Seriously. I'm not kidding.
No one.
The only people who might care:
1.) Your mother. Because she's proud of you.
b.) Other people who went to your school too.
iii.) This guy you met at a festival who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone that was in your friend's freshman music theory class.
4.) You. Because you paid for it.
What brings this up, you ask? Well, I was talking to my friend MCE a few nights ago. MCE is a pretty good undergrad trombonist. I'm constantly encouraging him to audition for summer festivals, take auditions, etc. etc. The other night, MCE thanked me for all the encouragement, saying that no other musician had ever offered him that kind of support. That made me feel pretty good, because I had no idea that what I was saying had such an effect on him. But then, he expressed that he often feels inferior as a musician because of his "background." I think he was saying that because of his experiences in high school and college, he doesn't feel like he is "up to snuff."
And this brings me to something that has always pissed me off: the mentality of the conservatory. Now, I'm not going to go off on a rant and bash conservatories, because they are important parts of the musical world. They are a place where many talented people receive really great schooling and musical experiences. What I do object to, however, is the unspoken implication that these individuals are somehow better than those of us who go to extremely reputable, well-known, liberal arts institutions and get a really great, well-rounded education. One need only hear the tone of awe with which those who don't know the difference between a quarter note and a quarter tone speak about Juilliard to understand what I'm talking about.
I do not regret for one single second the time that I spent in my undergrad at the University of Delaware. Great music school? No. Good music department? Yes. Noted name? Not really. Great experience for me? Definitely. I met some of my best friends in my freshmen dorm, took some good (and bad) classes not within the music department, and knew each of my music professors personally. Heck, by the time I left, I even knew the professors I didn't ever study with on a personal level! I could have joined (or formed) any club I wanted, and was constantly in contact with a diverse group of individuals with interests that were completely different from mine. And my experience at UW is no different. Do I take advantage of a lot of these opportunities? Honestly, not really. I'm pretty focused on music and what I want to do. But constantly being around people who don't share my interests is probably a lot more beneficial than believing that everyone in my reality is a music major who really wants to talk about the third movement solo in Beethoven 6.
Its like that Eleanor Roosevelt quote, "No one can make you feel inferior but YOU." When it comes down to a screened audition, not one person on that committee will even have the ability to ask you where you went to school, even if they did care. Do they care that you, as a UW alum, play better or worse than Candidate 24, a (insert conservatory name here) alum? Nope. They care that you play better/worse than Candidate 24 because they are trying to hire the most qualified candidate, the best musician, for their orchestra. Does having a degree from (insert conservatory name here) matter from behind the screen? Not one single bit.
What I have come to realize, and what I hope that MCE realizes, is that the playing field levels out. Stuff that matters when you are in school really doesn't matter once you are out of it. There are great players everywhere. There are crappy players everywhere, too. And once you get out there and start doing music as a career, you realize that no one cares where you went to school, except perhaps the four people I mentioned above. And those people can't make me feel inferior, no matter how hard they try.
