Bowling Green State University
| Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts has earned a reputation as one of the country’s outstanding collegiate music programs. The college provides training for students pursuing professional and teaching degrees in music. Its graduates hold appointments in a multitude of colleges and universities, private and public schools, as well as successful and fulfilling careers as professional musicians, composers, arts administrators and private studio teachers.The college brings the joy of music to Bowling Green and the surrounding communities with over 500 concerts, recitals and public events each year. The college’s musical calendar features more than 25 performing ensembles, plus a variety of student chamber music groups and soloists. In addition, two fully staged operas are produced annually. Student and faculty ensembles from the college frequently perform at state and national conferences. Faculty soloists and ensembles have garnered accolades both in the United States and abroad, and compositions by faculty composers have also received national and worldwide performances. The college’s music education, musicology and theory faculty regularly present papers and sessions at professional conferences, and many are recognized for their publications and writings. |
Degree
| MUSIC (B.M.) | The bachelor of music degree provides undergraduate preparation for a professional career and a background for graduate study. The curriculum for each bachelor of music program stresses not only technical and musical skills but also a broad understanding of the social and cultural environment in which the art of music is practiced. See the sections immediately following as well as the course descriptions for specific details of each of these majors. |
| Jazz Studies | The bachelor of music with a major in jazz studies degree program is one in which motivated students of creative American music are encouraged to interact with one another and with faculty in a challenging, performance-oriented educational environment. Highlights of the program include: strong growth support through a dedicated community of developing musicians; mentoring of the jazz art by experienced full-time faculty; continual review of individual musical development through interactive seminars, meetings, and advising; an active schedule of student and faculty performances, and guest clinics and performances by well-known jazz performers |
| Music Composition | Composition applicants are required to submit a representative portfolio of original scores with recordings if available (submitted electronically), must achieve a passing score in their main performance medium, and must receive a high score on the music theory placement exam. Upon acceptance as a pre-composition major, the student, in counsel with an advisor, develops a course of study based on degree requirements and the student’s needs and interests. Pre-composition majors submit a portfolio of original compositions along with other required documents at the end of their second year. Students successfully passing this assessment will be formally accepted as composition majors. |
| Music Education | The music education major is designed to prepare students to become elementary and secondary school music teachers. The faculty of the Department of Music Education has identified three primary learning outcomes: effective teaching, musicianship, and critical thinking. |
| Music History and Literature | Music students who have developed a strong interest in music history and literature and have demonstrated a high standard of academic achievement may apply to the chair of the musicology/composition/theory department for acceptance as a major in music history and literature. It is also possible to add music history and literature to an existing major for a double major. Application for admission to the music history and literature program is made prior to the end of the sophomore year. Applicants should submit a 2-page statement of purpose to the department chair, indicating why they are interested in the degree, and how they plan to use it. |
| Music Performance | The Music Performance major provides the potential professional performer (musician) and/or teacher with the finest instrumental/vocal training within the context of a comprehensive undergraduate curriculum. Individual study with artist-teachers enables each student to achieve a high level of proficiency on the major instrument (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, guitar, keyboard, voice), and a high level of participation in ensembles provides performance experience and a broad knowledge of the literature. Specialized coursework develops the expertise in reading, writing, analysis, musical styles, and performance practices, which marks the professional performer/teacher (musician). The department provides applied instruction and coursework in performance for music majors and minors, as well as for all qualified students of the University. |
| World Music | Music students who have developed a strong interest in world music and have demonstrated a high standard of academic achievement may apply to the chair of the musicology/composition/theory department for acceptance as a major in world music. It is possible to add world music to an existing major for a double major. Application for admission to the world music major is made prior to the end of the sophomore year. |
| BACHELOR OF MUSICAL ARTS (B.M.A.) | The Bachelor of Musical Arts degree provides undergraduate preparation in music and multidisciplinary curricula with intellectual, pragmatic, and professional objectives. The curriculum for each Bachelor of Musical Arts degree stresses an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approach for each student. |
| Accelerated Bachelors / Masters Degree | |
| BACHELOR OF ARTS (B.A.) | The College of Arts and Sciences offers majors leading to the bachelor of arts degree in music. Emphases are available in music history, ethnomusicology/jazz, and performance studies. Bachelor of arts degree candidates who wish to pursue a major or minor in music should contact the College of Arts and Sciences’ music advising coordinator in the College of Musical Arts. See the College of Arts and Sciences for additional information. |
| Graduate | |
| Composition | The College of Musical Arts offers a master’s degree in music composition. Admission is by audition. Majors receive a weekly private lesson and attend a bi-weekly seminar. Works are regularly performed in Student Composers’ Forums. Numerous guest artists visit the campus and present lectures and give private lessons. |
| Music Education | Education features four specializations: |
| Comprehensive Music Education (Plan I and II) | |
