About Student Ensembles

Wind Symphony

This ensemble (shown above) includes approximately 60 musicians who perform as a full wind symphony and also as smaller chamber wind groups. The Wind Symphony comprises the most outstanding wind and percussion majors in the College of Music and other gifted nonmusic majors who are selected by audition. The group is dedicated to the performance of the finest wind repertoire, regardless of period or disposition of instrumental forces. Using the player pool concept, the ensemble—consisting primarily of graduate and upper-division undergraduate students—performs music ranging from works requiring as few as six players to personnel who form a full wind band. Flexible instrumentation and player rotation provide members of the ensemble with a variety of responsibilities, challenges, and playing experiences.

Symphony Band

An auditioned ensemble of approximately 80 musicians, the Symphony Band consists primarily of upper-division undergraduate music majors and performs a broad range of full ensemble and chamber repertoire, representative of all historical periods and styles. The Symphony Band maintains an active on-campus performance schedule and performs several off-campus clinic concerts. Flexible instrumentation and player rotation provide members of this ensemble with a variety of responsibilities, challenges, and playing experiences.

Concert Band

Concert Band is an auditioned ensemble of approximately 80 musicians, consisting primarily of undergraduate music majors and talented non-majors. This ensemble performs full band and chamber wind literature ranging from traditional to contemporary styles. Flexible instrumentation and player rotation provide members of the ensemble with a variety of responsibilities, challenges, and playing experiences.

Campus Band

The Campus Band includes approximately 120 musicians and provides playing experiences for nonmusic majors and music majors who want to improve their skills on secondary instruments. The mission of the Campus Band is to create maximum enjoyment with limited performance demands. Auditions are not required for membership but are held for chair placements and part assignments.

Spartan Marching Band

The Spartan Marching Band (SMB), founded in 1870 as a ten-member student group, is now made up of 300 members. It has grown into one of the premier college bands in the nation and prides itself on its musical excellence, physical toughness, and military-grade precision. The band has performed for five U.S. presidents, at four Rose Bowls, at two World’s Fairs, and at one World Series.

Spartan Brass

The 120 members of Spartan Brass perform on campus at men’s and women’s basketball games and at hockey games during regular play and post-season tournaments.

Spartan Youth Wind Symphony

The Spartan Youth Wind Symphony (SYWS) is an honors wind ensemble for high school students. SYWS is under the direction of Arris Golden, assistant director of bands, and is open to the most outstanding Michigan high school instrumentalists (woodwind, brass, and percussion). It provides students with the opportunity to rehearse in a university setting. Students perform with peers from around the state and receive instruction from College of Music faculty and students. They enhance their skills as musicians and ensemble performers through the exploration of advanced-level repertoire in an inspired rehearsal atmosphere. The experience culminates in joint concerts with the MSU Wind Symphony and Symphony Band at the end of the fall and spring semesters.

University Chorale
One of eight choral ensembles at Michigan State University, the University Chorale is the university’s premiere choral ensemble, comprised of the best graduate and upper-level undergraduate singers in the College of Music. Under the baton of David Rayl, the Chorale sang for the 2007 American Choral Directors Association National Conference, 2006 ACDA Central Division Conference, the 2002 National Meeting of the College Music Society, and on the Tuesday Matinee Series at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall in 2015. The Chorale has performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in performances of Handel’s Messiah (2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015), Bach’s Mass in B-Minor (2001), Mozart’s Requiem (2003) and Holst’s The Planets (2013).

Under the baton of Charles K. Smith, the Chorale appeared at the ACDA National Conferences of 1983 and 1989, at Lincoln Center for the Mozart Bicentennial Masses-In-Concert Series in 1992 and at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, for the CBS Radio Network’s Cavalcade of Christmas Music, and at the Eisteddfod (Wales) International Choral Festival.

State Singers
The MSU State Singers, an auditioned undergraduate ensemble, includes music majors and some talented non-music majors. This choir enjoys a proud heritage and is recognized as the oldest singing organization on campus. The State Singers ensemble appears in concert throughout Michigan, frequently joining the University Chorale and University Symphony for major works and convention appearances.

