Summer MM Courses

June 15 – July 3
M, T, W, Th – 5:00pm-7:00pm
Hollander Hall

Sandra Snow, Professor and Director of Choral Programs

A laboratory chorus for singers and graduate students in choral conducting. The repertoire is drawn from both historical choral music and contemporary music for the global stage.

June 15 – July 3
M, T, W, Th – 3:45pm-5:45pm; F – 1:20pm-3:20pm
103 – Music Practice Building

Derrick Fox, Professor of Choral Conducting and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies

This course is designed for students to explore choral music from historical and contemporary musical practices and understand and apply knowledge of historical and social contexts.
Enrollment preference will be given to graduate students in choral conducting.

July 6 – July 24
M, T, W, Th – 3:35pm-4:35pm; F – 1:20pm-3:20pm
M, T, W, Th – 5:00pm-7:00pm
Hollander Hall

Sandra Snow, Professor and Director of Choral Programs, MSU

This course is designed to examine choral pedagogy and rehearsal strategies, and improve a conductor’s ability to be musically specific through conducting gestures.
Enrollment preference will be given to graduate students in choral conducting.

July 6 – July 24
M, T, W, Th – 3:35pm-4:35pm; F – 1:20pm-3:20pm
M, T, W, Th – 5:00pm-7:00pm
Hollander Hall

Sandra Snow, Professor and Director of Choral Programs, MSU

This course is designed to examine choral pedagogy and rehearsal strategies, and improve a conductor’s ability to be musically specific through conducting gestures.
Enrollment preference will be given to graduate students in choral conducting.

June 15 – July 24
M, W, F – 8:00am-10:05am
219 – Music Practice Building

Josh Palkki, Associate Professor – Georgia Institute of Technology

This course covers the various methods of research in music education, with a focus on reviewing and understanding existing research, as well as conceptualization and implementation of original empirical research studies.

June 15 – July 24
T, Th – 11:15am-1:10pm
419 – Music Practice Building

Jess Forgione – Music Theory Graduate Assistant

Fundamental elements of music theory, with emphasis on scales, harmonies, rhythm, and meter. This remedial course is required for those who do not pass the Orientation Examination in Music Theory. Credit for this course will not count toward a graduate degree.

June 15 – July 24
T, W, Th – 1:20pm-3:30pm
235 – Music Building

Patrick Johnson, Associate Professor of Music Theory

Intended to help music educators and conductors develop skills that utilize the keyboard as a resource for teaching, demonstration, and music learning. Students will learn to realize open scores (including SATB choir) transpose single-and multi-line music, harmonize melodies, and improvise simple phrases and accompaniments. A basic familiarity with the piano is assumed, but the course is not restricted to pianists; non-pianists should Dr. Johnson (john1201@msu.edu) for preparation suggestions.

June 15 – July 24
T, Th – 11:15am-1:10pm
245 – Music Building

Nick Schumacher – Associate Professor of Music Theory

This course examines strategies for teaching theory in the classroom and within ensemble settings and private lessons. Emphasizing practical application, the course equips educators with tools to integrate harmonic analysis, ear training, and formal concepts into rehearsals to enhance musical understanding and performance.

performance.

June 15 – July 24
T, W, Th – 1:20pm-3:30pm
245 – Music Building

James Sullivan, Associate Professor of Music Theory

Explore how texted music is shaped by, and shapes, its words. Whether an art song or choral work setting an existing poem, a popular song conceived alongside its lyrics, or an opera aria responding collaboratively to a libretto, music and text interact with one another in a multitude of structural and expressive ways. We will explore this interaction across a variety of styles and genres (such as those above) and along a variety of poetic and musical dimensions, including meter, grouping, rhyme, lineation, persona, mode of address, harmony, and form.

June 15 – July 24
M, W, F – 10:25am-12:40pm

241 – Music Building
Dr. Nicholas Field, Assistant Professor of Musicology

This course investigates the concept of modernity in its broadest sense, including the place of music within global socio-cultural developments from the seventeenth century until the present. Readings and discussion will explore the production, consumption, and function of music in the context of modernizing social currents, focusing on cultural tensions between perceptions of tradition and progressive or modernist impulses.

June 15 – July 24
M, W, F – 10:25am-12:40pm
219 – Music Practice Building

Dr. Molly Cryderman-Weber, Assistant Professor of Musicology

This course is an examination of music in relationship to mass media advertising contexts – radio, television, internet, and social media – in the United States. We will track the use of music in mass media advertising from the early 20th c. to the present, study prominent analytical frameworks of music in advertising, reflect upon music’s role in shaping and delivering the audience commodity, and consider how the music of advertising can work to sustain or challenge ideologies of the powerful. Assessment is based upon reading and listening quizzes, written reflections, and a semester-length project that demonstrates mastery of audio-visual analysis and evaluation of audience positionality in a historically and contextually informed manner.

June 20 – June 21
Sa, Sun – 9:00am-5:00pm

103 – Music Practice Building

Ryan Shaw, Associate Professor of Music Education

One of Detroit’s gifts to the music world is the incredible legacy of Motown Records and the Motown sound. In this workshop, we will explore the history and sonic hallmarks of Motown music and will visit the Motown Museum in Detroit. Participants will create K-12 Motown-based music curriculum incorporating the artistic processes of creating, performing, responding, and connecting.

July 11 – July 12
Sa, Sun – 9:00am-5:00pm
103 – Music Practice Building
Instructor – TBA

Topic – TBA.

June 15 – July 24 – Time arranged
Location TBA
Instructors TBA

Private instruction in piano, strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion specifically designed for graduate students in music education.
Space is limited. If interested please contact the Graduate Office at musgrad@msu.edu prior to May 5, 2026.

June 15 – July 24 — Time arranged

108 – Music Building

Deborah Moriarty, professor of piano, MSU

Private instruction in piano. Space in this course is limited. If you are interested, please contact Professor Moriarty at forgerd@msu.edu prior to May 5, 2026.

June 15- July 24 – Time arranged
Location TBA
Instructors TBA

Private instruction in voice specifically designed for graduate students in choral conducting or music education. Placement in each section will be determined by background and skill level.
Space is limited. If interested please contact the Graduate Office at musgrad@msu.edu prior to May 5, 2026