By Chelsie Derman
Arts & Entertainment Editor
The Instagram account @tcnjbands announced that The College of New Jersey’s Department of Music ranked No.1 in the 2022 Best School for Music in New Jersey on Jan. 24, an honor that recognizes all the diligent work that music majors at the College have put in.
“(The ranking) came out of collegefactual.com,” said Dr. Eric Laprade, the Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music. “It’s a website or service dedicated to profiling schools and they come out with rankings of all different things — basically every discipline. They look at the quality of our programming and the work we’re doing.”
However, Laprade said the music department is not really concerned about the ranking.
“What we’re focused on is providing really compelling and transformative experiences for our students,” Laprade said. “We work really, really hard as a department: our students and our faculty.”
In regards to the high ranking, Laprade added, “I appreciated it.”
A large part of why The College ranked No.1 for Best School For Music in New Jersey is the numerous opportunities the Music Department offers.
“One of the great things actually is that, because there aren’t any graduate students — or at least graduate music students — undergraduate students get a lot of opportunities,” said Melissa Smith, a senior double major in music and communications studies.
Laprade agreed that the music department is the “right size.”
“We have a great faculty that is all incredibly committed to teaching to nurturing students, and so our faculty works closely with students,” Laprade said. “I ultimately feel like there’s a really big focus on what I would call the ‘human element’ of art, of music here, so kind of how and why we do what we do.”
Because of everything the music department offers, Smith said she can participate in a variety of things.
“Even though my primary instrument is a clarinet, I’ve been, in addition to also being in the wind ensemble, being in the clarinet ensemble,” Smith said. “I’ve also been able to participate in the College Choir. This semester I’m actually taking voice lessons, in addition to my clarinet lessons, so that’s been really nice.”
Smith talked about how, two years ago, music majors performed at New Jersey’s Music Educators Association conference. This year, music majors will attend the College Band Directors Nationals Association, the Eastern division conference.
“Now because of the pandemic and everything, we’re not able to take everyone (to the conference) because it’s a combined wind ensemble and choir piece,” Smith said. “So what we’re doing is we’re recording ‘Weather,’ which is sort of our main event, our performance, ahead of time. And then the wind ensemble is going to Baltimore on Friday, Feb. 18.”
Prior to getting accepted by the admissions office, Smith knew she could see herself studying music at The College.
“For the music major I had to do an audition,” Smith said. “I actually had to come to campus, and I immediately just felt so welcome. It was really nice the way they had it set up, that a lot of students were around. So, while I was waiting for my turn, my audition, my interview, I got to speak to students. They were all so friendly. So that was definitely a really big thing for me. And also the faculty I spoke to were all great.”
Ultimately, Laprade said the College’s music department is unique in certain aspects.
“You can go to hundreds of colleges to study music education or music performance — that’s not unique — but what is unique about the college is how we go about the process of collaborative music making,” Laprade said. “There’s a big focus in all we do on how this relates and connects to the world around us, and how we can use music and music teaching as a vehicle for social change. We provide really high-quality experiences for students, and the way we do so is what makes us unique.”
Laprade added he wasn’t shocked by the ranking.
“The big picture thing is the actual work we’re doing and our challenged students, our incredibly dedicated faculty, great facilities, amazing alumni — that’s what’s exciting, so the ranking is just the icing on the cake.”