Mosaic
Mosaic (formerly Women’s Chamber Ensemble) is an auditioned ensemble singing treble repertoire both historical and contemporary. The ensemble has appeared at national (2009), regional (2007), and state conferences of the American Choral Director’s Association. Mosaic performs regularly on campus and in the community. Members of the ensemble are majors in music as well those seeking degree programs across campus and include undergraduate and graduate students. Commissioning projects feature premiere works by American composers and poets.

Viridis
Viridis (formerly Women’s Glee Club) is Latin for ‘green’ and a performing ensemble of treble voices consisting primarily of non-music majors that performs several times throughout the academic year. Performing a vast array of music—from Renaissance through contemporary—Viridis participates in in-state festivals and often collaborates with ensembles from other universities. This ensemble is open without audition to all treble singers on the MSU campus.

The Singing Spartans
The Singing Spartans (formerly Men’s Glee Club) brings together singers from across campus to sing outstanding repertoire for the TTBB ensemble. Singing Spartans has been featured the featured ensemble at conferences of the American Choral Director’s Association including national conferences in 1999 and 2001, and the Central Division regional conference in 1998. Other juried performances include the national conference of the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses. The ensemble has regularly toured Europe to include Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, Netherlands, and the UK.

Campus Choir
The Campus Choir is a popular 50-member mixed ensemble of singers from across the university. It performs a wide variety of musical styles from throughout history and around the world. Open to all students at MSU without audition, the Campus Choir performs twice a semester and often collaborates with musicians at the College of Music.

Chamber Choir
The Chamber Choir is composed of approximately 20-24 singers selected by the conductor (a graduate student in choral conducting) for their vocal and sight-reading abilities. The group studies and performs music from a range of stylistic periods generally not suited for the larger choral ensemble. This ensemble meets only one hour per week and is not available for academic credit.

Choral Union
The Choral Union, a large mixed chorus of 125 voices, is designed to bring the campus and community together in a joint musical effort. Repertoire focuses on the major choral and orchestral works, performed with both the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and the MSU Symphony Orchestra. Recent master works include Bruckner Te Deum, Schubert Mass in G, Mahler Symphony No. 2, Brahms Requiem, Handel Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Verdi Requiem, Orff Carmina Burana, Bach St. John Passion, and Beethoven Symphony No. 9.

Membership is open to adults and high school and college students and consists primarily of mid-Michigan residents and MSU students. Community members pay a participation fee each semester. MSU students may register as a community member or for academic credit. Previous choral singing experience is desired but not required. To register for Choral Union as a community member, please visit the MSU Community Music School’s website. For information about the MSU Choral Society, please click here.

For choral ensemble audition information, visit the audition page or email slsnow@msu.edu.

Jazz Ensembles

Jazz ensembles include three big bands, each made up of 18 members, and play the repertoire of the great jazz masters as well as a wide range of soul, swing, blues, and gospel. The four nonetss are eight-piece ensembles that blend the sounds of big band with small group performance. There are also multiple combos, each consisting of four to six members.

Jazz Orchestra I

The nineteen-piece Jazz Orchestra I (The Be-Bop Spartans) is a young, swinging college band playing the repertoire of the great jazz masters as well as a wide range of soul, swing, blues, and gospel. The group’s instrumentation includes saxophone, trombone, trumpet, bass, drums, piano, guitar, and vocalists. Conductor: Rodney Whitaker

Jazz Orchestra II and III

Conductors: Anthony Stanco (Orchestra II), Wyat Forhan and Alonso Umana Chan (III)

Jazz Nonet I

The eight-piece Jazz Nonet I blends the sounds of big band with small group performance. This ensemble features the most advanced students of MSU’s jazz area, giving them plenty of opportunities for improvisation. The group’s instrumentation includes bass, drums, piano, baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and vocals. Conductor: Randy Napoleon

Jazz Nonets II-IV

Conductors: Xavier Davis (II); Michael Dease (III); Walter Blanding (IV)

Jazz Combos

There are as many as twelve jazz combos in the Jazz Studies program, each consisting of four to six members forming quartets, quintets, and sextets. Students audition at the beginning of each school year and are placed in a combo, which is coached by one of the combo directors or graduate assistants. Class performance time takes place weekly where combos perform two selections. Combo members are responsible for their own repertoire and arrangements.

