Theory/Composition
B.Mus
The Bachelor of Music (B.Mus) program in Theory/Composition offers theory and composition training and experience to support the development of personal style. It offers preparation for continued study and entry into the professional music world. Our faculty include award-winning composers, representing a diversity of styles. Students may study a variety of topics in class and privately: traditional and electronic composition, orchestration and arranging, analyses of counterpoint, style and history.
The 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. Theory/Composition majors may take advantage of this unique opportunity to work with Professor Drummond and the Partch Instruments.
Guest composers and theorists are frequently invited to lecture and interact with our students. Recent guests have included Jennifer Higdon, Thomas Oboe Lee, Lei Liang, and Krzysztof Penderecki.
The Bachelor of Music in Theory/Composition includes six semesters of music theory; six semesters of private theory or composition lessons; eight semesters of the composition seminar; three semesters of music history and one of world music; four semesters of private study on an instrument; and courses in keyboard study, conducting, electronic music, and instrument methods. Students have many opportunities throughout their studies to present their compositions in masterclasses and recitals that lead to a senior recital of their original works.
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.
Prospective students must show evidence of composition skills in order to be admitted to the program.
For more information, contact:
Prof. Ting Ho
973-655-7221
hoti@mail.montclair.edu
Audition Information