The Rivers School Conservatory Program offers a bold, new alternative in college preparatory studies for students with a serious interest in and aptitude for music. Rivers School Conservatory Program students are provided with the faculty, classes and performances needed to transform their musical talent into musical artistry while at the same time encountering a rigorous and challenging academic experience.

The Conservatory Program combines a tradition of academic excellence at The Rivers School with the outstanding music program at The Rivers School Conservatory. Students completing the Conservatory Program will be as equally prepared to attend schools such as Eastman, The New England Conservatory or Oberlin to prepare for careers in music as they are to attend colleges or universities such as Dartmouth, Amherst or Brown for traditional academic studies. Many will choose academic institutions where they can pursue both.

The Conservatory Program immerses students in a schedule that combines exciting and challenging academic classes with intensive and dynamic music training. For example, a conservatory jazz pianist could spend the day in advanced placement math, big band rehearsal and honors English, followed by two hours every afternoon of ear-training, jazz theory and jazz improvisation seminar. A violinist may attend a morning orchestra or chamber music rehearsal, then spend an hour out on Nonesuch Pond with an environmental science class or in the language lab for an honors Spanish class followed by afternoon classes in solfege and the Performance Seminar.

The Rivers School Conservatory  provides additional performance opportunities for the conservatory student. The world-renowned Annual Seminar on Contemporary Music for the Young, the Concerto, Scholarship and A. Ramón Rivera Piano Competitions, the 30-plus student recitals and the myriad of workshops and master classes combine with the Conservatory Performance classes, Performance Seminars and orchestra, chamber ensemble, choral and jazz concerts to create a dynamic program combining music and academics.

If you are a serious musician and student, look through these pages and imagine yourself on our campus in the Conservatory Program. It is a unique, ambitious and superior educational program designed for unique, aspiring and exceptional musician-scholars.