Theory/Composition
M.A.
The M.A. degree program in Theory/Composition offers advanced studies to support the development of students' personal styles. We offer classes and private lessons in a wide variety of topics, including traditional and electronic composition, orchestration, arranging, counterpoint analysis, style and history. New student works are performed frequently before faculty, mentors, peers and guest artists during masterclasses and recitals. Recent guest composers have included Thomas Oboe Lee, Lei Liang, and Jennifer Higdon.
Cali School faculty theorists and composers, including Ting Ho (Chair), Patrick Burns, Dean Drummond, Marla Meissner, Ruth Rendleman and Scott Richards, have been awarded numerous awards and prizes. These include awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New Jersey Council on the Arts, Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Fund, and the Aaron Copland Fund. Faculty hold graduate degrees from the Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory, Brandeis University, California Institute of the Arts and New York University.
The MSU Cali School is the home of the Harry Partch Institute, and hosts the largest collection of Partch Instruments in the world. The Institute is run by Dean Drummond, internationally know composer and foremost authority on the music of Harry Partch. You may take advantage of this unique opportunity to work with Professor Drummond and the Partch Instruments.
The goal of the Theory/Composition program is to prepare students for the professional music world and doctoral programs. The school prides itself to being open to all styles and aesthetics of music as demonstrated by the varying styles of the faculty. Students are encouraged to find their own compositional voices, as well as discovering and studying old and new sounds and aesthetics.
Students must show evidence of strong composition skills in order to be admitted to the program.
For more information, contact:
Prof. Ting Ho
Telephone: (973) 655-7221
E-mail: hoti@mail.montclair.edu