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The College of Arts & Sciences
The Department of Music at Cornell provides opportunities for the study, creation, and performance of music under the guidance of a distinguished faculty within the broader framework of a B.A. degree in the College of Arts & Sciences, or as part of a degree in another college. In addition to the music major, a minor in music is offered. The Department of Music is renowned for research and scholarship in music, represented by three graduate programs: music and sound studies (Ph.D.), composition (D.M.A), and keyboard studies (D.M.A).
Our classroom courses run the gamut from medieval chant to hip-hop, from Western music theory to musical systems from other parts of the globe. Whether you are contemplating a music major or taking your very first course in music, we have courses appropriate to your background.
Students across campus are welcome to participate in the department’s many and varied ensembles. Some ensembles require auditions, others are open to anyone. Click here to learn more about performance opportunities.
Cornell’s composers, performers, and music scholars shape the character of musical life on campus, and their impact is felt all over the world. Click here to browse profiles of our faculty.
Music majors, minors, and non-majors alike benefit from the enormous collection of scores, books, recordings, and videos housed in the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance. Click here to explore the library.
"The intimacy of the department allows for students to work alongside some of the leading composers, conductors, musicologists, and performers in the world. Conservatories and other large schools cannot compete with the amount of faculty interaction that music students are given at Cornell."
Explore our graduate degree programs:
Cornell faculty and graduate students unleash a genre-bending program across seventeen keyboard instruments, from the delicate whisper of the clavichord to the analog punch of the Roland Juno-60.
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Cornell orchestras, vocal ensembles and the Center for Historical Keyboards plan performances.
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Martin F. Hatch Jr., Ph.D. ’80, professor of music emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Aug. 23 in Ithaca, New York. He was 83.
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A leading force in Quebec’s progressive francophone folk movement, Le Vent du Nord will perform in the first Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series (DMCCS) on Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Bailey Hall.
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Ten students who participated in this summer's Nexus Scholars Program share their stories..
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Gabriela Gómez Estévez to Guest Conduct National Symphony of the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo
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