A wide variety of performance opportunities await our students each year, with orchestras, bands, choirs and opera, jazz nonets and combos, small ensembles, and more.
A variety of programs and initiatives operate continuously or annually to enhance learning experiences and help students prepare for their future in music.
The MSU College of Music supports and challenges students, values innovation and creativity, and helps every community member achieve professional excellence.
The MSU Music Theory Area has a vibrant guest-scholars program. Seven renowned theorists visit us each year to present their research, guest-teach our classes, and mentor our students.
Graduate students in the music theory area are exposed to cutting-edge research through guest lectures. Visiting scholars present their most current thinking on a variety of topics, bringing the plurality of the music-theoretic discipline right here to East Lansing.
Our students interact directly with the guests as master pedagogues. Visiting scholars are selected so that their expertise aligns with a seminar or workshop in our graduate curriculum in music theory. Each of them guest-teaches this course, and many of them teach a graduate course for performers and/or a course in our undergraduate core sequence as well.
We reserve time in each guest scholar’s itinerary for individual meetings with any interested students, as well as a group lunch with graduate students in music theory. These conversations offer opportunities for candid mentoring about students’ research projects, professional development, teaching, and applications for jobs and doctoral programs.
Pinchas Zukerman will work with MSU students and have an interactive conversation with Dmitri Berlinsky, MSU professor of violin.
Experience Baroque music with works for piano, harpsichord, and violin. Featuring MSU’s new pianist Stanislav Khristenko, harpsichordist Nicola Canzano, and violinist Yvonne Lam.
Presenting “Happy Two Gather,” an evening of duets, arias, spirituals, and art songs featuring Richard Fracker (tenor), Mark Rucker (baritone), and pianists Sadie Rucker and Elden Little.
This program features Strauss’ Blue Danube, Foumai’s The Happiest Color, Rameau’s Les Sauvages, Jolley’s Blue Glacier Decoy, and Copley’s Gasoline Rainbows, conducted by Katherine Kilburn.
The concert features guest composer Viet Cuong and American-Vietnamese guest vocalist Bích-Vân with works by Cuong, Biedenbender, Turina, and Llinás, performed by the MSU Wind Symphony and Symphony Band, conducted by Kevin L. Sedatole and David Thornton.