Mission Statement and Program Learning Objectives

Music is essential expressions of human experience.

The purpose of the School of Music is to:

• Prepare, inspire, and motivate students for excellence in professional careers in teaching, performance, composition, research, and related fields;
• Engage a diverse university population in experiences that foster life-long learning and a greater understanding of music;
• Provide and sustain a unique performing arts culture for the university, Silicon Valley, and the greater Bay Area;
• Generate creative activities and scholarship in music that have local, national, and international significance.

B.M. in Composition

1. Hear, identify, and work conceptually with the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of music, including sight-reading, keyboard proficiency, and analysis.
2. Identify, discuss, and write about the history, traditions, practices, and cultures of the Western art-music tradition, along with related materials of non-Western musics.
3. Competently perform repertory appropriate to a university music program, utilizing skills and knowledge gained from the previous two learning outcomes.
4. Work proficiently with basic music technology, its applications, and its use in their area of specialization.
5. Successfully complete a capstone experience appropriate to their area of specialization.
6. Perform standard repertoire competently and expressively, and provide musical leadership appropriate to a university music program as soloists, as conductors, and as members of major performing ensembles and smaller chamber ensembles.
7. Identify and discuss the repertory in their major performance area; perform from a cross-section of that repertory through a successful capstone experience (a senior solo recital or senior recital of original compositions).

Learning Outcomes for the MM and MA Programs

The goals of the Master's program are to prepare students for professional careers in performance, conducting, composition, teaching, and scholarship, while also preparing them for further music study in doctoral programs.

• Master of Music
  • 1. Perform, compose, conduct, or research at a professionally competent level, to be assessed in the final recital or project
    2. Have an increased breadth of knowledge and skills beyond the undergraduate level in the foundational areas of music theory and history and in other areas related to their music concentration, assessed with final projects in 201, 202, 203 and the WCE for music theory and history.
    3. Identify and use standard digital and paper research tools in music and produce a comprehensive bibliography that shows their ability to utilize standard scholarly tools relevant to their concentration area according to standards set in a research and bibliographic rubric, to be assessed in final projects for 200 and WCE.
    4. Produce an independent creative or scholarly product that demonstrates technical proficiency in their concentration area and effective artistic and intellectual judgments, assessed in final projects for 203, 201, 200, 202, WCE, and in-class participation.
• Master of Arts in Music
  • 1. Perform, compose, conduct, or research at a professionally competent level, to be assessed in the final recital or project (final semester of 224).
    2. Have an increased breadth of knowledge and skills beyond the undergraduate level in the foundational areas of music theory and history and in other areas related to their music concentration, assessed with final projects in 201, 202, 203 and the WCE for music theory and history.
    3. Identify and use standard digital and paper research tools in music and produce a comprehensive bibliography that shows their ability to utilize standard scholarly tools relevant to their concentration area according to standards set in a research and bibliographic rubric, to be assessed in final projects for 200 and WCE.
    4. Produce an independent creative or scholarly product that demonstrates technical proficiency in their concentration area and effective artistic and intellectual judgments, assessed in final projects for 203, 201, 200, 202, WCE, and in-class participation.