Mannes College The New School for Music - Overview
A Renowned Conservatory Where Personal Attention Is the Norm
Mannes College The New School for Music, with just 300 students, is a highly selective, intimate academic community with outsized benefits. With a student-faculty ratio of only 2:1, Mannes students receive close personal mentorship and guidance from their teachers. As part of The New School -- a university based in Manhattan with a total student population of 10,500 undergraduates and graduate students -- Mannes offers its students a wide variety of educational options.
Comprehensive Educational Approach
A hallmark of the Mannes educational approach is its signature Techniques of Music Program, which includes rigorous instruction in ear-training, sight-singing, dictation, keyboard harmony, score reading, theory, and musical analysis. Students in bachelor's degree programs are also required to take classes in areas pertinent to classical music, such as music history, English composition, art history, literature, foreign languages, and humanities.
Majors in Performance or Music Offer a Wide Variety of Concentrations
Mannes students major in either performance or music. Undergraduate performance concentrations include violin, viola, cello, double bass, harp, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, percussion, voice, piano, harpsichord, and guitar. Non-performance concentrations are: orchestral conducting, choral conducting, and composition.
Mannes Offers a Choice of Degree Options
Mannes College offers several bachelor's degree options.
The Bachelor of Music encompasses private lessons, performance classes, courses in the Techniques of Music curriculum, liberal arts and humanities course work, and electives.
The Bachelor of Science is based on the Bachelor of Music curriculum, plus an additional 30 academic credits, which may be from humanities, the natural sciences, the social sciences, the cognitive sciences, and others.
Another option, known as the undergraduate diploma, is also based on the Bachelor of Music curriculum, but does not require the student to take certain liberal arts courses.
World-Class Faculty Includes Concert Artists, Chamber Musicians, Freelancers, Composers, and Orchestra Members
The Mannes faculty includes internationally-known artists, scholars, and educators with diverse backgrounds, including concert artists, chamber musicians, successful freelancers, established composers, and members of organizations such as the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York City Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Mentoring from Visiting Artists-in-Residence and Master Class Presenters Benefits Mannes Students
Renowned musicians serve as mentors to Mannes students. For example, master artists-in-residence and master class presenters have included Deborah Voigt, Regina Resnik, Renata Scotto, the Orion String Quartet, pianists Richard Goode and Jean Yves Thibaudet, string virtuosos Pamela Frank and Misha Amory, composer Jennifer Higdon, and theorist Carl Schachter. Student musicians in the Mannes Orchestra have worked with guest conductors such as Otto-Werner Mueller, Paul Nadler, Edwin Outwater, Yves Abel, and Mannes alumna JoAnn Falletta.
Located in the Heart of Manhattan
Mannes' urban campus, in the residential Upper West Side of Manhattan, enables students to partake in the New York scene. The school is walking distance from Central Park, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the American Museum of Natural History, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Students can attend performances -- often for free or at a discount -- at legendary New York venues such as Avery Fisher Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, the 92nd Street Y, and Merkin Concert Hall.
Performance Opportunities Around New York City
Every year, the Mannes Orchestra plays 7 concerts at venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. The annual Concerto Competition is another exciting opportunity for students. The winner is featured as a soloist with the Mannes Orchestra in a concert at Lincoln Center. In the fall, students stage professional-quality opera scenes, and each spring students present a complete, fully-staged opera. The Mannes piano department presents a yearlong festival with performances throughout Manhattan. Other student performance groups include Mannes Baroque Chamber Players, NewMusicMannes, Composer-in-Residence Chamber Ensemble, and Percussion Ensemble. The Mannes Downtown and Mannes UpperWest series showcase student talent in more than 20 concerts each year.
A Diverse, Accomplished Students Body
Although Mannes' student body is small, it is very cosmopolitan, with a current student population representing 34 states and 28 countries. Mannes graduates have gone on to successful careers as concert artists; members of symphonies, Broadway orchestras, and opera companies; faculty at colleges and music schools; private teachers; and recording artists. Others are active in arts administration, arts management, and television and radio broadcasting.
Career Mentoring Is a Staple at Mannes College
Student musicians at Mannes receive career development assistance in a variety of ways, including mentoring and guidance from major teachers each week in private lessons, advisement from administrators and the Mannes on-site career counselor, course work on the business of music, and information about music festivals, competitions, internships, jobs, and graduate programs.
Ongoing events also support students as they prepare for their careers in music. For example, active New York City professional musicians conduct career workshops, seminars, and panel discussions, and there are frequent lectures and discussions covering topics ranging from audition techniques to the function of the musicians' union.
Additionally, Mannes' Community Services Program hires students for professional performances in and around New York City.
State-of-the-Art Facilities Complement Student Skills
Mannes' main building includes class and practice rooms, a listening library, an audio studio, and a state-of-the-art computer lab. In addition, the school has its own opera rehearsal studio and 2 concert halls, which host well-known music festivals and numerous student, faculty, and guest performances every year.