New England Conservatory of Music
Encyclopedia
The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States
.
The conservatory 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 Diploma. Also offered are five-year joint double-degree programs with Harvard University
and Tufts University
.
NEC is the only music school in the United States designated as a National Historic Landmark
. Its primary concert hall, Jordan Hall
, plays an important role in the cultural scene of the entire New England
region, hosting over 600 concerts each year and receiving frequent praise for its acoustical
qualities.
, an influential music critic, Dr. J. Baxter Upham, president of the Harvard Musical Association, and Oliver Ditson
, a prominent music publisher. The group ultimately rejected Tourjée's plans, arguing that it was poor idea to open a conservatory amidst the nation's political and economic uncertainty that would lead up to the American Civil War
.
Tourjée made his next attempt in December 1866 when he again met with a group of Boston's top musician's and music patrons. Among Upham, Ditson, and Dwight at this meeting were Carl Zerrahn
, a popular Boston conductor, and Charles Perkins
, a prominent arts patron. In the thirteen year interim Tourjee had founded three music schools in Rhode Island, and this time was able to win over his audience. The men agreed to help Tourjee and The New England Conservatory officially opened on February 18, 1867 and consisted of seven rooms rented above Music Hall off Tremont Street in downtown Boston. In 1870 it moved to the former St. James Hotel in Franklin Square in the South End.
Over the coming years the conservatory would distinguish itself from rival Boston Conservatory
thanks to several decisive factors: First, the fast-rising success of NEC alumna Lillian Norton, or Nordica as she came to be known. Second the overwhelming publicity generated by the Peace Jubilees
. Third, the beneficial alliance between NEC and the BSO.
. 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 St. Botolph Building, at 241 St. Botolph street, contains Pierce Hall, a computer laboratory, the electronic music studio, and the majority of the school's classrooms and administrative offices.
is NEC's central performing space. Opened in 1903, Jordan Hall was the gift of New England Conservatory trustee Eben D. Jordan the 2nd, a member of the family that founded the Jordan Marsh
retail stores and himself an amateur musician. In 1901, Jordan donated land for NEC's main building, while also offering to fund a concert hall with a gift of $120,000.
The dedication concert of Jordan Hall, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, took place on October 20, 1903. Effusive newspaper accounts deemed the hall "unequaled the world over," and The Boston Globe reported that it was "a place of entertainment that European musicians who were present that evening say excels in beauty anything of the kind they ever saw."
A major renovation project was completed in 1995, and since then Jordan Hall has won numerous awards including the 1996 Massachusetts Historical Commission Preservation Award, the Victorian Society in America's Preservation Commendation, the 1996 Boston Preservation Alliance Award, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America Award of Merit, and the Illuminating Engineering Society 1996 Lumen Award.
, jazz, brass, percussion, and chamber music departments. The Conservatory's piano department has recently risen to international significance. The Conservatory offers degrees in orchestral instruments, conducting, piano, jazz studies, contemporary improvisation, voice & opera, composition, music history, and music theory.
The conservatory has served as a training ground for orchestral players to fill the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, much like the Curtis Institute serves as a training ground for the Philadelphia Orchestra, although composers, pianists, and singers are offered courses of study as well.
. 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.
, 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 five-year joint double-degree programs with Harvard University
and Tufts University
and cross-registration with Tufts, Northeastern University, and Simmons College
.
NEC is the founding institution of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity and Kappa Gamma Psi
Performing Arts Fraternity.
See New England Conservatory past and present teachers for notable members of the faculty.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The conservatory 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
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...
, Master of Music
Master of Music
The Master of Music is the first graduate degree in Music awarded by universities and music conservatories. The M.Mus. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy...
, and Doctor of Musical Arts
Doctor of Musical Arts
The Doctor of Musical Arts degree is a doctoral academic degree in music. The D.M.A. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy. The D.M.A...
, as well as the Undergraduate Diploma, Graduate Diploma, and Artist Diploma. Also offered are five-year joint double-degree programs with Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
.
NEC is the only music school in the United States designated as a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
. Its primary concert hall, Jordan Hall
Jordan Hall
Jordan Hall is a 1,019-seat concert hall in Boston, Massachusetts, the principal performance space of the New England Conservatory. It is one block from Boston's Symphony Hall, and together they are considered two of America's most acoustically perfect performance spaces...
, plays an important role in the cultural scene of the entire New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
region, hosting over 600 concerts each year and receiving frequent praise for its acoustical
Musical acoustics
Musical acoustics or music acoustics is the branch of acoustics concerned with researching and describing the physics of music – how sounds employed as music work...
qualities.
History
Early Years
In June 1853 Eben Tourjée, at the time a nineteen-year-old music teacher from Providence, Rhode Island, made his first attempt to found a music conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. He met with a group of Boston's most influential musical leaders to discuss a school based on the conservatories of Europe. The group included John Sullivan DwightJohn Sullivan Dwight
John Sullivan Dwight was a Unitarian minister, transcendentalist and America's first influential classical music critic.-Biography:...
, an influential music critic, Dr. J. Baxter Upham, president of the Harvard Musical Association, and Oliver Ditson
Oliver Ditson
Oliver Ditson was an American businessman and founder of Oliver Ditson and Company, one of the major music publishing houses of the late 19th century. Ditson began his business with Samuel H...
, a prominent music publisher. The group ultimately rejected Tourjée's plans, arguing that it was poor idea to open a conservatory amidst the nation's political and economic uncertainty that would lead up to the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Tourjée made his next attempt in December 1866 when he again met with a group of Boston's top musician's and music patrons. Among Upham, Ditson, and Dwight at this meeting were Carl Zerrahn
Carl Zerrahn
Carl Zerrahn was a German-born American flautist and conductor. His widespread activity in the region made him an influential figure in New England and Boston classical music, especially choral music, in the latter half of the 19th century...
