Teaching
Conrad Cummings currently teaches composition in The Juilliard School Evening Division.
This is a great program for people who are out of school and working. Courses that I teach range from those for people new to composing all the way through courses geared for working professionals in composition.
I get to teach composing the way I wish I had learned it: in a stimulating, demanding, environment where every piece you write you get to hear played by superb Juilliard students the day you finish it. And you work in a community of fellow composers who support and challenge each other, and often go out for beers afterwards.
Many students join the program having completed an undergraduate degree and aspiring to do graduate study in composition. Over a year or more of work in the courses, they are able to build a portfolio that opens the door to a range of graduate programs.
Class members I’ve worked with have gone on to pursue masters programs in composition at Mannes College of Music The New School, Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College CUNY, New York University Steinhardt School, USC Film Music Program, Manhattan School of Music, Peabody Conservatory, California Institute of the Arts, Mills College, and The Juilliard School among others.
In addition to Juilliard, Oberlin, Yale and all the other places I’ve taught, I maintain an active private teaching studio for composers in New York City. I frequently serve as consultant to opera and musical theater composer/lyricist/librettist teams, addressing dramaturgy, music, and the practicalities of bringing a piece from conception to full professional production. Students include some of today’s major talents as well as composers you’ll be hearing about soon.
Feel free to contact me if you’re interested in private study.
And here are links to some of my favorite composers, quite a few of whom have studied with me at one time or another, many in the evening division at Juilliard. I love the huge range of styles and genres they work in. That may say something about how much I like to help people find their own individual voice and their own path and environment in which to flourish.