University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is the result of the merger of two distinguished schools of music—the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, established in 1867, and the College of Music at Cincinnati, established in 1878. This merger in 1955, and subsequent union with the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 1962, brought together the professional training in the performing arts and media of a city long noted for its support in these areas.

Cited in the New York Times as one of the nation’s leading conservatories, CCM is among the nation’s most comprehensive performing arts schools, housing not only the standard disciplines of instrumental performance, voice, musicology, theory, and composition but also music education, conducting, musical theater, drama, opera, theater design and production (makeup, lighting, scene design, stage management, costuming, sound design, and theater production), electronic media, jazz and studio music, dance, arts administration, accompanying, opera coaching, and directing. (The last four programs listed are at the graduate level only.)

Performing groups are continually recognized for their outstanding achievements. The jazz ensemble has regularly won the Down Beat magazine award for the best student ensemble; the National Opera Association has honored the CCM opera program with thirty first-place awards in the past eighteen years; and the wind department has been featured at major conventions and conferences in this country and in Japan and currently has more than twelve CDs on the market. Six additional outstanding CDs have been produced by the CCM Philharmonia Orchestra, the Faculty Jazz Ensemble, and the Ensemble for Eighteenth Century Music. All have been recorded commercially. The CCM Philharmonia Orchestra was the only U.S. orchestra invited to perform at the One Hundred Days Festival that preceded Expo 98 in Lisbon, Portugal. The Orchestra received rave reviews for these March 1998 performances.

As the first music school in the United States to offer courses in classical ballet, CCM’s dance division is the founding institution and affiliate of the Cincinnati Ballet. Both Cincinnati Ballet and Cincinnati Opera offer numerous performance opportunities to dance majors. The dance division also offers continual ballet performance experience, featuring works by division faculty members and guest choreographers, as well as the opportunity to work with notable guest artists, including Bart Cook, Vivi Flindt, Sean Curren, Adam Skulte, and Laura Alonzo, among others. Other opportunities exist in productions by the opera and musical theater areas of CCM.

Theater training offers a unique opportunity for CCM students because of the combination of instruction in vocal coaching, dance, opera, musical theater, drama, theater design and production, and arts administration within one division. Students have the opportunity to share in a wide-ranging scope of classes, major productions, workshop productions, master classes, and internships. This remarkable sharing of experiences among experts in all areas of theater and arts administration allows students exposure to a wealth of learning opportunities. In addition, the division manages CCM’s major theater and concert venues. Technical facilities currently include a state-of-the-art computerized lighting control mechanism for the theaters. The technical support area, which opened in 1997, includes an 8,500-square-foot scene shop; a 3,000-square-foot costume shop plus wig, make-up, and prosthetics studios; a 1,500-square-foot design/drafting studio; an 800-square-foot light lab; and CAD drafting stations. The United States Institute of Technical Theater (USITT) has honored these programs with more than thirty awards in the past ten years.

In addition to the strengths of the College-Conservatory of Music, students have the resources of a major university at their disposal. The libraries of the University constitute a nationally recognized research center, with holdings that include 3.2 million bound volumes and more than 40,000 serial subscriptions. They also offer access to an expanding number of libraries throughout the state via the OhioLINK online catalog.

Student-support offices serve the entire University population and offer academic counseling and tutoring, resume and interview skills training, psychological and personal counseling, student health clinics, day-care centers, special programming for ethnic groups and women, and a host of center activities, such as special-interest clubs, student government, and intramural sports.

The extensive physical facilities of the University provide residence halls for students; banking services; swimming, tennis, track, volleyball, basketball, racquetball/handball, and bowling; plus a movie theater and more than six restaurants ranging from fast food to table service. A state-of-the-art recreational facility opened in February 2006.

Cincinnati, “North America’s most livable city” (Places Rated Almanac, 1993), is bordered on the south by the Ohio River and truly offers something for everyone. Nearby are Mt. Adams and the adjoining Eden Park, a stylish urban area perched on top of a hill with spectacular views of the city and the Ohio River and the home of the Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Art Museum, and Krohn Conservatory. Within walking distance of UC is University Village, offering inexpensive restaurants and shops, and just beyond is Ludlow Avenue in Clifton’s Gaslight District, with its boutiques, restaurants, and tree-lined streets. At the heart of downtown, just a 5-minute bus ride away, is Fountain Square—the place Cincinnatians go to celebrate, demonstrate, welcome hometown heroes, or bring in the new year. Also downtown are numerous and diverse cultural opportunities, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Ballet, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, the Broadway Series, Museum Center at Union Terminal, Contemporary Arts Center, Taft Museum of Art, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and more.

