Mission Statement

          The main goal of the Department of Music is to prepare students in the knowledge and basic skills of the history of music, the understanding of musical structures, the creation and interpretation of music, and the applications of music technology. The departmental faculty enjoys considerable contact with our students. We are committed to nurturing the climate of engaged learning that has always existed in the Department of Music. Our faculty produces scholarship in the traditional sense but also artworks and performances.

          The study of music requires a rigorous and highly disciplined commitment to the art. To perform a recital or to put together an ensemble performance is to participate in an activity that requires students and directors to exercise responsibility in a tangible and measurable way and to interact positively with other musicians in communicating the musical meaning of an artwork to the audience. Every performance of a musical work has the potential to offer new insight into that work for performers and audiences alike. And, to create new music is to synthesize knowledge about the art with artistic expression. Such active learning lies at the core of the university experience.

          Once a peripheral area, technology (sound generation and sound reproduction) has begun to take a more central place in the study of, and production of musical works. Increased use of technology has revived interest in multimedia work, of which opera was perhaps the first enduring medium. The department is committed to fostering such projects in the vanguard of the university’s mission to further multidisciplinary and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.