Missouri Sax Student looking for a College

[BigTony]

Hello everyone.

I am about to start my senior year of high school, and I wanted to get in some college visits in this summer. I was wondering what some good colleges were for saxophone performance. I was 5th chair Missouri all state band my Junior year, and I preformed Bernhard Heiden's Sonata. This summer I am starting work on Paul Creston's Sonata (basically getting all the classic and common pieces done ;). ) If you guys could give me some advice on where would be good to go for someone with my skill level/where you guys went, I would be very thankful.

[SteveY]

My son just graduated from high school here in MO and will be entering UMKC this fall as a sax performance major. I'd recommend reading as much as you can about any school you're interested in and talk with students, teachers and others, that have experience with any of the schools that interest you. After you've put together a short list of schools, arrange for visits to the schools to visit the Sax teacher(s), students and campus. Everyone has different wants/needs, so try to find the teacher and school that's a good fit for you.

Does it make any difference to you if it's an in-state school or not? Where are you from in MO?

[No Clever Name]

I don't have a lot of advice for you... I am actually in the same position as you (cept I'm from ND). I will be a senior this year. Funny, I am working up the Creston Sonata right now as well... cept I did Heiden as a sophomore, and the John Worley Sonata this year.

I will be keeping a close eye on this thread.

[BigTony]

I would actually prefer if it were an out of state school :) . My parents are moving away anyways, and I thought it was a good opportunity to go out and about. I am from Columbia though. I am planning some college visits this August, but I was just wondering where some good faculty was located so I could make sure I hit those schools.

[retread]

Bobby Watson teaches sax at UMKC.

[Chris S]

Hey,

Having read your post, and assuming that the Creston will be prepared well (I've heard it slaughtered a lot of times). I'd suggest the following schools

University of North Texas ( http://www.unt.edu/ ) - This is where I'll be going next fall after two years at a very small community college. The trick with UNT is it's not neccesarily that difficiult to get in, but it is difficult after your first two years to be accepted as a concentration. Definantly a great school and there are tons of opportunities. The college of music's website is http://www.music.unt.edu/ James Riggs and Eric Nestler are the sax profs there and they are both fantastic. The UNT Wind Symphony is the only college ensemble in the nation that has a commercial recording contract. The One O'Clock Jazz Band is fantastic, rivals most professional jazz ensembles out there. They'll be performing at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic this December, which you should definantly go to if you can, their website is: http://www.midwestclinic.com/conferenceinfo.asp This was my number one choice of colleges when I applied last year.

University of Northern Colorado - ( http://www.unco.edu/ ) - This one is a bit questionable, as the sax prof (Roger Greenberg) just retired, and apparently the school is suffering from budget cutbacks and whatnot, but I have a few friends that go there, and they love it. The music dept's website is: http://arts.unco.edu/music/default.html

Then there are a few of the private schools which are great, but also much more expensive, Northwestern (http://www.northwestern.edu/), New School (http://www.newschool.edu/) or their counterpart Mannes (http://www.mannes.edu/). Northwestern is in Chicago, and both New School and Mannes are in NY. All three of those are pretty costly though. UNT and UNC are both pretty afforadble I think UNT's tuition is about $10,000-12,000 a year and UNC's is $16,000 a year. Northwestern, New School and Mannes are all in the $30,000-40,000 range I think.

Other than those, maybe check out the Washington State, where Greg Yasinitsky teaches. Then there's always CalArts, and USC has a pretty good school from what I've heard, they have H. Bob Reynolds as the conductor of their Wind Groups. Arizona State, University of Texas, Cal State Fullerton, Colorado University (CU), Denver University (DU), and Denver Metro are all good schools, from what I have heard, but I have no personal experience with any of these schools.

Oh, and I just remembered another school that I was thinking of, the University of Northern Iowa. A good friend and former teacher of mine teaches there, Chris Merz. He's a fantastic player and a phenominal teacher. Really has his stuff together. Anywho, that's probably enough to keep you busy for a while.

My best advice is to buy a recording of any university that you're interested in and see what they sound like. You want to go somewhere where you're going to be playing stuff that you like. I know UNT has a lot to choose from, most of the groups there record at least once a year. UNC also has recordings and Northwestern has a new Wind Ensemble CD coming out this fall sometime. ASU, UT, CU and UNI should all have recordings, if not, then call up the director of whatever department you're interested in and I'm sure they'd be happy to send you a recording of a concert or something.

