Program Overview
Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s master’s program in brass performance prepares students for vibrant careers in music through specialized performance and audition training, a broad range of opportunities to perform publicly and refine musicianship, and focused studies in career building and entrepreneurship.
Performance opportunities are plentiful at the Conservatory. In addition to solo and studio recitals, brass graduate students participate and act as leaders in a number of Conservatory ensemble groups, such as Brass Ensemble and Orchestra. In order to replicate the pacing and structure of a professional music company, students rehearse and perform with various ensembles each semester, including symphonic orchestras, chamber ensembles, wind ensembles, contemporary ensembles, and pit orchestras for dance, opera, and theater productions.
Throughout the program, students work closely with esteemed faculty members in private lessons to hone their artistic voice and build their technical skills. In order to achieve professional readiness by the end of the program, students will expand their audition and performance repertoire, compile professional materials, and begin to articulate their career goals.
Our Students
Individuals who thrive in the brass performance graduate program are driven by their desire to pursue a meaningful career in the arts. They are committed to becoming masters of their instruments and experts in a vast range of styles and genres, from standard repertoire, to early music, to classical contemporary.
Curriculum Overview
In their first year, students expand upon their artistic skills and ensemble performance techniques, while continuing to build their knowledge of brass repertoire and music history. They participate in a variety of ensembles, take brass pedagogy courses, attend weekly brass performance seminars, and receive weekly lessons with their private teacher, in which they refine their technique and plan for their degree recital. Meanwhile, students are encouraged to take advantage of on- and off-campus opportunities to build their own teaching studios with the pedagogical knowledge obtained in brass pedagogy courses.
In the second year of the program, students continue to perform with ensembles and prepare a degree recital with their private studio teacher, adding on elective courses to enhance their musical studies, such as the Alexander Technique, Career Skills for Musicians, and Conducting, to name a few. For their degree recital, students are responsible for coordinating with their fellow student instrumentalists and vocalists to produce a program of music that showcases their unique skills and abilities.
Program Requirements
The Master of Music in Brass Performance program requires students to complete 34 credits, consisting of the course requirements listed below. View the Sample Curriculum by Semester for additional details.
Proficiency Requirements
Upon matriculation to the Master of Music degree programs, candidates take proficiency examinations in music theory and music history. These exams are designed to identify minimum competencies in both areas reflecting a typical undergraduate preparation in music. Any deficiencies revealed by these exams must be corrected within the first year in residence through successful completion of prescribed review courses in ear training, harmony, or music history.
Major Requirements
- M-AP 0009 Applied lessons (12 credits total, 3 credits each)
- M-EN 0069 Instrumental Ensemble (4 credits total, 1 credit each)
- M-EN 0079 Chamber Music (2 credits total, 1 credit each)
- M-EX 6001 Oral Comprehensive Exam (0 credits)
- M-PD 0201 Pedagogy 1: Brass (1 credit)
- M-PD 0202 Pedagogy 2: Brass (1 credit)
- M-SK 0009 Recital (0 credits)
- M-ST 0209 Performance Seminar: Brass (4 credits total, 1 credit each)
Academics and Electives
- M-LT 5103 Writing About Music (1 credit)
- M-LT 5104 Communicating About Music (1 credit)
- M-LT 712xx Graduate seminars in Theory & Analysis and/or M-LT 713xx Music History (6 credits total, 3 credits each)
- Xxxxx General electives (2 credits total)
What You Will Learn
The Master of Music in Brass Performance program seeks to take an established musician with a strong foundation of skills, identify areas of desired and required growth, and build upon them to enhance artistic potential and impact. Upon successful completion of the program, students will:
- prepare, research, and accurately perform a wide range of musical styles, genre, and repertoire with a high level of technical and musical understanding developed in applied instrumental lessons, large and small ensemble experiences, coachings, master classes, and observations, as well as through genre-specific repertoire courses, brass pedagogy, and the focused study of music theory and music history;
- apply ear-training skills, knowledge of theoretical and harmonic analysis, as well as historical context to the study and performance of a score;
- express the artistry of a score with respect to its tradition and informed by its context through intensive study and analysis, modeled in the coursework affiliated with the program;
- analyze instrumental technique to overcome technical challenges, with an ability to communicate the details of that technique to another, as studied in applied lessons as well as in brass pedagogy;
- research and perform works of underrepresented composers and appreciate the necessity of promoting those works;
- develop innovative artistic collaborations with partners across the musical and artistic spectrum;
- cultivate meaningful connections to the communities in which they perform and teach, informed by their experiences in large and small ensembles, and through special partnership programs at Boston Conservatory; and
- establish an artistic identity that represents their individuality, celebrating music of past and present, and serving as a champion for the future of our industry.
Your Future
Alumni of the Conservatory’s brass performance master's program enjoy full-time careers performing with emerging and renowned ensembles, teaching at private studios, and serving as arts administrators at esteemed organizations across the country, including:
Ensembles
- Albany Symphony
- Alea III
- Atlantic Brass Quintet
- Boston Ballet
- Boston Philharmonic
- Boston Pops
- Boston Symphony Orchestra
- Celebrity Series of Boston
- Emmanuel Music
- Epic Brass Quintet
- Greensboro Symphony
- Iris Orchestra
- Montreal Symphony
- National Lyric Opera
- National Philharmonic
- New York Pops
- Opera Boston
- Portland Symphony
- Rhode Island Philharmonic
- Synergy Brass Quintet
- Triton Brass Quintet
- Vermont Symphony
Music Festivals
- Aspen Music Festival and School
- Bar Harbor Institute
- Eastern Music Festival
- Hot Springs Music Festival
- Monteux School
- National Youth Orchestra of Canada
- Tanglewood Music Center
- Youth Orchestra of the Americas
Awards
- Concert Artist's Guild
- Fischoff Chamber Music Competition – Silver and Bronze Medals
- International Chamber Music Competition, Lyon, France – Silver Medal
- New York Brass Conference Brass Quintet Competition – First Prize, Third Prize
How to apply
