The Los Angeles College of Music in Pasadena exemplifies a fundamental transformation in composer education through its $54,000 master’s degree program in composing for visual media.
At the LACM, the program is led by James Sale, Department Chair of the Composing for Visual Media Faculty, General Music.
“I’ve seen that a lot of programs don’t have specific classes, like composing for action, composing for horror, composing music for trailers and libraries,” Sale told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m adding a class about theme and melody writing, and I’m also adding a class called working with temp music, which is a crucial part of our profession.”
The school, whose alumni include Drew Louis of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” stands among 20 institutions recognized in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2024 list of top music schools worldwide preparing the next generation of composers across all media.
“COVID put a whole new emphasis on what it means to be a desktop digital musician, to where you can sit down at the computer and literally be a one-person orchestra,” Keith Mason, Belmont University’s music technology coordinator, said.
Even prestigious institutions like Juilliard, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music and Yale have integrated technology-focused programs into their curricula, the publication reports.
Veteran composer and orchestrator Conrad Pope, who has worked with many top-ranked schools, emphasized that while technology provides essential tools, creative talent remains innate.
“[Music schools] can’t provide you with an original voice. You can’t teach creativity. But you can teach the craft,” Pope said.
The rankings, released in November, were determined through polling of Hollywood’s Society of Composers and Lyricists, the Composers Diversity Collective, and music branch members of both Motion Picture and Television Academies.