I am planning to audition for this school and am in the process of putting together bands for my audition CD. Has anyone heard of this school? Know anything about it? Know anyone who came out of it? Experience at the place?

From what I see, the faculty seems amazing. Bobby Sanabria, Chico Hamilton, Joe Chambers... and private instructors including Jojo Mayer, Lenny White, Robby Ameen, John Riley, Lewis Nash and a whole nother load of bad asses!

I think the biggest concerns for me are

a) the facilities seem to be small from what Ive heard from others and you cant really practice as much as you like. Although there arent as many students as ... say, Berklee, you still have to fight for your space and time i guess... Especialy since I started playing drums so late, Id like to really shed a lot to catch up with the rest of the gang. Im not sure itsthat worth it if you learn new material but cant apply it....

b) what will I come out as with a degree in jazz performance? I mean will being a hardcore jazz head affect my competance in other styles? I want to be versitile. Most of the ensembles here are all straight ahead type ensembles and honestly, i think the drum and bass ensemble is the only one i can find with backbeat music... and maybe i guess the electric Miles ensemble. THe Afro-CUban and Brazilian percussion things seem tobe good, but I want to be able to hold down grooves when I come out and be versitile enough to do any kind of gigs, including commercial music!

c) what do you think about double majoring. Im planning on doing a double major in liberal arts as well. I think I read a Russ Miller interview somewhere (from here maybe?) that says everytime you arent at the drums thinking about the music, someone is. That scares me. I was originaly planning to get this other training to be more well rounded in many things as my major will be something like Liberal Arts with a concentration in "Arts in today's Society". I guess my parents want me to do that more as a back up and protection in their investment... But im scared that I will turn out as only like half a product and not be able to a competant musician.

I was also thinking about Berklee because it seemed more well rounded in other styles of more commercial stuff, but after hearing the horror stories on here, Idont reallywant to go ! haha! Well obviously the pros of going to Berklee opposed to the New School will be meeting more people and being put in a more competative environment because of the numbers of students. It seems to offer alot of training in more pop stuff also...


Well Idunno... what do you guys think? Can you offer me any advice? Thanks in advance guys.