Program Overview

The Bachelor of Music in performance is a pre-professional degree designed to prepare students who wish to pursue a future in the professional music world as a performing artist or studio teacher. This degree requires an emphasis in collaborative piano, orchestral instruments, jazz, piano or voice.

Students in the orchestral instruments emphasis pursue a career in orchestras, chamber music, as a soloist or building an independent multi-faceted career. Extensive applied instruction and classes on technique, coaching and various performance styles, as well as ensemble experience, constitute the core of the curriculum.

Students may choose classical guitar, or any orchestral wind, brass, or string instrument, or percussion as their performance area. Private instruction is provided by outstanding artists/teachers on the full-time and adjunct faculty.

Music majors with an orchestral instruments emphasis will perform in Webster University ensembles and may be assigned to assist with choral concerts, musical theatre performances or Opera Studio as designated by the faculty.

Students whose performance area is organ follow the curriculum for the bachelor of music in performance with an emphasis in orchestral instruments except that MUSC 4030 and 3 credit hours of music electives replace the 6 credit hours of piano.

Learning Outcomes
Students will demonstrate competency in these areas at an emerging professional level:

• The ability to hear, identify and work with musical elements: rhythm, pitch, harmony, structure, timbre and texture.
• The ability to read, comprehend and apply musical notation fluently in performance settings.
• The ability to recognize and articulate an understanding of compositional process and musical style with reference to artists technologies, events and cultural forces through the major periods of music history.
• The ability to use research tools and analysis independently to develop, defend and write musical judgments.
• The ability to apply technical, musical and interpretive skill in a variety of solo and ensemble performance settings.
• Familiarity with a core of appropriately representative body of solo and ensemble music repertoire.
• The ability to apply both recognized and historically accurate performance practices.
• An ability to be creative in expanding personal knowledge and practices in new musics.
• Basic-level experience with the fundamentals of instrumental of vocal pedagogy and pedagogical resources.