About the School of Music

University of the Arts’ School of Music celebrates individual self-expression, creative collaboration and the technical skills to prepare you for a professional career in music through its undergraduate programs in

• Instrumental Performance; 

• Music Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology; 

• Music Composition; and 

• Vocal Performance.

The School of Music also offers minors in 

• Music;

• Music Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology;

• Music Education; 

• Music Technology; 

• Musical Theater; and

• Songwriting.

Its graduate programs include

• Jazz Studies and 

• Master of Arts in Teaching, Music Education (four-year undergraduate degree in Composition, Instrumental Performance, or Vocal Performance, including the minor in Music Education and one additional year in the Master's program).

The School of Music also offers professional development opportunities. Learn more about Summer Music Studies.

The School of Music is dedicated to the preparation and training of musicians for careers in music performance, production, recording, all aspects of the music business, composition and music education. Your growth as a musician is the primary goal of the program. In 2020, the School of Music was ranked #2 in The 10 Best “Hidden Gem” Music Schools by Music School Central.

The school trains you to be a professional of the highest caliber through a comprehensive curriculum that includes private lessons with an actively performing faculty, an abundance and diversity of ensembles and performance experiences, and a focus on information literacy and critical thinking.

Performance opportunities sharpen your technical and improvisation skills and increase your knowledge of repertoire and styles. The school’s numerous performance ensembles represent a wide range of styles and categories of classical, hip-hop, jazz, R&B and world music. You’ll be involved in a rigorous schedule of performances: UArts produces over 150 concerts and recitals each year.

Beyond building your technical skills and your individual voice, UArts offers distinct opportunities to collaborate with students across the university—including theater artists, dancers, filmmakers, animators, designers and other student artists, which means you’ll have the opportunity to score films, make music videos, see your music come to life through dance and graduate knowing how to collaborate and communicate with all kinds of other artists. Twenty minors are open to all students, so guitarists can study sculpture, dancers can minor in photography, composers can take classes in illustration.

UArtists graduate prepared to make significant cultural contributions, perform professionally in all kinds of venues and environments, run their own creative businesses, create work for diverse communities and public spaces, and effect social change through their self-expression.

The state-of-the-art Laurie Wagman Recording Studios allow you to explore all facets of music production, including composition, sound design, digital and analog recording, mixing, and mastering. They live alongside brand-new rehearsal, classroom, office, lab and production spaces. You’ll gain the skills you’ll need to pursue music industry jobs like arranging, audio technology, composition, digital audio editing, instrument technology, producing, recording, sound design and studio management.

Learn more about the Laurie Wagman Recording Studios.

Our new Circuitry Lab gives you the opportunity to explore and create through classes like Audio Electronics and Experimental Audio Electronics.

Our Electronic Music Lab offers courses in Spatial Music Composition, Binaural Recording and Intro to Audio Synthesis, during which you can explore how analog synthesizers and digital music creation converge.

The Center for Immersive Media (CIM) helps you explore and create with augmented and virtual reality, performance motion-capture and human-computer interaction. At 5,600 square feet, CIM is the largest such facility in the region and includes

• An optical motion-capture system for full body performance capture and location-based VR applications,

• Multiple video projectors,

• Lighting instruments with adjustable zoom and color,

• A four-channel audio system,

• A 16-station computing classroom with PCs optimized for real-time computer graphics rendering, and

• Two large project rooms with ceiling grids for development of installations and virtual environments.

Learn more about CIM.

Further, UArts is home to 9 professional performance venues. 

Studying in University of the Arts’ School of Music immerses you in all the arts. We encourage you to further explore the passions you know you have and discover those you haven’t uncovered yet. Learn to paint. Take yoga, tap or both. Start a business or a website, build a stage or film set, work with fibers and ceramics.

Advance your creativity and make your mark.