of Music

Located in Rochester, New York, Eastman takes a liberal arts approach to education in order to fit music students' experience into the broader context of the humanities and other art studies. Emmy-winning composer and Eastman alumnus Jeff Beal (House of Cards) and his wife, Joan (also an alumna), helped establish the school's Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media with a $2 million contribution, and composer Mark Watters currently runs the program. "We want to produce composers that are well-rounded and not just grounded in the technology," he says.

TUITION $51,440

NOTABLE ALUMNI Laurence Rosenthal, Alexander Courage

Royal College of Music

If you've always had a yen to perform at Royal Albert Hall, London's Royal College of Music affords you the opportunity to live and train among its 750 students and follow in the footsteps of such famed composers as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten. The school's Woodhouse Professional Development Centre helps students mold themselves into world-class instructors and find employment in academia.

TUITION $12,200 to $17,800, depending on the degree program

NOTABLE ALUMNI Leopold Stokowski, James Galway

New England Conservatory

With a five-year program in partnership with Harvard, it's possible to get degrees from not one but two of the nation's most prestigious schools. Boston-based NEC offers courses in jazz as well as classical, contemporary improvisation, world and early music. Its performers are former students and faculty of the school, but for students looking to leverage their education into the business side of music, the school offers an entrepreneurial musicianship program.

TUITION $46,100

NOTABLE ALUMNI Sean Callery, Cecil Taylor

Curtis Institute of Music

Here's the good news: Philadelphia's Curtis is free. The bad news: The school is picky, taking only around 5 percent of applicants per year. There's no age limits on auditions, so whether you are a child prodigy or discovered a talent late in life, Curtis can hone your skills to a professional level.

TUITION Free, plus $14,363 room and board

NOTABLE ALUMNI Leonard Bernstein, Lang Lang

New York University Steinhardt School of Music

Steinhardt's Scoring for Film and Multimedia program gives students the opportunity to have their written music performed by soloists, ensembles and a full symphonic orchestra. NYU's music business program enrolls 160 undergrads and 80 master's students to work with NYU's Stern School of Business to prepare themselves for the financial side of the industry.

TUITION $24,900

NOTABLE ALUMNI Alan Menken, Wayne Shorter

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

Oberlin, Ohio's 184-year-old conservatory, combines the old and the new with conservatory training, a strong media program and one of the most progressive college campuses in the U.S. In conjunction with Oberlin College, the school offers a five-year double-degree program, which allows students to earn a bachelor of music and bachelor of arts degree.

TUITION $52,762

NOTABLE ALUMNI James McBride, Liz Phair

Yale School of Music

Yale is the only Ivy League graduate school exclusively devoted to music, and with an acceptance rate of around 10 percent, it is as exclusive as you might expect. Starting this year, high school seniors applying to Yale College can apply for a joint degree with the School of Music, something previously available to only Yale College juniors. The New Haven school's focus remains on art and concert music, with limited study for media or commercial approaches.

TUITION $40,500

NOTABLE ALUMNI David Lang, John Mauceri

Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University

IU's Jacobs School of Music, based in Bloomington, is one of the largest in the country, with well-funded facilities and a thriving environment for opera with numerous yearly productions. Visiting professor of composition Larry Groupe runs the film scoring program, which collaborates with the university's film school. "They've asked me to create a master's degree and a doctoral minor and two certificate programs, so we're expanding and I'm hiring some adjuncts," says Groupe. "The intention is to compete with Berklee and USC."

TUITION $12,533 (in state), $36,845 (out of state)

NOTABLE ALUMNI Joshua Bell, Leonard Slatkin

University of North Texas

One of the first American music schools to offer programs in jazz, UNT — located in Denton, just outside Dallas — houses a music library that's among the most impressive in the nation, with more than 1 million sound recordings as well as eight performance halls, 26 ensembles and 300 practice rooms.

TUITION $19,000

NOTABLE ALUMNI Christopher Young, Norah Jones

Manhattan School of Music

With around 250 instructors, the school's 900-plus students can enjoy one-on-one interaction with their teachers, and MSM's 700 performances a year — both at the school proper and Lincoln Center — give young musicians ample opportunity to hone their craft on a world stage.

TUITION $58,000

NOTABLE ALUMNI Herbie Hancock, John Corigliano

Columbia College Chicago

The school's MFA program in music composition for the screen teaches students the integration of acoustic, orchestral instruments with electronic samples, employing cutting-edge recording, production and mixing technology in an MFA music lab. Budding composers work with experienced professionals in three seven-week workshops and eventually attend a five-week semester in Los Angeles.

