Music Department

The music program offers students many opportunities to engage with music both intellectually and aesthetically through course work and performance. The department offers courses in music history, music theory, and ethnomusicology, including distinctive courses such as “The Color of Music: Race in Blues and Jazz,” “Women in Music,” “Rhythm and the Latina Body Politic,” “Music in East Asia and its America Diasporas,” and “Stravinsky: His Milieu and Music.” In addition to courses which explore the aesthetic, theoretical, and cultural aspects of music from different times and places, the department offers private lessons in piano, voice, and violin, chamber music classes, and opportunities to perform in student recitals as well as in choral ensembles and orchestral ensembles. Scripps offers an environment stressing personal attention while providing a rigorous and multi-faceted education. Our music graduates have pursued careers as conductors, composers, performers, and educators. Music majors can also pursue other exciting and enriching opportunities in church music, journalism, music criticism, music therapy, publishing, electronic music, radio/television/film, and the music industry. Training in music scholarship and performance also prepares students well for careers as diverse as business, medicine, law, and the engineering world.