Hope this helps.

Good luck,
Chris S

[SlaxMS18]

Hey. It seems like there're a few of us in the same position- I will be a senior next year and I'm also preparing the Creston "Sonata" for college auditions as well as Milhaud's "Scarmouche". Anyway, though my search, I have found a couple more schools that you might want to check out. First is the University of Maryland at College Park. Both teachers, Dale Underwood and Chris Vadala, are incredible and just really good guys to work with (I visited the school and took a lesson from both of them a few months back). Additionally, if you are into classical sax, you should know Eugene Rousseau, and he teaches at the University of Minnesota, I believe. Simply for Dr. Rousseau it might pay to just check the school out. Anyway, I hope that I could help a little bit. Bye.

[TWINE]

Hey,

Then there are a few of the private schools which are great, but also much more expensive, Northwestern.....

I've heard excellent things about Dr. Hemke @ Northwestern........studied under Mule I believe.

[awholley]

If you wamt to study classical, the big 3 are:

Indiana University
University of Michigan
Northwestern

Other schools and teachers that are good (or thatI have heard are good).

LSU -Griffin Campbell
University of Illiniois -Debra Richtmeyer
University of Florida - Jonathan Helton
Duqesne University - James Houlik
Florida State - Patrick Meighan
Michigan State -Joe Lulloff
Univ. of Southern Mississippi -Lawrence Gwozdz

[SlaxMS18]

I have been looking into many of the schools mentioned on this thread as well, yet while the University of Michigan and Northwestern University are considered two of the top schools, there should be some warning before going there. I have been advised from a few people just to keep an eye out for the teacher situation at both schools... The problem at both the University of Michigan and Northwestern University is that their teachers, Sinta and Hemke, are getting ready to retire (or so rumor has it). It is questionable whether, if you are to enter college in the fall of 2005, that either of them will be teaching at their respective colleges for the four years that you would be studying at the school. And while their replacements would certainly be excellent, they will not be Dr. Sinta or Dr. Hemke. Don't take this as concrete evidence, it is just something that I heard on my college search, and I figured that I'd pass it along. If anyone else has heard anything about it, I'd be interested to hear. It's just something to take into consideration as well. Good luck!

- Matt

[TMadness1013]

All above mentioned have top notch professors & music schools!

If you're in Missouri and are looking to stay relatively in the south, you may also want to check out West Virginia Wesleyan. Dave Wright teaches there (feature interview w/ him in Saxophone Journal a few months back) & there's a pretty decent saxophone ensemble there.

Good luck with whatever school you choose!

[saxysai]

Hi Tony! Since you said you'd like to go out of state...I HIGHLY recommend my own teacher, Dr. Ken Csrroll, at Arkansas State University. The man is an amazing musician and a terrific educator. He is very intelligent, and ALWAYS positive. And so energetic! He is also a Yamaha artist. I know I'm biased because I study with him...but please consider ASU. OUr music department overall is quite good, and if you want to improve your art, Dr. Carroll is the one to consider. Seriously.

If you'd like more information feel free to reply!

[Gandalfe]

I don't have a school to recommend, but having lived through auditions at the University of Minnesota I will tell you this. You get to play a prepared piece, but most of the audition is sight reading and scales. Maybe that is trivial to most high school students now-a-days. It wasn't trivial to me.

In 1973 there were 14 or more alto saxes trying out for one spot in the concert band! I had my prepared numbers down pat. The kids around me were kinda nervious and made comments like maybe they'd try out next year. I didn't make it. One of them did.

I've heard getting into the first year of a music program isn't the hard part. Staying the program is tough. I'm just glad I was an architecture major. :lol:

[connking]

I'd look at the University of Northern Iowa.

Chris Merz is the jazz saxophone professor and a mo fo of a player...He directs the 1st big band.

The town is rather lame (I went to school there), but you have access to both Randy Jones and Doc Tenney...

-greg

[Chris S]

I second UNI and Chris Merz. I studied with him a bit while I was in high school and he was teaching at the University of Wyoming. He's an incredible player, an incredible musician and an incredible human being. He has a few CD's out that I think you can get from amazon.com, and I highly reccomend them. He's VERY knowledgable about music, tours with Darius Brubeck (or he used to, I assume that he probably still does), etc. etc. His resume is probably about 100 pages long.

Chris S