TUITION $63,106 (total for two-year MFA)

NOTABLE ALUMNI Paul Broucek, Kid Sister

Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program at Seattle Film Institute

Established by composer Hummie Mann in Seattle in 1997, the program merged with the Seattle Film Institute in 2011 and was accredited to deliver a master of music in film composition. "In the one-year program, the students have nine recording sessions," says Mann, "everything from three musicians and electronics — like they may have in a TV show — all the way up to a 52-piece orchestra."

TUITION $33,600

NOTABLE ALUMNI Brendon Williams (game composer), Bobby Brader

University of Miami Frost School of Music

With an enviable record of 88 percent of its graduates finding a full-time job or going on to graduate school within six months of graduation, Frost offers courses in improvisation, arranging, composing, critical thinking, keyboard performance, engineering and digital recording. It broke ground in offering degrees in music business and music engineering technology.

TUITION $21,520

NOTABLE ALUMNI Ben Folds, Bruce Hornsby

Colburn School of Music

Originally a division of the USC Thornton School of Music, the school split from Thornton in 1980, and on the strength of an endowment from namesake Richard D. Colburn, it continued to thrive. The downtown L.A. school, which in partnership with the dance school is known as Colburn's School of the Performing Arts, recently received a $1 million bequest from the estate of Iona Benson, a donor and former board member, which will support need-based scholarships.

TUITION $13,000

NOTABLE ALUMNI David Fung, Eric Reed

University of North Carolina School of the Arts

Winston-Salem's UNC boasts a film scoring program that is integrated into the School of Filmmaking, which gives students the opportunity to work with student directors on scores for up to 20 projects a year.

TUITION $6,497 (in state), $22,240 (out of state)

NOTABLE ALUMNI Eddie Barbash, Randy Jones

Columbia University

New York City-based Columbia's music performance program provides hundreds of students with courses and practical experience in classical, jazz, pop and other music forms, and graduate students are prepared for careers in academia, criticism, technology and composition.

TUITION $45,290

NOTABLE ALUMNI Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein

Guildhall School of Music

With an acceptance rate of 18 percent, London's Guildhall houses over 850 students and 376 staff for a student to teacher ratio of 7.8 to 1. Students have the opportunity to perform at famous venues around London, including the London Symphony Orchestra St. Luke's and Wigmore Hall.

TUITION $18,600 to $32,100, depending on the program

NOTABLE ALUMNI Sir George Martin, Dido

California Institute of the Arts

Long on the cutting edge of filmmaking, Valencia's CalArts is equally progressive in the field of music, sporting its own division of the Herb Alpert School of Music. The school's MFA experimental sound practices specialization allows advanced students to explore a range of unconventional musical approaches, such as circuit-bending, modifying, breaking down conventional instruments and a wide variety of other techniques.

TUITION $41,700

NOTABLE ALUMNI Gabrial McNair, Ravi Coltrane

Conservatoire de Paris

With a revered program that has produced such artists as Ravel, Saint-Saens, Debussy, Boulez and Berlioz, the Conservatoire takes only 30 new students a year. Its brutal 3 percent acceptance rate (admission is through competitive exams) makes it one of the most exclusive programs in the world, but the student population is relatively sizable at more than 1,300 students, and the school's 410 instructors allow for a great deal of personal attention for budding musicians.

TUITION Free

NOTABLE ALUMNI Arthur Honegger, Georges Bizet

Cleveland Institute of Music

After two years of better-than-average fundraising, CIM has announced that it will reduce its tuition for incoming students by 15 percent and hold tuition flat for students already enrolled. CIM is in line with some of the East Coast's tonier schools, so the price cut should help draw students from a wider range of economic backgrounds.

TUITION $48,671, including fees

NOTABLE ALUMNI David Diamond, Shelly Berg

 

Many european music schools are free and offer perhaps even more than US schools.
You can become a mixing engineer without spending a dime, something not possible in US.

 

But we still need to move LA, right? If we would like to score a blockbuster. Networking is another important stage we need to deal with, as I see. After getting the job, it depends on our talent to keep the title or not.

 

Start on smaller stuff, europe offers a lot. Its a bit more complicated and involves a lot of factors, yes connections and networking is on top of the list.

 

europe is just better than everyone ( i spent 4 years in germany (im from new york), best part of miy life!)