Music Composition
Music Composition offers degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as a minor. The program provides students the guidance they need to express their individuality through their music.
About the Major
You will join a tight-knit community of artists who are perfecting their craft. Through personal attention and mentorship from Hartt’s accomplished faculty members, you will develop innovative ideas and career ready skills. Learn about the clarinet program at Hartt, including undergraduate and graduate admission and audition requirements and faculty information.
Admission and Audition Requirements
Please see specific instrument audition requirements by degree below. Learn more about the undergraduate or graduate application process, in-person audition dates, and deadlines.
Bachelor of Music
- Two contrasting works or movements
- One étude (technical study) or standard orchestral excerpt
Please note: We have students who come to Hartt from across the United States and around the world. That is one of the things that makes a Hartt education so special. Some students are accepted and arrive having had extensive private study on their instruments. Others have had less experience (and perhaps less conventional training), but their natural abilities and great love of music allow them to make remarkable strides in a short period of time because of the expertise of our faculty.
Our requirements are sometimes quite specific to give applicants a sense of where they should be to enter a high-level conservatory environment. However, we encourage applicants to reach out to our faculty members to discuss audition repertoire. It may be that what you have prepared will suffice. Our primary goal is to identify potential, and if we feel that the potential is there, it is then our responsibility to provide each and every student with the tools to be successful.
If you would like to be in touch with a member of the faculty to discuss your audition repertoire, please write to harttadm@hartford.edu.
Master of Music & Graduate Professional Diploma
- The first movement or third movement of any major clarinet concerto
- One movement of any major piece for clarinet and piano
- One solo piece for clarinet composed after 1970
- Two contrasting etudes
- Three contrasting orchestral excerpts
Doctor of Musical Arts & Artist Diploma
- Whole movement of any clarinet concerto
- Whole movement of any 20th century clarinet concerto
- Whole movement of major clarinet sonata
- Clarinet piece composed after 1970 (with piano or solo clarinet)
- Any of the unrepresentative pieces for clarinet
- Two contrasting etudes
- Four contrasting orchestral excerpts
Our Faculty
Associate Professor of Clarinet
Ayako Oshima, winner of numerous international competitions including the 55th Japan Music Competition in Tokyo, the Winds and Percussion Competition in Japan, and 3rd Prize winner in the 17th International Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade, where she also received the Golden Harp award given to the favorite of the audience and critics, is one of the most popular clarinet soloists in Japan. She performs on a regular basis both in recital and in concerto appearances.
Clarinet Faculty
Clarinetist Curt Blood joined The Hartt School collegiate faculty in the fall of 2006 and The Hartt School Community Division faculty in the fall of 2015. He has been an active teacher and performer in New England since 1982, when he was appointed Principal Clarinetist of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, a position he still holds. Additionally, he has performed with many of the areas finest orchestras, including the New Haven Symphony, Springfield Symphony, and Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic, and has performed in Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall in Boston. Each summer, Blood serves as Principal Clarinetist with the Buzzards Bay Musicfest in Marion, Massachusetts. Blood has played under the direction of esteemed conductors, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Slatkin.
Take the Next Step
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