For current students: Fall 2024 Ensembles Audition Information
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.
Studying composition at MSU offers a rich blend of tradition and innovation. Guided by current and retired faculty who have collectively built our esteemed reputation, alongside a legacy of alumni making significant contributions to music worldwide, our program provides a nurturing environment for aspiring composers to develop their craft and shape the future of musical expression.
Composition students take advantage of frequent performance opportunities with professional performers and ensembles and the College of Music top-tier ensembles, including the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony, Musique 21 (contemporary music ensemble), and University Chorale. Student composers also organize performances of their works in Premieres concerts and other venues on and off campus.
Additional experiences include the Honors Composition Competition, the Jere Hutcheson Large Ensemble Composition Competition, the student-run Electronic Music Workshop, and a series of student showcase performances at the beautiful Broad Art Museum on campus.
Scholarships are available to undergraduate students, and graduate assistantships and fellowships are available to students in the fields of music theory, composition, and electronic music. More information on funding.
MSU Frequency, an extension of the Composition Area, is an on-campus media scoring team composed of talented and dedicated students. They provide professional scoring services for various media projects on campus, including promotional videos, advertisements, commercials, and larger projects such as student films and documentaries. MSU Frequency is led by composition faculty members David Biedenbender and Zhou Tian, and administered by Christine Bastian, Assistant Dean for Operations and Strategic Initiatives.
MSU Frequency, an extension of the Composition Area, is an on-campus media scoring team composed of talented and dedicated students. They provide professional scoring services for various media projects on campus, including promotional videos, advertisements, commercials, and larger projects such as student films and documentaries. MSU Frequency is led by composition faculty members David Biedenbender and Zhou Tian, and administered by Christine Bastian, Assistant Dean for Operations and Strategic Initiatives.
Visit this website section to browse media and learn more about the program.
The Composition area has a comprehensive collection of informative resources tailored to support your professional growth in music composition at MSU. Discover insights on licensing, access to prominent professional organizations, stay updated with relevant news sources, and delve into additional resources essential for advancing your career in composition.
Browse the Composer Resources available to help inform your work as a composer.
Henry Dorn, DMA, 2023, Composer & Conductor; Assistant Professor & Conductor of the St. Olaf Band
Music by our graduates has been heard at renowned venues and festivals around the globe. They have worked with leading performers and ensembles, including eminent contemporary music ensembles; the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, and St. Louis, among others; and renowned performers and conductors. Some graduates have gone on to work in arts administration for organizations including the Chicago Symphony, Berklee College of Music, the Mackinac Island Arts Council, the New York Philharmonic, Boosey and Hawkes, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Others work in the film and commercial music industry, and several have received Fulbright fellowships to study internationally. Undergraduate and Master’s students are frequently admitted to prestigious graduate composition programs for further study.
A few of the many distinguished alumni of the MSU composition program include:
Asterisk (*) indicates employment in a tenure-track academic position.
1990–1999
The composition program at MSU has a rich and storied history with many distinguished faculty and alumni.
Year | MSU Music Programs and Administrators | Compositions Degrees | Composition Faculty | Electronic and Computer Studios and Directors | MSU New Music Ensembles and Competitions | Special Programs, Events, Guests and Associated Faculty |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1925 | Arthur Farwell (served on the faculty of Michigan State College, teaching music theory, 1927-39) | |||||
1930 | Arthur Farwell (192739) – Farwell, who for most of his career held teaching and administrative positions at colleges in New York, California and Michigan, was the teacher of several prominent composers, including Roy Harris. Two of Harris’s composition students were H. Owen Reed and James Niblock. | |||||
1935 | Name unknown, Chair, Department of Music, College of Art and Letters | H. Owen Reed (joined MSU music theory and composition faculty in 1939) | ||||
1940 | Name unknown, Chair, Department of Music, College of Art and Letters | H. Owen Reed, Area Chair, Music Theory and Composition | ||||
1945 | Name unknown, Chair, Department of Music, College of Art and Letters | H. Owen Reed, Area Chair, Music Theory and Composition James Niblock (joined MSU faculty in 1948 as a member of the music theory and string faculty) | ||||
1950 | Roy Underwood (unconfirmed), Chair, Department of Music, College of Art and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition (first degree recipient: Evan Copley, MM, 1955, PhD) | H. Owen Reed, Area Chair, Music Theory and Composition James Niblock | Annual string quartet competition with University of Michigan (H. Owen Reed?) | ||
