Where should I go?

[andreimatorin]

Just looking for some of you guys' opinions on the matter. Of course i'm not gonna base my decision entirely on your comments but i'm interested in knowing. I go into Berklee College of Music, and New England Conservatory for jazz violin, where would you go? :)

[bubber]

A young friend of mine is a very talented jazz violin player. He used to play in the national youth symphony, and has a background in folk music. These days he plays jazz only. He alreaday has released a couple of CDs, and is currently studying jazz at university level. He has no violin teacher there, and for instrumental tecnique, he goes elsewhere. The important thing, to him at least, is that at the university jazz dept he constantly can play and jam with a number of other young and talented musicians, as well as with many experienced teachers.

His opinion is that's this is what it's all about, to play and improvise and try out your ideas every day, to play in groups in different styles, to be part of a dedicated gang. Sounds like jazz education to me.

I don't know if this is any advice at all, but if you don't get any more reactions here, you might try to post at the "Ask the musicians" at Jazz Corner speakeasy. http://jazzcornertalk.com/

[ryanoceros]

it depends on what you want. i know some people that go to NEC and i know some people that go to Berklee and they're all happy. More importantly, i've studied privately with guys who teach at one or the other (and a couple who've taught at both schools) and gotten some impression of their feelings toward the schools. Berklee has a huge population of kids who want to study and play popular music. NEC has signicantly more support and arguably better teachers for those of us who want to augment our jazz education with some classical study (a good idea for jazz violinists, naturally). Berklee has incredible facilities. NEC has George Russell, Gunther Schuller, Paul Bley, Ran Blake, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Brookmeyer, Steve Lacy, Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, 12 violin teachers, and many other great teachers and musicians. But they both have their downsides, as any school does... there's a much more active social life at Berklee which can be a blessing or a curse, and NEC's much smaller size gives it a less active social scene and may make it difficult to find lot's of people to play with (of course, you can always befriend Berklee students, which happens alot). OK so obviously i would choose NEC before Berklee, but as long as you are motivated and disciplined, you can get an excellent education at either school.

[solarjazzband]

Thanks man for these advices! I'm also planning to go to US for studying there, in 2 years I've finished high school.
I want to go to Berklee, maybe it is because of the social scene...