Keyboard
The keyboard area at UWEC provides valuable opportunities for students in solo performance, chamber music, and accompanying. A specialized array of courses includes piano literature, piano pedagogy, accompanying and piano ensemble.
Beyond the piano, students have opportunities to play the harpsichord in a Baroque chamber orchestra and to pursue an interest in organ with regular access to a unique Aeolian Skinner organ in the main concert hall. Students regularly gain experience accompanying for student lessons and recitals, as well as rehearsals for operas, musicals, choirs, jazz bands and more. Students have access to Steinways in the performance halls, practice rooms with grand pianos, a harpsichord and two practice organs.
Highly trained faculty who are active performers and scholars provide all piano students with weekly individual lessons and a studio class in which students perform for one another and offer critiques to their peers. Faculty serve as active mentors in faculty-student research projects with topics that range from the biography of Beethoven to the challenges of performing Britten's pieces. Guest pianists from across the country are regularly invited to perform and provide masterclasses for students. Recent graduates have gone on to teach in the schools, to open private studios, to pursue degrees at top graduate programs, to conduct Broadway productions, to serve as accompanists for opera companies and more.
Composition/Theory/History
Led by highly trained and specialized faculty, the music composition, theory and history area offers a diverse and engaging array of courses for both the music and theatre arts major and the general UWEC student.
Beginning composition class is an opportunity for any music student to learn about introductory principles of composition. Composition faculty will provide students with a major or minor in composition weekly individual lessons and a studio class where students critique their peers’ work. The composition curriculum exposes students to contemporary models of composition while steadily encouraging students to develop their own personal compositional style.
Music theory explores how music works and why, and it examines musical patterns derived from physical principles of sound and the aesthetic goals of composers. Courses in music history provide students with an introduction to relevant issues of culture, race, gender and socioeconomic factors as they impact the development and reception of music literature produced within both the Western (classical, popular and folk music traditions) and non-Western arenas (e.g., music practices in Africa, India and elsewhere). Through these course offerings, students enrich their experience as musicians, becoming better interpreters, performers and composers of music. Embracing a curriculum that is relevant to all students, study in this area aims to open up musical worlds as varied as Louis Armstrong, Mozart, Beyoncé, Libby Larsen and an Ojibwe powwow.
Music Education
You might have a music teacher, conductor or director who helped inspire your passion for the arts. Encouraging the love of music and helping youth hone their musical skills is a noble calling. Music education has been central to UWEC since its foundation in 1917. We have a 100% placement rate for our music education graduates of whom we are very proud.
We offer many experiences to help our students develop as educators. Opportunities include organizing festivals for middle school and high school students, serving in leadership positions in the marching band, participating in immersion programs and engaging in student organizations focused on music education. Music education students also receive frequent exposure to public school classroom settings through various practica, and the program culminates with a semester of student teaching. Faculty from across the department — from bands, choirs and orchestra — contribute to the music education curriculum.
The string area at UWEC provides rare opportunities for undergraduate students, whether you are pursuing a major or minor in music or just following a passion.
The faculty, who are active performers and supportive pedagogues, provide string students with weekly individual lessons and a studio class in which students perform for their peers. The string area supports a series each year with guest artists from across the country who perform and provide masterclasses for students.
Recent graduates have gone on to serve as orchestra conductors and teachers in the schools, to pursue degrees in top graduate programs, to establish private music studios and much more.
The faculty in the vocal area are active performers and supportive pedagogues. They often engage their students in student-faculty summer research projects, such as addressing identity and music in the LGBTQ community, creating a multimedia recital experience with Vaughan Williams' "Songs of Travel" or performing a song cycle by Benjamin Britten. Students receive weekly individual lessons and a studio class in which students perform for their peers. And, with six choirs on campus, there are many opportunities for vocal students at UWEC.
With all these experiences, students have gone on to serve as choral conductors and teachers in the schools, to form successful private studios, to pursue degrees in top graduate programs and to perform in professional opera companies.
The wind and percussion area, with the help of students, hosts numerous festivals every year for wind players from elementary age to adults, such as High School and Middle School Honor Bands, Single Reed Day and Trombone Symposium.
The wind and percussion faculty are active performers in events ranging from recitals to Broadway shows to professional orchestras. Students receive weekly individual lessons and a studio class in which they perform for their peers. The faculty are active with student-faculty summer research projects. In the last couple of years, projects have addressed topics including the creation of percussion show arrangements, a comparison of marching band traditions, and the arranging of wind band and orchestral scores for reduced instrumentation for winds. Percussion students have access to multiple practice rooms dedicated to percussion instruments.
Recent graduates have gone on to serve as orchestra and band conductors and teachers in the schools, to form successful private studios, to pursue degrees in top graduate programs, to perform in professional ensembles, and more.
