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New England Conservatory

The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent conservatory in the United States.

Today, NEC is often considered to be among the world's leading musical institutions, and is the only music school in the United States designated as a National Historic Landmark.

The school is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of Continuing Education.

At the collegiate level, NEC offers the Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts, as well as the Undergraduate Diploma, Graduate Diploma, and Artist's Diploma. Also offered are 5-year joint double degree programs with Harvard University and Tufts University.

History

NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee, who modelled it after the European conservatories of that time. Initially, it was located in the Boston Music Hall just off Tremont Street in downtown Boston. In 1870 it moved to the former St. James Hotel in Franklin Square in the South End. It moved to its present location in the Symphony/Prudential Neighborhood on Huntington Avenue in 1903. In 1881, when Henry Lee Higginson established the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he drew heavily on school's faculty to serve as section leaders. Today, the school and the orchestra continue to share a close association: nearly half of the BSO is composed of conservatory faculty and alumni, a remarkable statistic. The BSO string section, considered the orchestra's strongest asset, is representative of the strings department at NEC. When Boston established its first full-scale opera company in 1908, the manager, conductors, soloists, orchestra, chorus, library, and rehearsal rooms were all provided by the conservatory. After that company's demise, Boris Goldovsky's Opera Theater gave local audiences their first fully staged performances in more than a decade. In 1958, Goldovsky's protégé Sarah Caldwell founded the Opera Company of Boston, which gained international acclaim for its innovative programming.

Campus

The NEC campus consists of three buildings occupying the block on Gainsborough Street between St. Botolph Street and Huntington Avenue, one block from the corner of Huntington and Massachusetts Avenue where the world-renowned Symphony Hall is situated. The Jordan Hall Building, whose main entrance is at 30 Gainsborough Street, is NEC's main building, home to Jordan Hall, Williams Hall, Brown Hall, the Keller Room, the Isabelle Firestone Audio Library, the Performance Library, professor studios/offices, and practice rooms. The second building, at 33 Gainsborough, is the Residence Hall, a coed dormitory which also houses the Harriet M. Spaulding Library and the "Bistro 33" dining center. The third building, entitled the "St. Botolph Building", at 241 St. Botolph street, contains the St. Botolph Hall, a computer laboratory, the electronic music studio, and the majority of the school's classrooms and administrative offices.

Jordan Hall

Jordan Hall is NEC's 1019-seat, hundred-year-old central performance space. It is considered one of America's premier performance venues for classical music. Yo-Yo Ma once said, "I love Jordan Hall for its unbelievable acoustics. And for its warmth and intimacy. But most of all for the sense of event when you go there." "Jordan Hall History" — Handel and Haydn Society (retrieved 6 June 2006) The hall is home to some 600+ student performances each academic year, and is also frequently used by third parties including outside organizations, touring artists, and guests. Both the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Boston Philharmonic hold residencies at Jordan Hall.

Majors of study

Historical Performance

Contemporary Improvisation

Preparatory School

New England Conservatory's Preparatory School is an open enrollment institution for pre-college students that offers music classes and private instruction for young musicians, and fosters over 20 small and large ensembles. Students enrolled in New England Conservatory's Preparatory School may participate in the Certificate Program, allowing students to achieve their optimum performance skills, competence in music theory, and a knowledge of the literature that includes choral, orchestral, and chamber music, as well as solo repertoire. NEC Prep is home to one of the world's leading youth orchestras, the highly selective Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (YPO), headed by Benjamin Zander. In June 2007, the orchestra embarked on a highly publicized three-week tour of China. The Preparatory School also houses the Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble (MYWE), a highly selective touring wind ensemble open to advanced high school woodwind, brass, and percussion players directed by Michael Mucci. The Preparatory School routinely sends students to the finest conservatories and universities in the world.

School of Continuing Education

New England Conservatory's School of Continuing Education allows members of the surrounding community to experience the benefits of New England Conservatory's world class instruction, offering classes, lessons, and ensemble opportunities to musicians of any background. At NEC's School of Continuing Education members can participate in chamber, jazz, and vocal ensembles, an opera studio, an adult chorale, a Klezmer Band, and a Community Gospel Choir. In addition, NEC's School of Continuing Education offers classes in several fields including music history, music theory, and Alexander technique, many of which are instructed by members of the New England Conservatory college faculty.

Also of note

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

The conservatory offers 5 year joint double degree programs with Harvard University and Tufts University; year-long exchange programs with London's Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music; and cross-registration with Tufts, Northeastern University, and Simmons College.

NEC is the founding institution of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity.

Notable alumni

Ted Atkatz, percussionist

Yitzhak Yedid, composer & Pianist

Herbert Blomstedt, Conductor Laureate, San Francisco Symphony

Percy Jewett Burrell, dramatist and playwright

Don Byron, jazz clarinetist and composer

Sarah Caldwell, conductor

Sean Callery, composer (24, La Femme Nikita, Medium)

Colin Carr, cellist

Regina Carter, violinist

Chou Wen-chung, composer

John Clark, jazz horn player and composer

Marilyn Crispell, jazz pianist

Tan Crone, pianist

Phyllis Curtin, soprano

Roberto Diaz, violist, Curtis Institute president

Marty Ehrlich, saxophonist

Halim El-Dabh, composer

Melissa Ferlaak, soprano, the former singer of the symphonic metal band Visions of Atlantis

Anthony Glise, classical guitarist, composer, author

Judith Gordon, pianist

Fred Hersch, jazz pianist

Dave Holland, jazz bassist

Timothy Morrison, trumpet

Christopher O'Riley, pianist (From the Top host)

Dave Douglas, jazz trumpet

Everett "Vic" Firth, percussionist

Michael Gandolfi, composer

Reed Gratz, jazz pianist, Fulbright Scholar

Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano, Metropolitan Opera's "Carmen of Choice"

Bud Herseth, trumpet, Chicago Symphony

Matthew Hoch, voice, Shorter College professor

Louis Krasner, violinist

Thomas Oboe Lee, composer

Andy McGhee, jazz saxophonist, educator

John Medeski, jazz pianist

John Moriarty, conductor, stage director, pianist

Michael Norsworthy, clarinetist

Pete Robbins, jazz saxophonist

Marcus Rojas, tubist

Eleanor Steber, soprano

Coretta Scott King, voice (civil rights leader)

Luciana Souza, Jazz vocals

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Kennedy Family matriarch

Lara St. John, violinist

Cecil Taylor, jazz pianist

Nestor Torres, Latin jazz flutist, Grammy Award winner

Tom Varner, jazz French hornist, composer

Philip Ventre, conductor, Wallingford Symphony Orchestra, teacher, Choate Rosemary Hall

Raymond Wilding-White, composer

Bernie Worrell, pianist/rock musician

Rachel Z, jazz performer

Jermaine D. Smith, tenor

Notable present and former faculty

Eyran Katsenelenbogen

External links

New England Conservatory of Music

Art of the States: New England Conservatory Festival Orchestra

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