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Simon-F

Age/Gender: 18, Male

"There is nothing is more musical than a sunset. He who feels what he sees will find no more beautiful example of development in all that book which, alas, musicians read but too little-the book of Nature." - Claude Debussy

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Entry #2

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Simon-F

College plans

Posted by Simon-F Mar. 27, 2008 @ 4:07 PM EDT

To have a slightly selfish moment, out of over 200 applicants, I was among 40 called back to interview, and now am among the 5 or 6 accepted the the Juilliard School for studies in composition starting in the Fall of 2008.

I'm gonna go die of excitement.

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The People Have Spoken

13 Comments

Mar. 29, 2008 | 8:33 PM Fuoco says:

Julliard!!
Holy crap, congratulations man! From what I've heard I bet YOU'll be teaching the teachers there ;)

May. 7, 2008 | 5:27 PM Simon-F responds:

Unlikely! I'm in Samuel Adler's studio, this guy is my IDOL he wrote the bestest orchestration book EVAR.


Mar. 30, 2008 | 2:42 AM NickPerrin says:

That's amazing! Congratulations!

But ... among the "5 or 6"? How small is this program?

May. 7, 2008 | 5:28 PM Simon-F responds:

The composition department has four teachers (Adler, Corigliano, Beaser, Rouse) and I guess 6 - 10 in each studio, no idea of the exact numbers.


Mar. 30, 2008 | 3:16 PM MusicalRocky says:

It's cause you're amazing like that :D

May. 7, 2008 | 5:31 PM Simon-F responds:

Heheheh thanks :P


Mar. 30, 2008 | 7:45 PM MJTTOMB says:

I told you you were a genius.

May. 7, 2008 | 5:30 PM Simon-F responds:

"Born in 1990, he has been referred to as 'genius' by colleagues..."

Man, composer bios are so pretentious these days.


Mar. 30, 2008 | 11:36 PM Lacrioso says:

JULLIARD?!?

Sweet Jesus on toast man! I am unbelievably envious and proud of you. :')
I do hope you keep in touch with us all at NG. If not, you will be missed.

Congratulations man, you better put that genius to goo work. :D

May. 7, 2008 | 5:29 PM Simon-F responds:

Yeah man, I was thinking about writing this piece that's like totally silent you know. Totally radical and genius.


May. 8, 2008 | 2:02 AM Esn says:

A totally silent piece? No, I (as a critic esteemed by some) would say that that's derivative of earlier efforts, lacking boldness. To more effectively actualize your artistic and musicological potential for music-making, you ought to consider immersing yourself in the truly post-modern sphere of being, outgrowing your undefined boundaries, reinvigorating your inner reinvigoration! Then, I feel, you will be ready to truly move "en passant" into a wholly modern poststructuralist art of music-making, and make the leap into further relevant discourse beyond. :)

Congratulations, and good luck!

May. 8, 2008 | 6:59 PM Simon-F responds:

"reinvigorating your inner reinvigoration!"

heheheh, thanks for that ;)


May. 14, 2008 | 12:46 AM NickPerrin says:

Kickass, my friend. Congratulations. And now I'm interested. How's the price of that quality of education, anyway? No need for specific figures/numbers, but is it cheap, expensive, reasonable?

I figure despite my distance from the world's best music schools, if I want to do it right, I only have one life. So I should consider it anyway!

Thanks, and good luck at Juilliard! Should be an amazing experience. I probably don't need to say you definitely deserve it...

May. 20, 2008 | 12:26 PM Simon-F responds:

Room and board is expensive because of location but tuition is actually pretty reasonable, about as much as my highschool (which admittedly is private and pretty damn expensive, but for college tuition that amount is quite reasonable).

If you're looking at film scoring definitely look at the conservatory composition programs in the US, but there's also the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring program and some conservatories like the USC Thornton school have film scoring programs. All stuff worth looking into, keep me posted in the future!


May. 19, 2008 | 4:00 PM pathock3 says:

Julliard! Good man. I'm going to the Northwestern high school composition camp this summer. But I have no idea where I'm going to college after next year. What other colleges did you look at/ apply to?

May. 20, 2008 | 12:21 PM Simon-F responds:

I looked at Eastman, New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Bard College/Conservatory dual degree, and Peabody. Grats on the composition camp! Summer music camps are a fantastic experience, be sure to make the most of it.


May. 30, 2008 | 12:31 AM Mrmilkcarton says:

Hmm well congratulations I'm gonna have a selfish moment and ask all the questions I can :D. I'm still going through high school but I've been thinking about music composition as one of my studies and just have no clue what kind of school I would be looking for.

I have met a few people who have gone off to Juilliard but never got a chance to talk to them about it. My main question is what kind of school is Juilliard. All of the people I have met have gone for performance and with good reason (they were damn good at what they did). Your going for composition which strikes the question of what kind of composition and where would it be applied?

As you stated yourself with the 200 people applying and only 6 or so being accepted it's a very hard school to get into. What kind of interviews were these? Did it involve performance or did you have to send ib a few songs that you created or written?

Congratulations once again your destined for great things. Sorry for all the questions XD I just need to start thinking about all this sometime soon.

