My daughter Jessi and I wandered around the Carnegie Mellon campus
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania yesterday between official tours and
interviews. We were invited to join the Music department’s weekly noon
Convocation in the Kresge Recital Hall and were lucky enough to be
there the day famed jazz horn player Warren Vache played.
The hall was very full in the back 2/3. The front few rows were empty during
the opening set until Mr. Vache pointed out that he and the other
two players had bathed and had their shots and would someone please come
sit nearer. He told a few funny stories and answered some questions
but mostly expressed himself delightfully through his music.
CMU is a very impressive place. The integration of art, music, and
computer science is particularly attractive to we from the Silicon Valley.
The recital halls are fully linked into professional recording studios and
there is also a professional sound mixing studio which is part of the art
department on the top floor. The architecture school is in the same
building as music and art. The Fine Arts Building floor at entry level
is inlaid with marble diagrams of famous buildings – Athens’ Parthenon,
St. Peter’s of Rome, and Notre Dame in Paris among them.
Jessi had fun staying over in the CMU dorms with her friends and visited with
her cousin Joel who is attending U Pitt next door. She found CMU to be
very much a 24×7 campus and was impressed by the size of the killer
chocolate cookies with ice cream on top.
We were lucky enough to be able to sit in on a delightful music lesson by
Douglas Ahlstedt (an associate professor of voice at CMU with a specialty
in vocal health). CMU’s music
department only takes 35 to 40 students a year, only 15 of them in voice.
So, Jessi’s application may not be accepted (but what an amazing place to
be trained if she did get in). Even I with no music training could tell
that the facilities and teachers are world class. The staff were very helpful
and answered questions both in email in advance and while we were there.
Jessi points out that artists who email you back are a rare breed.
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