, a popular Boston conductor, and Charles Perkins
Charles Perkins
Charles Nelson Perkins, AO, commonly known as Charlie Perkins, was an Australian Aboriginal activist, football player and administrator. He was known as Kumantjayi Perkins in the period immediately following his death...
, a prominent arts patron. In the thirteen year interim Tourjee had founded three music schools in Rhode Island, and this time was able to win over his audience. The men agreed to help Tourjee and The New England Conservatory officially opened on February 18, 1867 and consisted of seven rooms rented above Music Hall off Tremont Street in downtown Boston. In 1870 it moved to the former St. James Hotel in Franklin Square in the South End.
Over the coming years the conservatory would distinguish itself from rival Boston Conservatory
Boston Conservatory
The Boston Conservatory is a performing arts conservatory located in the Fenway-Kenmore region of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, dance and musical theater...
thanks to several decisive factors: First, the fast-rising success of NEC alumna Lillian Norton, or Nordica as she came to be known. Second the overwhelming publicity generated by the Peace Jubilees
National Peace Jubilee
The National Peace Jubilee was a celebration, organized by Patrick Gilmore in Boston on June 15, 1869. It featured an orchestra and a chorus, as well as numerous soloists. In total, more than 11,000 performers participated, including the famous violinist Ole Bull as the orchestra's concertmaster,...
. Third, the beneficial alliance between NEC and the BSO.
Campus
The NEC campus consists of three buildings on both sides of Gainsborough Street between St. Botolph Street and Huntington Avenue, one block from Symphony HallSymphony Hall, Boston
Symphony Hall is a concert hall located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was built in 1900 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which continues to make the hall its home. The hall was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1999...
. 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 St. Botolph Building, at 241 St. Botolph street, contains Pierce Hall, a computer laboratory, the electronic music studio, and the majority of the school's classrooms and administrative offices.
Jordan Hall
Jordan HallJordan Hall
Jordan Hall is a 1,019-seat concert hall in Boston, Massachusetts, the principal performance space of the New England Conservatory. It is one block from Boston's Symphony Hall, and together they are considered two of America's most acoustically perfect performance spaces...
is NEC's central performing space. Opened in 1903, Jordan Hall was the gift of New England Conservatory trustee Eben D. Jordan the 2nd, a member of the family that founded the Jordan Marsh
Jordan Marsh
Jordan Marsh & Company was a department store in Boston, Massachusetts, which grew to be a major regional chain in the New England area of the United States. In 1996, the last of the Jordan Marsh stores were converted to Macy's. The store was formerly part of Allied Stores and then Federated...
retail stores and himself an amateur musician. In 1901, Jordan donated land for NEC's main building, while also offering to fund a concert hall with a gift of $120,000.
The dedication concert of Jordan Hall, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, took place on October 20, 1903. Effusive newspaper accounts deemed the hall "unequaled the world over," and The Boston Globe reported that it was "a place of entertainment that European musicians who were present that evening say excels in beauty anything of the kind they ever saw."
A major renovation project was completed in 1995, and since then Jordan Hall has won numerous awards including the 1996 Massachusetts Historical Commission Preservation Award, the Victorian Society in America's Preservation Commendation, the 1996 Boston Preservation Alliance Award, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America Award of Merit, and the Illuminating Engineering Society 1996 Lumen Award.
Academics
Admission to NEC is based primarily on a competitive live audition. NEC is renowned for its stringsString instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
, jazz, brass, percussion, and chamber music departments. The Conservatory's piano department has recently risen to international significance. The Conservatory offers degrees in orchestral instruments, conducting, piano, jazz studies, contemporary improvisation, voice & opera, composition, music history, and music theory.
The conservatory has served as a training ground for orchestral players to fill the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, much like the Curtis Institute serves as a training ground for the Philadelphia Orchestra, although composers, pianists, and singers are offered courses of study as well.
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 ZanderBenjamin Zander
Benjamin Zander is an American conductor from the United Kingdom.-External links:* *-Interviews:* * * *...
. 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.Partnerships
NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the TopFrom the Top
From the Top is a national program and initiative to develop and showcase young classical musicians. It is best known for its NPR radio and PBS television programs hosted by pianist Christopher O'Riley, which celebrate the passion, dedication and personal stories of America's best young classical...
, 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 five-year joint double-degree programs with Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
and cross-registration with Tufts, Northeastern University, and Simmons College
Simmons College (Massachusetts)
Simmons College, established in 1899, is a private women's undergraduate college and private co-educational graduate school in Boston, Massachusetts.-History:Simmons was founded in 1899 with a bequest by John Simmons a wealthy clothing manufacturer in Boston...
.
NEC is the founding institution of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity and Kappa Gamma Psi
Kappa Gamma Psi
Kappa Gamma Psi is a performing arts fraternity in the United States, originally founded in 1913. Its last surviving Collegiate chapter went inactive in 2008, but the National Organization continues and is in the process of founding Alumni chapters...
Performing Arts Fraternity.
People
See New England Conservatory alumni for a list of members of the alumni community.See New England Conservatory past and present teachers for notable members of the faculty.
Nomenclature
Although the institution is properly known as New England Conservatory, both the National Historic Landmark and the National Register of Historic Places nominations call out New England Conservatory of Music as the name. Also, despite the statement on the subject's web site, there is only one listing for each program, which covers the whole main building, including Jordan Hall, and no separate listing for Jordan Hall.External links
- NEC's Ruby Celebration - All About Jazz