School of MusicSchool of Music

Facts about the School of Music

The School of Music offers programs of study exclusively for undergraduates.  With three professional degrees (Bachelor of Music in Performance, Music Education, and Elective Studies in Music Business), a liberal arts degree (Bachelor of Arts), and a Music Minor, it is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music, the music accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education.

Music has a long tradition at the University of Puget Sound.  The University began offering courses in music study in 1893, five years after its founding.

Faculty and Staff

Full-Time Faculty and their teaching areas: 12

Part-Time Faculty: 26

Professional Staff: 7

Community Music

  • 46 part-time faculty positions covering piano, organ, strings, voice, woodwinds, brass, percussion, chamber music, Kindermusik, Suzuki, musical theater, and harp ensemble.                            ^ top

Students

  • Music Majors: 124
    32 in performance
    19 in music education
      7 in music business
    66 in Bachelor of Arts
  • Music minors: 45
  • Community Music: Over 500 students from the Puget Sound region enrolled weekly through traditional studio instruction, Kindermusik, Suzuki violin and piano, chamber music, musical theater, and harp ensemble. 

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Ensembles (all undergraduates)

  • Symphony Orchestra (75 players, auditioned)
  • String Orchestra (35 players, auditioned)
  • Wind Ensemble (40 players, auditioned)
  • University Band (95 players, non-auditioned)
  • Voci d'Amici (14 singers, mixed ensemble, selected from Adelphians Concert Choir)
  • Adelphians Concert Choir (48 singers, mixed ensemble, auditioned)
  • Dorian Singers (32 women, auditioned)
  • University Chorale (80 singers, unauditioned)
  • Underground Jazz (up to 28 singers; an independent auditioned group sponsored by ASUPS, the student government)
  • Chamber music groups in strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion

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Facilities: Music Building

  • Classrooms: 3
  • Rehearsal Halls: 2 (instrumental, choral)
  • Performance Halls: 2 (Schneebeck Concert Hall, seating 500; Kilworth Chapel, seating 330)
  • Teaching studios and offices: 23, including a percussion studio
  • Practice Rooms: 23
  • Special Practice Rooms:
    Rooms reserved for advanced pianists, organists, (in addition to the Bethel Schneebeck organ), and harpsichordists.  Pianists have the opportunity to perform on our fortepiano, a modern copy of a Viennese piano from the 1780s. 
    Rooms for chamber group practice
    Percussion studio
    "V-Room," a unique room designed by the Wenger Corporation in which the acoustic properties of the room change through a system of microphones, speakers, and sensors.  
  • Electronic Spaces: 3 (electronic music lab, keyboard lab and an electronic practice room.  We are primarily a PC department.)
  • Other spaces: student lounge, green room, kitchen, music score library, music office, community music office

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Library

  • Books: Over 10,006
  • Scores: 10,677
  • Videos/DVDs: 680  
  • Audio/CDs: 7,883
  • Periodicals: 167 ( Including 124  electronic full text)
  • Summit: The University participates in the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a collection of libraries in Washington and Oregon that provides access via interlibrary loan to 22 million volumes through a web resource called Summit.  The city of Tacoma also has an excellent public library system, and faculty may arrange for borrowing privileges at the University of Washington (approximately 50 minutes away).