1955 | Roy Underwood (unconfirmed), Chair, Department of Music, College of Art and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition | H. Owen Reed, Area Chair, Music Theory and Composition James Niblock | Annual string quartet competition with University of Michigan H. Owen Reed (unconfirmed) | ||
1960 | James Niblock, Chair (1963) Department of Music, College of Arts and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition | H. Owen Reed, Area Chair, Music Theory and Composition James Niblock | |||
1965 | James Niblock, Chair, Dept. of Music, College of Arts and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition | H. Owen Reed, Area Chair, Composition James Niblock, Jere Hutcheson | Electronic Music Studio James Niblock, Dir. | Premieres of New Music (concerts devoted to new works by MSU student composers) | |
1970 | James Niblock, Chair, Dept. of Music, College of Arts and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition | H. Owen Reed, Area Chair, James Niblock Jere Hutcheson, Charles Ruggiero | Electronic Music Studio James Niblock, Dir. | Premieres of New Music New Music Ensemble (Charles Ruggiero and David Liptak, Cond.) | Julliard String Quartet in Residence Verdehr Trio (1972-2015), founded by Formed by MSU faculty members Elsa LudewigVerdehr and Walter Verdehr - The Verdehr Trio commissioned and performed more than 200 works by MSU faculty and student composers and by such leading non-MSU composers as Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, Jacob Druckman, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jennifer Higdon, Alan Hovhaness, Libby Larsen, Gian Carlo Menotti, Karel Husa, Thea Musgrave, Wolfgang Rihm, Bright Sheng, Gunther Schuller and Augusta Reed Thomas. |
1975 | James Niblock and Kenneth Bloomquist (1978), Director, School of Music, College of Arts and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition | James Niblock, Jere Hutcheson, Area Chair (1975-1992), Charles Ruggiero, David Liptak | Electronic Music Studio James Niblock, Dir. | Premieres of New Music, MSU Improvisation Ensemble (Ruggiero, Dir. and performer) | Julliard String Quartet in Residence Verdehr Trio (1972-2015) Symposium of Contemporary Music (School of Music series usually featuring one guest composer/conductor and performances of both their music and that of MSU students and faculty) - Vincent Persichetti (1976), Karel Husa (1977), Gunther Schuller (1978) |
1980 | Kenneth Bloomquist, Director, School of Music, College of Arts and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition | Jere Hutcheson, Area Chair (19751992), Charles Ruggiero, David Liptak | Premieres of New Music | Verdehr Trio (1972-2015), Symposium of Contemporary Music – William Schuman (1980), Warren Benson (1981), Joseph Schwantner (1982), Chou Wenchung (1983), Lukas Foss (1984) | |
1990 | James Forger, Director (1990), School of Music, College of Arts and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition | Jere Hutcheson (1975-1992) Charles Ruggiero Mark Sullivan, Area Chair (1992-2015) | Computer Music Studio and Labs Mark Sullivan and Charles Ruggiero, Codirectors | Premieres of New Music School of Music Honors Concert Competition | Verdehr Trio (1972-2015) From ca. 1990 to ca. 2015, Professor Ronald Newman (PhD in composition, MSU and member of the MSU Jazz Studies and Music Theory areas) occasionally taught composition and jazz arranging as an “adjunct” member of the composition area. |
1995 | James Forger, Director (1990), School of Music, College of Arts and Letters | MM and PhD in Composition | Jere Hutcheson, Charles Ruggiero, Mark Sullivan, Area Chair | Computer Music Studio and Labs Mark Sullivan and Charles Ruggiero, Codirectors | Premieres of New Music, School of Music Honors Concert Competition | Verdehr Trio (1972-2015) |
2000 | James Forger, Director (1990), School of Music, College of Arts and Letters | MM and DMA in Composition | Jere Hutcheson Charles Ruggiero Mark Sullivan, Area Chair (1992-2015) | Computer Music Studio and Labs Mark Sullivan, Dir. | Premieres of New Music School of Music Honors Concert Competition | Verdehr Trio (1972-2015) Series of performances by the MSU Symphony Orchestra, Leon Gregorian, Cond., of works written by MSU faculty in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Michigan State University Orchestras |
2005 | James Forger, Dean (2007), College of Music | MM and DMA in Composition | Jere Hutcheson Charles Ruggiero Mark Sullivan, Area Chair (1992-2015) Ricardo Lorenz | Computer Music Studio and Labs Mark Sullivan, Dir. | Premieres of New Music School of Music Honors Concert Competition, Student Composer in Residence (with MSU band or orchestra) | Verdehr Trio (1972-2015) Outreach Grants and Programs (Mark Sullivan) Detroit Symphony Orchestra readings of works by MSU students (date?) |
2010 | James Forger, Dean (2007), College of Music | MM and DMA in Composition | Jere Hutcheson, Charles Ruggiero, Mark Sullivan (1992-2015) Ricardo Lorenz, Area Chair (2015), Alexis Bacon | Computer Music Studio and Labs Mark Sullivan, Dir. | Premieres of New Music School of Music Honors Concert Competition, Student Composer in Residence (with MSU band or orchestra) | Verdehr Trio (1972-2015) Outreach Grants and Programs (Mark Sullivan) Latin IS America Festival (Ricardo Lorenz and Mark Sullivan) |
2015 | James Forger, Dean (2007), College of Music | MM and DMA in Composition | Jere Hutcheson, Charles Ruggiero, Mark Sullivan Ricardo Lorenz, Area Chair (2015) Alexis Bacon, David Biedenbender Lyn Goeringer, Tian Zhou | Computer Music Studio and Labs Mark Sullivan, Dir. | Premieres of New Music School of Music Honors Concert Competition, Student Composer in Residence (with MSU band or orchestra) | Hub for Teaching and Learning (Mark Sullivan) Latin IS America Festival (Ricardo Lorenz and Mark Sullivan) |
