About the Conservatory of Music
Highlights
- The oldest continuously operating Conservatory of Music in the United States.
- Eight undergraduate majors, including private study in 32 areas.
- A collection of more than 1,500 musical instruments of the highest quality - all available for student use.
- Exceptional facilities that include five concert halls and 150 practice rooms.
- Oberlin owns 207 Steinway pianos, and the Conservatory's concert and recital halls, classrooms, teaching studios, and most practice rooms are equipped with Steinway grands.
Location
The Oberlin College campus is located on 440 acres in Oberlin, Ohio, 35 miles southwest of Cleveland.
Enrollment
The Conservatory has an enrollment of approximately 615 students - primarily undergraduate - from 45 U.S. states and 22 countries. Nearly 200 of those students are enrolled in the Double-Degree Program. With 88 faculty members, the Conservatory boasts a student/faculty ratio of 7:1.
Tuition and Fees
| Tuition | $39,686 |
| Required Fees | $318 |
| Room | $5,450 |
| Board | $5,030 |
| Total | $50,484 |
Academic Year
Two semesters with January designated as winter term, when students select one topic of concentration to pursue with an emphasis on self-education, creativity, and intellectual independence.
Performances
There are more than 500 concerts on campus each year, including performances by the more than 25 student ensembles, and performances and master classes by guest artists. Faculty members perform on campus and throughout the world. Oberlin's Artist Recital Series includes on-campus performances by premier, national orchestras and internationally acclaimed soloists.
Degree and Diploma Programs
Oberlin Conservatory offers majors in performance, composition, music education, music theory, electronic and computer music, jazz studies, music history, and a double major in piano performance and vocal accompanying. Degree programs include:
- Bachelor of Music (BM)
- Performance Diploma
- Double-Degree Program (jointly offered with the College of Arts and Sciences BM/BA)
- Bachelor of Arts (BA)
- Combined Bachelors/Masters Programs in Opera Theater, Conducting, and Historical Performance)
- Minors
- Masters Program in Historical Performance (MM)
- Masters Program in Music Teaching (MMT)
- Artist Diploma
Facilities
The Conservatory is housed in a complex of soundproof and air conditioned buildings designed by Minoru Yamasaki.
- Bibbins Hall, the teaching unit, contains 40 studios, 10 classrooms, 16 offices, and seven studios of TIMARA (Technology in Music and the Related Arts).
- The Central unit houses Warner Concert Hall, which seats 696 and features a three-manual Flentrop organ of 43 stops. Central also houses Kulas Hall, which seats 144; two complete audio recording rooms; and rehearsal rooms for orchestra, band, wind ensemble, opera theater, and chorus.
- Robertson Hall contains 150 practice rooms, including the Kulas Organ Center, with 14 practice organs by representative builders.
- The library holds a collection of more than 121,000 books and scores, 47,000 sound recordings, 43 listening stations, and six audiovisual listening rooms.
- Under construction is the Phyllis Litoff Building for jazz studies, which will be the world's first music facility to earn a gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Completion is expected early in 2010.
History
The Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865, is the nation's oldest continuously operating conservatory, and the only major music school in the country linked with a preeminent liberal arts college. Since its founding, the Conservatory has continued its proud tradition of "firsts."
- 1892 - America's first full-time chair in music history and appreciation
- 1921 - Established America's first four-year college degree program in music education
- 1958 - Introduced the Suzuki method of string pedagogy to the United States
- 1969 - Pioneered a program in electronic music
- 1988 - Created the American Soviet Youth Orchestra, an ensemble of 100 young musicians from the United States and the former Soviet Union that was the first arts exchange produced jointly by the two countries
- 1989 - The Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Laboratory is the first of its kind to be incorporated into a program of vocal instruction in the United States.
- 2010 - World's first LEED gold certified building dedicated to the study of jazz music