| Choral Music Education | |
| Instrumental Music Education | |
| Teaching Artistry | The Master of Music Education, Teaching Artistry Specialization is a new, 100% online degree designed to meet the growing demand of practitioners currently employed in the teaching profession desiring a path to continue development of current skills, gain new skills and insight into the profession, and to deepen knowledge of pedagogy. Through the use of mentor teachers, faculty committees, individualized and group instruction, and faculty driven curricular benchmarks, students will gain important pedagogical skills, which can be implemented immediately in their own professional work. We turn your classroom into our classroom – allowing you to immediately apply what you learn into your own planning and instruction. |
| Music History | The Master of Music in Music History allows students to pursue detailed work in music history and prepares them for further work in musicology. The program includes courses in performance practice, notation and genres, as well as specially designed topical seminars. These experiences are reinforced by participation in the departmental ensembles: the Afro-Caribbean Ensemble, the Balinese Gamelan, the Early Music Ensemble and the New Music Ensemble. |
| Ethnomusicology | The Master of Music in Ethnomusicology is a 34-credit-hour program that includes seminars in ethnomusicology, music history and disciplines related to the field such as popular culture, ethnic studies and women’s studies. Students study history and literature of ethnomusicology and the music cultures of the Africa and the African diaspora, the Middle East, Central Asia, and global popular cultures while also receiving training in field methodology and various other special topics. The degree offers performance opportunities in Balinese Gamelan, Afro-Caribbean, and other ensembles. The program culminates in a thesis and prepares students for further work in ethnomusicology. |
| Music Theory | The Master of Music in Music Theory degree totals 34 semester hours and normally takes two years to complete. Included are seminars in research techniques, structural analysis, style analysis and 20-century analysis. Electives and independent studies allow students to pursue subjects of special interest to them. Oral examinations in aural skills, bibliography and analysis are taken in residence. Study culminates in a thesis. |
| Performance | Performance majors may select from the following. Considerable flexibility is permitted within an individual program to meet the special needs of students. |
| Choral Conducting | |
| Instrumental Specialist in Strings, Woodwinds and Brass | The instrumental specialization option consists of a concentration in a major instrument and at least two minor instruments within the brass, strings and woodwind areas. |
| Jazz | Bowling Green State University offers a MM in Music Performance with an emphasis in jazz. The program’s core curriculum is augmented by opportunities to perform that prepare the advanced jazz student to enter the professional arena as a player and educator. The graduate student assumes a leadership role in the community and is given the opportunity to coach small ensembles as well as teach certain undergraduate classes. This experience enables the graduate student to mentor at the same time they are being mentored. |
| Piano | BGSU has earned a reputation for its outstanding keyboard program, drawing students from all over the United States and the world. The four full-time piano faculty members, Solungga Liu, Laura Melton, Robert Satterlee, and Yevgeny Yontov have diverse backgrounds and maintain active performing careers. With approximately 50 piano majors, including undergraduate and graduate students in degree programs in performance and music education, the BGSU piano program offers a wide range of opportunities to build your pianistic artistry in a caring and nurturing environment. |
| Voice | The goal of the voice faculty at the CMA is to help students grow as musicians and as people, and become the best singers they can be, regardless of their degree program. The voice faculty members come from diverse backgrounds and experience, and work together to make sure students are getting what they need to develop technically, musically, and personally. Throughout their course of study, voice students develop their skills through weekly lessons and master classes with studio teachers, workshops and recitals with visiting artists, and frequent performances in studio and area seminars. |
| Certificate Program | The Music Certificate Program is a one-year course of instruction designed for advanced, non-degree students wishing to pursue intense and concentrated musical study in conducting, instrumental performance, vocal performance and composition at the pre-master’s or post-master’s level. Prerequisite for enrollment is a bachelor’s degree or an acceptable diploma in music or its equivalent.Major programmatic emphasis is placed on the development of solo and ensemble skills. Minimum residency of two semesters (summers excluded) at Bowling Green State University is required with 12 hours of earned credit in music courses. Students must maintain a 3.0 grade point average and show satisfactory performance at semester examination juries. A solo recital or concerto performance with orchestra or major musical composition is required. A major operatic role may substitute for the recital at the discretion of the Program Coordinator. Although the Music Certificate Program is open to all qualified students, the program attracts many international musicians. Past certificate candidates include musicians from all over the world, including China, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Germany, Italy, Romania, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Venezuela. International students may enroll in English courses in addition to the 12 credit-hour requirement. Although acceptance into the Certificate Program does not automatically constitute admission to the Graduate College, many certificate students have successfully continued their studies as graduate candidates at BGSU. A maximum of nine credits may be transferred upon petition to other graduate programs in the College of Musical Arts if the candidate is unconditionally admitted to a master’s degree program. |
| Doctor of Music | The primary purpose of the D.M.A. program is to develop versatile composers and performers through concentrated focus on contemporary music. Graduates of the program will be broadly trained composers and performers possessing a wide range of skills enabling them to fulfill teaching and creative responsibilities in the academic world, as well as in other musical settings |