(Jazz Ensemble Audition Information for Students)

Musique 21, a contemporary music ensemble, uses flexible instrumentation and is devoted to the performance of works written by composers of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. It provides audiences with unique sounds and timbres that have been developed throughout the contemporary era of music. It comprises both faculty and students within the College of Music.

Since its inception in 1997, the ensemble has performed works by MSU composers Jere Hutcheson and Ronald Newman and other composers, including Evan Chambers, George Crumb, Sofia Gubaidulina, Ian Honeyman, Libby Larson, Gyorgy Ligetti, David Liptak, Stephen Rush, Joseph Schwantner, Michael Torke, Edgard Varese, and Dana Wilson.

Each season, the MSU Opera Theatre presents two fully staged and costumed productions with the MSU Symphony Orchestra. Students fill two complete casts for each production, and performances are held in the historic Fairchild Theatre. The theatre is a beautifully renovated space featuring technically advanced acoustics in a small venue setting. With no bad seat in the house, opera-goers enjoy perfect sound and close proximity within air-conditioned comfort, while students in the cast and orchestra gain a professional performance experience. All productions are filmed and often submitted for competitions.

The MSU Opera Theatre Season is generously sponsored by the Worthington Family Foundation.

MSU Opera Director Melanie Helton is professor of voice (soprano). In addition to her teaching and a notable performance career, Professor Helton has built an opera program known for performing award-winning productions. Read more about her here.

MSU Opera Theatre productions

2020-21: Scenes from Opera in the time of COVID

2019-20: Orpheus in the Underworld

2018-19: Die Fledermaus; La Scala di Seta/Gianni Schicchi

2017-18: Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck; Street Scene

2016-17: The Elixir of Love; The Marriage of Figaro

2015-16: A Room with a View; The Savage Land/Bernstein Sings America

2014-15: Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte; Handel’s Xerxes

2013-14: Mozart’s The Magic Flute; Puccini’s La Bohéme

2012-13: Kurt Weill: 2012, But the days grow short …; A Little Night Music

2011-12: The Pirates of Penzance; The Tales of Hoffmann

2010-11: La Finta Giardinera; Grapes of Wrath

2009-10: Susannah; Romeo et Juliette

2008-09: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Gianni Schicchi, The Marriage of Figaro

2007-08: Candide; Cinderella (La Cenerentola)

2006-07: Florencia en el Amazonas; Don Giovanni

2005-06: The Tales of Hoffman; The Rake’s Progress

2004-05: La Bohème; Nine

2003-04: Cosi fan tutte; Orpheus in the Underworld

Symphony Orchestra

The Symphony Orchestra, directed by Octavio Más-Arocas, was established in 1927 and has performed for the Music Educators National Conference in Indianapolis on two occasions. It has presented the gala opening concert of the Music Educators Midwestern Conference in Ann Arbor and performed the opening concert in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Midwest International Conference of Bands and Orchestras in Chicago. The Symphony Orchestra has recorded for Koch International Classics, Arizona University Records, GIA Records, and PBS specials. In addition, the orchestra’s performance of “The Birth of a Symphony,” Symphony No. 4 (“The Gardens”) by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, was videotaped by PBS for nationwide distribution.

Concert Orchestra

The Concert Orchestra, directed by Katherine Kilburn, is an ensemble that is open to students, staff, and faculty across the entire university regardless of major. It is designed to be a place where people from all corners of the MSU community can come together to perform in an orchestra once a week and have fun doing it! The group presents four concerts per year (two per semester), and currently rehearses once a week on Wednesday evenings. An audition is required for acceptance into the ensemble, and regular attendance is expected. However, the group is designed to be a low pressure, engaging, and community-building artistic experience for all involved.

More about MSU Orchestras

Other Student Ensembles

A variety of additional performances are available throughout the season offering an outstanding mix of instrumentation and styles of music. These include Trumpet Ensemble, Horn Choir, Chamber Ensembles (including brass quintets), Percussion Ensemble, Trombone Choir, Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble, and International Chamber Soloists.