University of Cincinnati

March to the beat of your own drum
Music. Theater. Performance. Media arts. Nationally ranked and internationally renowned, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is a preeminent institution for the performing and media arts, providing life-changing experiences within a highly creative and multidisciplinary artistic environment.

CCM’s annual calendar boasts nearly 1,000 events, ranging from solo recitals to fully staged opera and musical theater performances. The College is the largest single source of performing arts presentations in the entire state of Ohio. The CCM ensembles have performed internationally, recorded for major labels, and won ASCAP awards for excellence and programming. 

CCM’s educational roots date back to 1867, and visionary instruction has been at its core since that time. The school’s roster of renowned faculty regularly receives distinguished honors for creative and scholarly work, and its alumni have achieved notable success in the performing and media arts.

More than 150 internationally recognized faculty members work with students from around the world, specializing in Electronic Media, Ensembles and Conducting, Keyboard Studies, Music Education, Theatre Arts, Arts Administration, Performance Studies, and Music Composition.

CCM’s facilities include the Gorno Memorial Music Library, housing more than 120,000 volumes of books, music scores, periodicals, microforms, and recordings. The College’s Music Listening Center offers an advanced audio system with 48 listening stations and 24 computer stations.

Among CCM’s performance spaces are the 380-seat Patricia Corbett Theater, the versatile Cohen Family Studio Theater, the 250-seat Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, the 140-seat Watson Recital Hall, and the newly renovated 740-seat Corbett Auditorium, one of the most visually striking and acoustically balanced college theaters in the nation.

Production facilities include an 8,500-sq. ft. scene shop; a 3,000-sq. ft. costume shop; wig, makeup, and prosthetics studios; a design/drafting studio; a sound design studio; and a lighting laboratory.

Live out loud
• With a college student enrollment of 1,500 and a 7:1 student-faculty ratio, CCM offers nine degrees in more than 100 majors.
• The College is ranked in the top 10 for Music, Opera and Voice, Musical Conducting and Composition, and Orchestra/Symphony by U.S. News & World Report.
• CCM programs are housed in a building that was one of only 14 recipients, of 421 submissions, of a National Honor Award for Outstanding Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.
• In 2009 CCM received the designation of “All Steinway School,” a distinction shared by the top conservatories in the world. CCM has also become one of the largest repositories of Steinway pianos outside the company’s Long Island City, New York–based factory.
• CCM was recognized in 2011 as Ohio’s first Center of Excellence in Music and Theatre Arts by the Ohio Board of Regents.
• The College was named one of the top six college programs in the nation for actors on a budget by Backstage.com. Out of 200 incoming freshmen in the fall, about 60% of CCM students received some talent-based scholarship (2013).
• American Theatre magazine ranked CCM among the nation’s top 13 musical theatre programs. The magazine noted these top programs “...have turned out some amazing success stories, offering unique coursework that can make a performer stand out from the chorus line.” (2017)