Boston is also the home of the New England Conservatory of Music, the nation's oldest independent music school.

And it is not just Americans who study at these schools. At the Manhattan School of Music in New York, for example, an average of thirty-five percent of the students come from outside the United States.

VOICE ONE:

Carol Aicher is a professor at the Manhattan School of Music. We asked her how success is defined for a composer today.

Success, she says, is all about getting your music played. Having established groups hire composers to write new music is important, but that is not enough.

Professor Aicher explains that many composers have exciting premieres, where their music is played in public for the first time. But she says the real measure of success is whether or not their music gets replayed. For example, performance groups might buy the rights to play the work live. Or the music might get recorded and sold on CD or online.

Carol Aicher says most composers teach at music schools to add to their income.

(MUSIC: "Secret and Glass Gardens"/Jennifer Higdon, pianist Maria Mazo)

VOICE TWO:

Jennifer Higdon, a 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner, teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia

Jennifer Higdon clearly fits the description of a successful composer. Her works are played by orchestras and at music festivals around the world, and this year she won a Pulitzer Prize.