BM in Music

About this program

California State University, Stanislaus offers the Bachelor of Music through the Department of Music — accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) — in the College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The BM is an intensive curriculum designed for students wishing to prepare for graduate study in music and for specific professional purposes. All BM students receive private instruction on their primary instrument or voice for one hour each week with outstanding artist faculty, participate in large and small performing ensembles each semester, and complete advanced coursework in music theory, music history, and their area-specific professional sequence. The BM is offered in seven majors: Music Education – Choral: Prepares students for careers as K–12 choral music educators, leading to the California Single Subject Credential. The curriculum includes private voice instruction, in-depth study of choral conducting and rehearsal techniques, choral methods, materials, and literature, and coursework addressing elementary and secondary school teaching contexts. Students participate as section leaders and assistant conductors in large and small choral ensembles. The Stanislaus State choirs maintain a busy calendar including regular choral concerts and frequent collaborations with the Opera Workshop and the Modesto Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Music Education – Instrumental: Prepares students for careers as K–12 instrumental music educators, leading to the California Single Subject Credential. Alongside private instruction each semester, students complete coursework in all areas of music education including brass, woodwind, percussion, and string teaching techniques, conducting, and elementary and secondary school music pedagogy. The degree culminates in the California Credential Program. Performance – Instrumental: A pre-professional sequence for students pursuing careers as professional performers on strings, woodwinds, brass, or percussion. Students engage private instruction each week, participate in chamber ensembles, Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, New Music Ensemble, and jazz ensembles, and complete coursework in conducting, techniques courses, and orchestration. Many graduates continue to graduate-level performance programs. Performance – Jazz: Prepares both future jazz educators and professional jazz performers. The program provides a comprehensive educational environment including private instruction, master classes with prominent guest artists, independent projects, and an extensive classroom experience covering performance, composition and arranging, jazz history, pedagogy, styles and analysis, and large and small ensemble playing. Ensembles include two big bands, the Latin Ensemble, the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and five jazz combos — all placed through auditions at the beginning of each semester. The program conducts outreach activities to elementary, middle, and high school students throughout the region. The Jazz Studies Coordinator is Ms. Barb Shinaver, bshinaver@csustan.edu, (209) 667-3740. Performance – Piano: Designed for advanced pianists for whom piano performance and teaching is the major emphasis. The curriculum includes weekly hour-long applied piano lessons, Piano Pedagogy I and II (covering instructional methods for beginning through intermediate levels), Collaborative Piano/Accompanying I and II (choral, congregational, and chamber accompanying; opera, ballet, and musical theatre accompanying), and Piano Literature I and II (surveying Western keyboard music from the Renaissance through the Contemporary era). Students perform frequently, assist at the annual Summer Music at Stanislaus Piano Camps, and gain introductory pre-college teaching experience. The program aims to prepare students for careers in solo and collaborative concert performance, piano teaching, and graduate study. The Piano Studies Coordinator is Dr. Sarah Chan, schan7@csustan.edu, (209) 667-3429. Performance – Vocal: A pre-professional sequence for students interested in careers as professional singers, soloists, ensemble performers, and opera artists. Students receive one hour of private voice instruction weekly, study lyric diction, solo vocal literature, and vocal pedagogy, and perform frequently in the Opera Workshop — which each semester presents a program of fully staged scenes or complete operatic works (opera, operetta, and musical theatre) — as well as with university choral ensembles in performances of major works with orchestra. The Vocal/Choral Area Coordinator is Dr. Daniel Afonso. Recent vocal performance graduates have been admitted to Indiana University, The Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, New England Conservatory, Westminster Choir College, the University of Colorado–Boulder, and Boston University. Composition: Students develop a portfolio of compositions representative of musical styles studied in the theory sequence and in upper-division composition lessons. Student compositions are performed in annual new music festivals as well as in other large and small ensemble concerts throughout the year. Composition students have opportunities to meet respected composers through regional and national conferences hosted at the University, guest lectures, and master classes. Facilities supporting all BM majors include the Bernell and Flora Snider Recital Hall (state-of-the-art acoustics and professional recording technology), the Music Building (rehearsal, teaching, and practice rooms), and the Music Technology Lab (ten-station Mac lab with Pro Tools, Sibelius, and other professional software). The instrument collection includes an outstanding Steinway concert grand piano and a Dowd harpsichord in Snider Recital Hall, and a range of Steinway, Mason and Hamlin, Kawai, and Boston pianos throughout the building. Merit-based scholarships are available across all BM areas. The most competitive scholarships in Piano Performance are awarded through entrance-scholarship auditions held each Spring. Senior high school students who win the Sylvia M. Ghiglieri Piano Competition automatically qualify for scholarship consideration if applying as piano performance majors.

Audition & application overview

• Requires a live or recorded audition

Live in-person entrance audition before a faculty committee (video submission available for international students unable to travel); Piano auditions held in Spring semester prior to enrollment year; other areas held on posted audition dates throughout the year

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