Training
•Richmond's BA in Music is a liberal-arts degree that trains students in performance, composition, music industry and research, with no audition required to declare the major or minor.
•The 12.75-unit major spans tonal harmony or popular-music analysis, musicology chosen from Music and Media in Popular Culture, Historical Musicology and Cultural Musicology, applied study, ensemble, five units of electives, and a two-course capstone.
•Faculty teach across performance, music history, ethnomusicology, theory, jazz studies, composition and music technology.
•Private lessons are available for most instruments and voice at no additional fee when approved by the department.
Performance & Productions
•Ensembles open to all students include UR Symphony Orchestra, Schola Cantorum, Women's Chorale, University Band, Jazz Ensemble, Little Big Band, Swing Combo, Popular Music Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble, Bluegrass and American Roots Music, and a Musical Theatre and Opera Workshop.
•World-music ensembles include Japanese taiko, West African drumming, gamelan and a Brazilian combo, and many ensembles tour internationally — recent tours have gone to Central Europe, the Baltics, Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Italy, Costa Rica and Colombia.
Professional Development
•Summer research fellowships fund creative projects with a faculty mentor, replacing income a student would otherwise earn from a summer job.
•Recent internships include NBC Universal, Downtown Music Publishing, Spacebomb Studios, Smithsonian Folkways and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.
•Graduates have gone on to Eastman School of Music, the University of Michigan, USC, Cincinnati and Westminster Choir College.
Facilities
•Booker Hall of Music in the Modlin Center for the Arts holds Camp Concert Hall with two Steinway concert grands, the intimate Perkinson Recital Hall, and Parsons Music Library.
•The Music Technology Lab and Recording Studios offer high-end equipment and employ students as recording and editing assistants; Cannon Memorial Chapel houses a von Beckerath mechanical-action pipe organ.
