Academic & Performance Areas
Composition Area
About the Program
 |
DMA student in cello performance Ming-Hui Lin works out some of the nuances in a new composition by Jeong Yeon Lee, a DMA composition student. |
The
composition area at the Michigan State University College of Music is guided
by a faculty with diverse and extensive artistic and pedagogical experience.
Classes focus on traditional
and contemporary aspects of the craft and
technique of music composition within a program that allows for extensive
exploration of related areas of music: theory, pedagogy, jazz, world music,
computer music, aesthetics, conducting and performance. Strong instrumental
studios ensure support for a wide range of performance opportunities available
to composers in the program, including three concert series featuring
contemporary music, two of which focus exclusively on works by student
composers. Studio classes led by faculty, students, and a wide range of
visiting composers and performers help foster a lively and serious discourse,
complementing the curricular offerings of the area.
The composition area offers a range of classes in traditional composition
craft, world music, jazz, computer music, aesthetics and pedagogy. Classes
are conducted through private lessons, studio classes, master classes,
and seminars.
Assistantships are available for music theory, composition, and computer
music.
Undergraduate and graduate composition students arranged and released
their own CDs in 2001 and 2003 through the Alliance of Michigan State
University Composers (AMSUC), a non-profit student organization at MSU.
The organization is funded by the Associated Students of MSU (ASMSU) and
the College of Music. Learn more about AMSUC.
Number of Composition Majors: 15 undergraduates, 12 graduates.
Faculty
- Professor of Composition Jere
Hutcheson has been awarded 'Outstanding Composer of the Year'
by the Music Teachers National Association, and has received a
prestigious
research fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
- Professor of Composition and Music Theory Charles
Ruggiero is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Composition Commissioning Consortium Grant
and numerous
ASCAP awards.
- Associate Professor of Composition
Mark Sullivan received his third federal grant in 2003 for $99,200, under the new "No Child Left Behind: Title II, Improving Teacher Quality program. The program is titled, "Using Artist Residencies and Technology to Model Ways of Integrating the Arts into the Curriculum." It enables a range of interdisciplinary projects and residencies in the arts that focus on elementary and middle school education.
- New faculty member Ricardo Lorenz was appointed Associate Professor of Composition in 2005
Graduates of the Program
Graduates of the program have gone on to direct music technology for the
Chicago Symphony; received Fulbright fellowships to study around the world;
and their compositions have been performed by orchestras including Atlanta,
Baltimore, Chicago Civic, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis and St. Louis,
to name a few.
Performance Opportunities
Students have the opportunity to compose music for, and/or perform with
the following College of Music ensembles:
Degree Requirements
Bachelor of
Music
Master
of Music
Doctoral
of Music Arts
Audition Dates
For Prospective Music Majors
Back to Top |
