From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the higher professional education in music. For the main article about higher education see Higher education.

A university school of music or college of music, or academy of music or conservatoire (British English) — also known as a conservatory (American English) or a conservatorium (Australian English) — is a higher education institution dedicated to teaching the art of music, including the playing of musical instruments, musical composition, musicianship, music history, and music theory.

Colleges of music and university schools of music are tertiary level institutions, and they may either be independent or part of a university. Many music schools originated as vocational training centers for would-be professional musicians, often outside the main academic structure. These institutions have retained an emphasis on performance into the 21st century, while also adopting a more formal academic approach. On the other hand there are university music departments, which originally placed more emphasis on academic study of music, but often place greater emphasis on performance now than they did in the past. The two groups overlap more than they used to, with the specific balance of vocational training and academic study varying from one institution to another.

Please help improve this article by expanding this section. See talk page for details. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded.

Graduates of Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg Conservatory include Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sergey Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, and George Balanchine.

In the 8th Century, The Royal Pear Garden was set up by Emperor Xuanzong in the purpose to teach Chinese Opera.

Some institutions have university status while others have vocational university status. University schools of music grant professional degrees. The time required to complete music degrees is generally not much different from degrees in other fields, i.e. 3-4 years for a Bachelor of Music degree, 2 years for a Master of Music degree, and 3 years for a Doctor of Musical Arts or Doctor of Music Degree. A Ph.D degree is usually gained for areas such as musicology, music composition, or music education. Some schools also offer a non-academic degree that is solely performance based, such as the A.D. or Artist Diploma; this may be offered at the undergraduate and/or graduate level. In addition, some schools may offer non-professional music-related degrees such as a Bachelor of Arts in Music or a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education.

The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), is an accreditor for Colleges or university schools of music in the United States of America. They currently accredit 610 institutions of higher learning.

The European Association of Conservatoires (AEC) is the main association of College or university school of music in Europe.

U.S. News & World Report and Change make a national and international ranking of the music schools. (See also College and university rankings)

Most of the world's famous music colleges and conservatories focus on Western art music (classical music). However, in non-European and non-American countries, especially Asian conservatories, traditional instruments may be offered as a principal study. An example is the Shanghai Conservatory in Shanghai, China and other Chinese conservatories, where Chinese traditional instruments are taught.

Certain schools or conservatories may be exclusively focused on music, such as the New England Conservatory of Music. Others may have one or more other focuses such as the Boston Conservatory which instructs in music, theater, dance and music education.

See List of colleges and university schools of music

• World Music Central's guide to Music Schools This guide centers on music schools that teach world music and roots music in general.
• [1] The School of Music Reina Sofía belong to this Foundation.
• [2] National Association of Schools of Music
• [3] Excel-ability Learning
• Bridge to Music, Music School Directory Bridge to Music is an on line guide to music schools, organized by degree, program and location.