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.
Viridis showcases contemporary global music from Bulgaria, Armenia, and beyond, followed by Campus Choir’s program centered on Gwyneth Walker’s An Hour to Dance, all conducted by Mariana Romero Serra and Michael Huey-Jones.
The Singing Spartans honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with music exploring freedom’s enduring meaning, while Mosaic performs works centered on Isabella Leonarda’s Domine, expressing hope and resilience, led by Meredith Bowen and Stuart Chapman Hill.
Now in its sixth year, the Barbara Wagner Chamber Music Competition showcases top student ensembles competing for cash prizes and professional development opportunities, with winners selected by external jurors and announced at the event’s conclusion.
Celebrate 250 years of American independence with a concert featuring U.S. composers who helped shape the country’s cultural identity through creativity, innovation and a bold spirit of expression.
All are welcome to this inclusive chamber concert tailored for individuals on the autism spectrum or with sensory sensitivities, featuring interactive music activities, audience mobility, noise-making, and a quiet room for comfort.
MSU’s Percussion Ensemble presents a dynamic program of contemporary works, showcasing a wide range of sounds and textures through varied instrumentation.
Making Herstory, conducted by Katherine Kilburn with conductors Zongheng Zhang and Dan Jaggars, showcases inspiring music by women composers including Tower, Bonds, and Garrop, alongside a premiere by the Jere Hutcheson Composition Competition winner.
Four nine-piece ensembles bring big band and small-group jazz together with inventive arrangements and bold improvisation, adding a distinctive voice to the Jazz Spectacular Series.
State Singers explore personal and collective truths through choral works, while University Chorale highlights Jewish musical traditions with pieces by Rossi, Hensel, Kesselman, and Panufnik, concluding with Alex Berko’s Sacred Place, conducted by Derrick Fox and Sandra Snow.
Get on your feet for this high-energy night of swing! MSU Jazz Orchestras deliver timeless charts and toe-tapping rhythms from jazz’s greatest composers.
Top high school bands from across the region gather for a full day of performance and competition, presenting works by Duke Ellington and other legends before a panel of Jazz at Lincoln Center clinicians and professional jazz artists.
Internationally renowned clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen brings her captivating artistry to this series finale, joined by MSU Jazz Orchestra I, the Professors of Jazz, and the Outstanding High School Jazz Band of the Day for a high-energy celebration of jazz collaboration and excellence.
Conducted by Katherine Kilburn with conductors Zongheng Zhang and Dan Jaggars, this powerful program features six contemporary works exploring transformation and tension, anchored by a poetic new song cycle by MSU’s David Biedenbender.
The program, conducted by Arris Golden, features Tuttarana by Reena Esmail, Second Suite in F by Gustav Holst, Resting in the Peace of His Hands by John Gibson, Fallingwater at Twilight by James David, and His Honor by Henry Fillmore.
Conducted by Octavio Más-Arocas, the MSU Symphony Orchestra closes the season with an energetic program featuring Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite, Contreras’s Mariachitlán, Simon’s Hellfighters’ Blues, Ravel’s Boléro, and a student-composed Sam and Mary Austin Fanfare.
Members of MSU’s Percussion Ensemble explore the vibrant drumming traditions of the African Diaspora, performing traditional Congolese and Cuban rhythms on culturally unique instruments.