Sample Courses
- History of jazz looks at the major jazz styles and performers from 1900 to the present, including ragtime, swing, bop, free jazz, and fusion.
- The collaborative pianist is a comprehensive study of techniques and literature for artistic ensemble performance by pianists.
- Score reading involves reading and analyzing musical scores for small and large ensembles.
- Music for early childhood focuses on the musical abilities of preschool children by exploring suitable materials, musical experiences, and techniques involving parents and children in a laboratory setting.
- Electronic music techniques I, II covers MIDI basics; analog, digital, and direct-to-disk recording; digital signal processing, and compositional techniques.
Musical instruments of the world explores cross-cultural instruments with a focus on specific geographical areas utilizing film, recordings, and live demonstrations.
Hands On Learning
The School of Music sponsors more than 200 concerts and recitals annually, and it offers many courses of interest to nonmajors. It hosts regional, national, and international music conferences, workshops, and master classes with visiting artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, Elly Ameling, and Lou Harrison. The Chamber Music Series features renowned ensembles such as the Guarneri, Tokyo, Juilliard, and Emerson String Quartets. The music school sponsors the Oregon Bach Festival, the Oregon Jazz Celebration, and the Music Today Festival.
Music education majors get a strong component of practical experience in performance skills and teaching. An innovative feature of the program is the teaching laboratory, where students can practice teaching strategies and rehearsal techniques.
At the graduate level, our Community Music Institute offers string and keyboard students real-world experience by teaching young students from the local community.
With a one-on-one relationship between the student and the instructor, private studio instruction is the ultimate hands-on experience for music majors. Student surveys indicate an exceptionally high level of satisfaction with the quality of our studio faculty members, many of whom are internationally acclaimed performers.
Interdisciplinary Opportunities
At Oregon you can double major in music and another subject such as business administration, journalism, or theater arts. Or you can major in another subject and choose from one of two music minors. In each case, individual counseling and advising will help you tailor a degree program to your needs.
Many music students have found additional opportunities for interdepartmental collaboration as performers and composers in the Department of Dance and in University Theatre productions.