About Us

The UConn Department of Music has a proud tradition of preparing future performers, composers, and teachers, while also enriching the life experience of the campus and wider community. Music alumni credit their success to the "start" they received at UConn, prizing both the focus given to their specialties and the opportunities to experience new, often path-changing, instruction and events.

I hope you will visit—preferably when classes are in session. Whether you dream of being a professional musician or you value pursuing your education in an environment of artistic vitality and richness, the faculty, staff, and students in the Department of Music will welcome you. A call in advance of your visit can facilitate class, lesson, and rehearsal observations, a tour, perhaps even a sample lesson. Your visit could be an important first step to the future of your imaginings.

Opportunities

More than 40 outstanding faculty performers, scholars, and educators provide a distinctive, stimulating environment for musical study and performance. Curricula and degree programs stress the development of fundamental musical skills so necessary for all musicians, as well as the discipline and rigor for advanced study and performance. Talented students with inquisitive minds develop the skills, knowledge, and attitudes critical to their future success as professional musicians and educators.

The Department of Music's public performances present exciting new music and a reexamination of the musical tradition in light of current practices and research. Each performance is recorded and retained for additional study. Professionally engaged faculty members ensure the availability of books and other scholarly works, performances both on campus and in other venues, and discussions that stimulate and enlighten. Guest artists, master classes, and lectures bring additional awareness of and exposure to the "real world" of music, as can working with younger and older learners in UConn's Community School of the Arts and in Connecticut's public schools.

A personal approach

Students are UConn's first priority, and orientation and advising programs inform each student's academic and musical life. A competitive audition process permits the best and brightest to learn with and from each other, and small class sizes permit faculty to devote careful attention to students' abilities and needs. Outstanding and dedicated faculty and gifted students create an unmatched environment for achievement and excellence.

An artistic environment

One of three academic units and one of six overall in UConn's School of Fine Arts, the Department of Music enjoys a rich environment. Students surrounded not only by other musicians but also by visual artists, art historians, and dramatic artists in the Connecticut Repertory Theatre, are stimulated to think and work in the arts more broadly. The active presence of the Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts, the William Benton Museum of Art, and the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry provides an atmosphere virtually unrivaled in American higher education. And, it's all waiting for you!