Curtis is truly unique in some ways. For example, it provides full-tuition scholarships to every student, and its enrollment is small. In addition to the studios for composition, conducting and keyboard instruments, it retains only as many students as are needed to form a full orchestra and an opera department.
Students are generally quite young, and they stay at the school anywhere from two years to a decade.
As an added plus, keyboard, conducting and composition students are all provided with grand pianos for their personal use. Curtis has a rigorous curriculum that is strictly controlled. The dean, Bob Fitzpatrick, informed me that the school decides with whom a composition student will study privately, and the student will rarely rotate to another. The faculty is comprised of musicians who are established in their fields, and do not consider teaching to be their primary occupation. For this reason students must take a train from Philadelphia to New York City - for all of the composition professors, Richard Danielpour , David Loeb , and Ned Rorem, reside there.