I'm really interested in music, I play trumpet and piano. Are there many music related professions? If so, which university or college would be great for music?

Carlos - all musicians are cool, in my opinion. It's great that you've cultivated a healthy and creative hobby early in life!

In short, there are lots and lots of music-related professions - aside from simply being a musician, you can work in music production, music streaming, tour management, sound engineering... the list is endless! And there are lots and lots of different types of positions you could hold in each of those industries.

Perhaps a good place to start when looking at colleges is: How sure are you that you want to be a professional musician? If you definitely want to focus on music long-term, then you might want to start researching what types of applicants are accepted to top music schools. This list should help you identify the top schools in the field. Though, I heard a funny saying about Berklee - that if you've graduated, it means you didn't make it! It's tongue-in-cheek, but has some truth: many successful musicians, including John Mayer, dropped out of music school because they were so talented they realized they didn't need to finish their degree to find success!

However, there are also many people who have non-musical jobs yet play music in their free time (I'm one of them!). While music is a core passion of mine, I decided that it was more important to pursue other passions professionally since I could always maintain the hobby of playing music. This balance makes me happy. If you think this might be more appropriate for you, keep in mind that you can always take music classes or even pursue a music major or minor at most normal colleges and universities while also continuing an education that would qualify you for a non-musical profession. You might not spend as much time playing music and meeting other musicians, but it might be a better way to keep your options open, and you could still set yourself up for working not as a musician but still in a music-related job.

I hope this helps! Best of luck along your path.

Hi there!

It depends on your career path.

You can go into music education, music performance, music technology. I would encourage you to decide if you want to perform, teach, produce music, then look up colleges and universities for that major. I do not know where you live or where you are willing to go. I went to WVU and majored in music education with emphasis in voice. To be honest, if you love performing, go for it! You can alway teach on the side. In my opinion, it is hard for music educators to get paid performing gigs because they want professionals who went to school for performance...at least that is how it has been in NJ. Good luck!