2020 | James Forger, Dean (2007), College of Music | MM and DMA in Composition | Mark Sullivan Ricardo Lorenz, Area Chair (2015) Alexis Bacon, David Biedenbender Lyn Goeringer, Tian Zhou | Computer Music Studio and Lab Lyn Goeringer, Dir. | Premieres of New Music School of Music Honors Concert Competition, Student Composer in Residence (with MSU band or orchestra) | Hub for Teaching and Learning (Mark Sullivan) |
Authored by Charles Ruggiero for New Music Box, published in NewMusic USA
[Ed. Note: When Elliott Carter died in 2012 only a month shy of his 104th birthday the news made international headlines and even landed on the front page of The New York Times. In a great many of the memorials to Carter, writers opined about how he had been the last surviving composer of his generation, a link to a past which we no longer had. But another significant centenarian, H. Owen Reed, survived him, a composer with albeit a somewhat different, but also exemplary, career trajectory.
A Francophile as was Carter, Reed, who was born in Odessa, Missouri in 1910, obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in French in 1937 shortly after receiving Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Music from Louisiana State University. But rather than going to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, as Carter had done a few years earlier, Reed, who also counted among his most significant compositional mentors an important female pedagogue, Helen M. Gunderson (1909-1997), enrolled at the Eastman School of Music where—under the tutelage of Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers—he obtained a Ph.D. just two years later in 1939. Private studies followed with Roy Harris, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Bohuslav Martinu, among others. He was honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949 which resulted in his spending six months in Mexico studying local folk music. That experience informed what his arguably his most popular composition, La Fiesta Mexicana, a work which has been performed all over the world and has appeared on numerous wind band albums since its premiere recording under the direction of the legendary Frederick Fennell. Because of the success of this composition, Reed has been credited with kindling many composers’ interest in writing for wind ensembles, something he continued to do extensively throughout his long career, although his output also encompassed works for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, and opera. While he might not be categorized as an avant-gardist, many of his scores explored unconventional musical notations and extended techniques. He composed extensively for jazz groups as well and his Latin-tinged “El Muchacho” was recorded by Cal Tjader.
A lifelong learner, into his late 60s, Reed was still embarking on field trips, traveling to Norway and the Caribbean to study the traditional music of those regions. His immersion in Native American culture, which involved extended stays at tribal reservations in Arizona and New Mexico inspired a trilogy of chamber operas based on Native American folktales. And Reed also remained active as a jazz performer, leading combos since his early 20s. Just last year, at the age of 102, he was still improvising at the piano.
Among Reed’s most important legacies was his devotion to younger composers. He spent four decades teaching composition at Michigan State University where he remained Professor Emeritus after his retirement in 1976. His many students included David Maslanka and Adophus Hailstork as well as the late Clare Fischer (1928-2012) who, in addition to his own compositions, arranged music for artists ranging from Dizzy Gillespie and the Hi-Los to Prince and Celine Dion. Reed also authored nine books which remain important reference materials for music students.
After learning of Reed’s death on January 6, it seemed most appropriate to contact someone who had ties to him both as a student and a professional colleague and someone who shared his passions for both contemporary composition and jazz improvisation. So we approached composer/percussionist Charles Ruggiero who had a nearly half century-long friendship with Dr. Reed (as he called him throughout his life), first as his student and subsequently as a fellow composition teacher at MSU. Ruggiero’s detailed account of that remarkable relationship offers those of us who were never fortunate enough to get to know H. Owen Reed, a personal sense of who he was as a composer, teacher, and human being. Another Reed alum and MSU faculty colleague, composer Jere Hutcheson, who actually knew Reed even longer than Ruggiero, has contributed some additional comments herein as well. —FJO]
I first learned of Michigan State University’s music program circa 1966 when I participated in the Villanova Jazz Festival as the drummer for the New England Conservatory’s jazz band. Supplemented by a lead trumpet player ringer from the Berklee College of Music, our band played well at Villanova, but we weren’t able to stay at the festival very long, so we didn’t hear many performances by other bands. On the long bus ride back to Boston, several NEC band members expressed optimism about our chances of winning the award for the best big band. However, the next day our faculty advisor told us that although we had played very well, the Conservatory’s band hadn’t been awarded the first-, second-, or even third-place award. The winning big band at Villanova that year was the MSU Jazz Ensemble. A few years later, when I decided to pursue a Ph.D., I placed Michigan State near the top of my short list, since in addition to having a strong doctoral composition program, MSU also offered excellent jazz performance opportunities and advanced courses in jazz arranging—just the curricular combination I was hoping to find!
