A wide variety of performance opportunities await our students each year, with orchestras, bands, choirs and opera, jazz nonets and combos, small ensembles, and more.
A variety of programs and initiatives operate continuously or annually to enhance learning experiences and help students prepare for their future in music.
The MSU College of Music supports and challenges students, values innovation and creativity, and helps every community member achieve professional excellence.
Small class sizes and a student-to-faculty ratio of 12:1 ensure that all vocal arts students receive the individualized attention needed for success at the highest level. Every faculty member in the vocal arts area is an active performer and specialist in a particular performance medium. Because of that, students receive professional training across a variety of fields, including art song, oratorio, opera, musical theater, new music, diction, vocal pedagogy, and teaching methods.
Faculty members hold their own studio classes, while students perform repertoire for the entire vocal arts area in a weekly voice recital hour. Students perform degree-required recitals and non-degree recitals, and may audition for solos in choral ensembles or roles in MSU Opera Theatre Productions. Students may also develop their skills through MSU jazz ensembles, the new music ensemble Musique 21, and symphony and concert orchestras.
All successful applicants are automatically considered for competitive merit-based music scholarships. Graduate applicants are eligible for graduate assistantship positions in vocal arts as well as fellowships and scholarships, and no supplemental application is required to be considered.
State Singers explore personal and collective truths through choral works, while University Chorale highlights Jewish musical traditions with pieces by Rossi, Hensel, Kesselman, and Panufnik, concluding with Alex Berko’s Sacred Place, conducted by Derrick Fox and Sandra Snow.
MSU Wind Symphony joins forces with various MSU choirs to present a powerful concert featuring works by guest composer Jake Runestad, including Proud Music of the Storm, A Silence Haunts Me, and a piece by MSU composer David Biedenbender.
MSU Opera Theatre close out the season with Puccini and Rossini Double Bill.
MSU choirs and orchestra present Alegría Navideña at Wharton Center
Season opener presents a reimagined, powerful American masterpiece.
Incoming graduate student Makinsey Rosser brings passion, versatility, and gratitude to the College of Music thanks in part to a fellowship and scholarship that made her dream possible.
Undergraduates maintain perfect grade point average through all four years of study.