May. 30, 2008 | 1:22 AM Simon-F responds:

All very valid questions that I'm happy to answer! I'll go backwards:

The application process is usually two step; prescreening and interview. First you send in your general application, optionally with SAT or ACT scores, with a portfolio of your compositions, including score and CD (the specifications for each school are different so it's good to check each individually). At this point, some schools, such as Juilliard, make a cut-off at the prescreening and if you don't pass that's it, whereas other schools (such as Peabody) invite back every applicant for an interview. At a school that made a cut-off, your interview is likely to be quite in depth and intense because they can spend more time on fewer people; if every applicant was invited the interview will be much shorter because they don't have as much time to spend on everybody.

It's important to note that some schools, such as Indiana and Michigan, require an instrumental audition as well if you're applying for composition, but most tend not to.

My interview at Juilliard was incredibly intense; three interviews, two individually with two of the composition faculty and one with the other two members of the faculty together. Before going into your interview, us applicants got our application handed back to us with all of the original materials we had sent (plus we were asked to bring two new scores). The first interview was with John Corigliano who was incredibly nice, listened to a lot of music (from CD and stuff I played on the piano), made a couple comments, and sent me to: Sam Adler who asked me to name five American composers of the early 20th century who were influential in piano writing and then had me name intervals, notes, and chord progressions (in roman numerals), then listened to two movements of piece, made a comment, and sent me to my next interview with: Robert Beaser and Christopher Rouse, the latter of whom asked me to describe Bartok's life and influence and colleagues while Beaser looked through my scores.

Juilliard is essentially the highest quality performing arts school, on average, for undergrad. This means competition, high expectations, and lots of work. Many of the students spend hours on end in practice rooms, but on the flip side this means intense partying too because they need to release somehow. I get the impression that Juilliard is working to improve social life and have a friendlier image, but this doesn't change their standards. I think what's true of Juilliard that's true of any college is that there are the crazy overachievers, the ego maniacs, but then the genuinely interesting and friendly people. It's important to note that Juilliard is a very small world and thus very close minded so you have to stay in the music scene elsewhere and keep in touch with the outside word.

In terms of composition, it's classical in the broadest sense but diverse stylistically within that. Famous minimalists and famous neo-romantics have gone to Juilliard, even quite recently (see: Nico Muhly and Eric Whitacre). My personal intention is to teach theory and composition as a career with composing as a social hobby, but composition can also be applied in the field of film or even game scoring, or you can try to be an independent composer (which is virtually impossible), or you can go get a masters in business and actually have an income. Possibilities are not limited by attending Juilliard for undergrad.

All I can say is don't plan your college applications on the expectation of getting into incredibly competitive schools like Juilliard (I know a violinist who only applied to Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music and got rejected from both, which left her in a difficult situation). It could well be worth a shot, though! Good luck with everything and keep me posted.


May. 30, 2008 | 1:40 AM Mrmilkcarton says:

Wow thanks for the amazing response. I never actually planned on applying to Julliard but still wanted the incredible information you gave me. Thats alot of information to take in too. Many things I would of never guessed you would have to know. I'm hoping though that my high schools music theory program doesn't suck. I'll be taking Music Theory AP and then if I feel comfortable enough with my skills Music Theory IB (International Baccalaureate) where your work is sent out internationally. I can only hope for the best and work as hard as possible. Knowledge can only take me so far but maybe my talent will take me the extra mile needed for college.

Once again thank you for all the information! It is a great help.

Jun. 18, 2008 | 6:45 PM Simon-F responds:

Theory never hurts; the AP course is a good idea. Good luck again!!


Jun. 6, 2008 | 1:15 AM NickPerrin says:

The description of the Juilliard interview is fucking ridiculous. That is quite dramatically intense.

And - happy birthday! Noticed the age changed. If you lived here in Canada, you'd only have to wait one more year to be legal age to get into bars and clubs haha.... lucky us...

Jun. 18, 2008 | 6:45 PM Simon-F responds:

Hahah thank you! Yeah the experience was intense, kind of awesome tho. ;)


Jun. 14, 2008 | 9:49 PM Winterwind-NS says:

Just noticed the Debussy quote, I love it.
AND DOOD, One of your teachers is going to be Rouse!>?
is that.. Christopher Rouse? Because I saw his second symphony premiered here at the Kennedy Center by the NSO a few days after my birthday. It was incredibly powerful. I only wish I understood it better.
And I saw his on stage after the piece as finished.
Poor Leonard Slatkin.. lol
I can't wait to premiere your works in the future haha

Jun. 18, 2008 | 6:44 PM Simon-F responds:

Not my private teacher but I might well end up having classes with him, he's an amaaazing composer. Really nice guy too!!

We'll exchange pieces every so often and play 'em, it sounds like a great plan.


Jun. 22, 2008 | 10:10 PM DavidOrr says:

Congrats Simon, what an honor!

Any idea who you will be studying with privately for comopsition? And, will you also have private piano lessons on top of that (I'm not sure how the composition program works there)?

If you do get to study piano, you should consider studying with Oxana Yablonskaya if she is still there. I got the opportunity to do a masterclass with her a couple years ago and she was phenomenal!

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