Five of the six graduate programs I had applied to communicated with me mostly by mail, but H. Owen Reed personally called me several times while I was making my decision about where I would pursue my graduate degrees. He answered all the questions I had about MSU, the University’s composition program, the Lansing area, and the State of Michigan. Neither my wife, Pat, nor I had ever been to Michigan. We both were New Englanders who had been brought up in Connecticut and had spent much time vacationing in the mountains of New Hampshire. From our study of maps, Pat and I discovered that there were no mountains anywhere near Lansing, Michigan, and we were concerned that mid-Michigan might be a rather dull and foreign-looking place to live.
Dr. Reed (to signal my respect, I always addressed him that way), who had spent some time in Massachusetts, assured us that Michigan was a wonderful place to live. He told us that in the UP (which we eventually figured out meant a place many hours away from Lansing, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) there were some small but beautiful mountains and that in the Lower Peninsula there were lots of hilly areas similar to those found throughout the lower New England states. That sounded good to us. But what Dr. Reed told us about Michigan hills and mountains turned out not to be completely true. There are no mountains in Michigan that are even remotely similar to those found in New Hampshire, and real hills, like those one frequently encounters on bicycle rides in New England, are extremely hard to find! But Dr. Reed’s sales pitch wasn’t all bunk; we discovered after living in the Lansing area for several years, that Michigan, at least large chunks of it, are indeed quite beautiful.
When I told Dr. Reed that another Big Ten university had offered me a good paying half-time assistantship to teach percussion but that I wanted to focus more on composition and music theory and to study with him, it took him only a few days to call me back and offer me two assistantships, one in music theory and one working at WKAR-TV. I was delighted and honored that Dr. Reed had done this; it suggested not only that he really wanted me to come to MSU but also that he was proactive and capable of making things happen quickly even in an institution as large, complex, and often slow-moving as a Big Ten university.
It’s still not clear to me why Dr. Reed so actively recruited me. He always was supportive of me as a composer, in a general way, but at least early on in our relationship I think he was more impressed with my work as a percussionist than as a composer. Included with my application portfolio of compositions were recordings of me playing both one of my works for vibraphone and voice and a transcription for marimba of Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor. Scoring for Percussion, an innovative and useful text written by Dr. Reed and Joel T. Leach was published in 1969, and in 1971 Dr. Reed still was strongly interested in all things percussive! Perhaps he was impressed by my recording of the Chopin and the fact that I was the percussion instructor at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, or, more likely, my credentials as a jazz drummer swayed him.
My 1971 MSU application included a very brief letter of recommendation written by John Mehegan. In the year before moving to Michigan, I had studied jazz theory and improvisation with Mehegan and then had become a member of his Connecticut-based jazz trio. (For his New York gigs, Mehegan used Art Blakey and other NYC-based drummers.) Mehegan was also a prominent jazz theorist, pianist, and critic (writing for Down Beat, the New York Herald Tribune, and other publications) who taught jazz improvisation at such prestigious schools as Julliard and Yale University as well as at Tanglewood in Massachusetts. From the 1940s on, Mehegan was at times very closely associated with Leonard Bernstein. H. Owen Reed had worked with Bernstein at Tanglewood in the early 1940s and may have been aware of Mehegan’s relationship with Bernstein. In any case, I was very pleased that Dr. Reed had accepted me into his composition studio, even if it was largely because of my work as a jazz drummer with Mehegan’s trio.
(From Dr. Reed’s earliest musical experiences as a Missouri boy studying piano—just after the peak of the ragtime craze and the emergence of stride piano—to his college days when he played trumpet in dance bands, to his years playing piano as a member of MSU’s Geriatric Six faculty jazz group during the last decade of his teaching career, he was inspired by jazz and thoroughly enjoyed performing it to the best of his abilities. He never claimed to be a great improviser or to possess extraordinary instrumental technique, but he surely did enjoy playing jazz, especially when surrounded by friends.)