Both of CCM’s founding schools, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the College of Music of Cincinnati, were charter members of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), in which CCM continues to play a vital leadership role. Theater programs have received accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Theater (NAST) and the University/Resident Theater Association (URTA), and the dance program holds accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD).

Program Facilities

In 1999, CCM celebrated the grand opening of its campus village, a collection of renovated and new buildings that significantly enhance the college’s teaching and performance capabilities. The complex stresses the synergy between the performing arts and electronic media and effectively accommodates nearly 900 public performances each year. With the help of its design architect, Henry N. Cobb, the college has produced a physical environment that truly reflects and advances its reputation as one of the finest and most comprehensive training centers for the performing arts and electronic media. The Corbett Center for the Performing Arts houses the elegant 738-seat Corbett Auditorium, the 380-seat Patricia Corbett Theater, the 140-seat Watson Recital Hall, the flexible Cohen Family Studio Theater, three dance studios, and four large rehearsal rooms. CCM’s theater production wing includes the scene and costume shops, various design-oriented classrooms, labs, jazz studios, and ensemble rehearsal rooms. The Dieterle Vocal Arts Center is the home to the voice, opera, choral, and accompanying departments. It has nineteen faculty studios, three private coaching rooms, the Italo Tajo Archive Room, two warm-up rooms, the 100-seat choral rehearsal room, and the choral library. The Center is also the location of the Nippert Rehearsal Studio, a large, grand opera–scale rehearsal space with dressing rooms and technical support so that the space can double as a performance venue for workshops and concerts. Memorial Hall houses teaching studios for piano, harpsichord, strings, and winds, plus practice rooms, chamber music rehearsal rooms, and the electronic music studios. The computer music studio, used by composers, researchers, and performers, contains a Genelec multichannel audio system, workstations, and peripherals for sampling, editing, synthesis, signal processing, algorithmic composition, programming, and controller development. Mary Emery Hall, the home of the academic offices and the electronic media division, is the newest addition to the CCM Village. Highlights include the Bartlett Television Studio and the J. Ralph Corbett Audio Production Center, a master classroom, smart classrooms with audio/video link-up to the University library, and the stunning Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, a 300-seat intimate performing space for chamber music and solo recitals. The Gorno Memorial Music Library houses more than 155,000 volumes, including books, music scores, periodicals, and numerous special collections of rare books, music, and recordings.

Faculty, Resident Artists, and Alumni

CCM has more than 150 faculty members including Kurt Sassmannshaus (violin), Masao Kawasaki (viola), Yehuda Hanani (violoncello), Al Laszlo (double bass), William Winstead (bassoon), Randy Gardner (horn), Mark Ostoich (oboe), Brad Garner (flute), Awadagin Pratt (piano), and James Tocco (piano and chamber music). Ensembles-in-Residence include Percussion Group Cincinnati and the Pridonoff Piano Duo. Alumni continue to hold key positions in the performing and media arts. Numbered among them are American and European opera stars Kathleen Battle, Barbara Daniels, Catherine Keen, David Malis, Stanford Olsen, and Mark Oswald; producers Earl Hamner (The Waltons and Falcon Crest) and Dan Guntzelman (Growing Pains); musical theater stars Faith Prince, Lee Roy Reams, Michele Pawk, Jason Graae, Jim Walton, and Vicki Lewis; prima ballerina Suzanne Farrell; jazz great Al Hirt; composers Albert Hague (Plain and Fancy, Redhead, How the Grinch Stole Christmas), Randy Edelman (Last of the Mohicans, While You Were Sleeping), Stephen Flaherty (Once on This Island, Ragtime, Seussical), theatrical producer Kevin McCollum (Rent, Avenue Q., The Drowsy Chaperone), and a host of international competition winners and instrumentalists who hold positions in the major orchestras, both in the United States and in Europe.

Student Performance Opportunities

Nearly 900 performances a year take place at CCM by two large orchestras, three chamber orchestras, two wind ensembles, five choruses, more than forty chamber groups, dance productions and choreographers’ workshops, jazz ensembles, early music ensembles, brass choir, and twenty-four mainstage and workshop productions in opera, musical theater, and drama.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: December 1. Notification date--freshmen and transfers: continuous. Required: high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, letter of recommendation, interview, audition, SAT I or ACT test scores. Recommended: minimum 3.0 high school GPA. Auditions held 15 times on campus and off campus in Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Interlochen, MI; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; recorded music is permissible as a substitute for live auditions with approval from the department and videotaped performances are permissible as a substitute for live auditions with approval from the department.

University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music

Program Facilities

Faculty, Resident Artists, and Alumni

Student Performance Opportunities

Application Procedures

Undergraduate Contact

Graduate Contact