Music (Graduate Program)

For information regarding the UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM, click here.    

Program Overview

The School of Music is committed to the charge of LSU’s Strategic Plan 2025—Leading Louisiana; Impacting the World. The Plan comprises “six strategic challenges to guide ongoing efforts in our pursuit of discovery, diversity, engagement, and learning.” Advancing Arts and Culture is the first of those strategic challenges, one that both acknowledges historical excellence in and ongoing reliance on the School of Music as a main player in influencing the way forward. 

The School of Music is committed to the education and training of performers, researchers, scholars, teachers, and composers for careers as professionals and leaders. The full range of opportunities for student and faculty collaboration in a large and vibrant School of Music, which connects to the local and regional performing arts communities, elevates discovery, diversity, engagement, and learning.

The School of Music at LSU has a tradition of placing its graduates in positions as professors at leading institutions of higher learning, as leaders of organizations in the creative arts, as performers in professional settings, and as contributors to the creative economy in new and emerging fields. Acceptance into and enrollment in a graduate program at LSU places students into a cadre of faculty scholars, creators, researchers, performers, and talented peers. Opportunities are presented to develop transferable skills that enhance access to traditional positions in the creative arts. But perhaps more important is the ability to become involved in emerging areas fueled by societal, economic, and global shifts. Aligning current curricula with new possibilities in communication, technology, pedagogy, and entrepreneurism is at the core of education in the School of Music.

Opportunities are provided for performance with such major ensembles as the Symphony Orchestra, the Wind Ensembles, the Jazz Ensembles, the A Cappella Choir, and LSU Opera. Electronic studios and laboratories enhance composition and research endeavors, and the full resources of the LSU Library as well as the university’s Special Collections provide materials for research supporting academic pursuits. Additional special events, such as an extensive program of guest artists and scholars, bring to campus world-renowned virtuosos and intellectuals, and as such, extend our reach.

Administration

Admission

Applications and supporting materials for all graduate study must be submitted through the online application site for the LSU Graduate School. Official transcripts, official test scores, and other materials that come from third-party sources must be mailed to: LSU Office of Graduate Admissions, 114 West David Boyd Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. These paper documents are stored electronically and departments have access to all materials submitted by and/or on behalf of a student applying to graduate study.

Applicants for admission to graduate programs in the School of Music must meet all the requirements of the Graduate School. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is not required for the Master’s in Music degree nor the DMA programs. The GRE is required for Music Theory PhD applicants, and optional for admission to all other PhD programs.

Admission to the graduate programs in performance is based on an audition and interview. Applicants for degrees in composition must submit musical scores for review prior to consideration of admission. Applicants in music theory, musicology, and music education must submit examples of scholarly writing, and schedule an interview with faculty prior to consideration of admission. Applicants in composition and electronic music and digital media must provide a portfolio of creative work. For a detailed description of all admission requirements, please see the school website.

Financial Assistance

All applicants are eligible for a graduate assistantship and other financial assistance if available. Assistantships may involve teaching, research, or service. Notification of assistantships and other financial assistance awards are usually made in March for the following academic year. 20-hour assistantship awards range from $11,330 (MM) to $23,000 (DMA and PhD). Nomination of applicants who qualify for fellowship consideration will be made by the major professor in the area of concentration and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies.

Graduate Faculty

(check current faculty listings by department here)

Jesse Allison (M) • Experimental Music/Digital Media
Lori Bade (M) • Voice
Inessa Bazayev (M) • Music Theory
Stephen David Beck (M) • Electronic Music/Digital Media
Nanci Belmont (A) • Bassoon
Michael Borowitz (M) • Opera
Brett Boutwell (M) • Musicology
Jason Bowers (F) • Music Education
James Byo (M) • Music Education
Griffin Campbell (M) • Saxophone
Jane Cassidy (M) • Music Education
Trey Davis (M) • Choral Studies
Willis Delony (M) • Jazz Studies, Piano
Brett Dietz (M) • Percussion
Kamile Geist (A) •  Music Therapy
Mara Gibson (M) • Composition
Andreas Giger (M) • Musicology
Charles Goodman (A) • Tuba/Euphonium
Michael Gurt (M) • Piano
Terry Patrick-Harris (F) • Voice
Lin He (M) • Violin
Bran­don Hendrickson (M) • Voice
Simon Holoweiko (A) • Bands
Blake Howe (M) • Music Theory
Dennis Jesse (M) • Voice
Cecilia Kang (A) • Clarinet
Katherine Kemler (M) • Flute
Espen Lilleslatten (M) • Violin
Olivia Lucas (A) • Music Theory
Dugg McDonough (M) • Opera
Brian Nabors (A) • Composition
Alison McFarland (M) • Musicology
Sandra E. Moon (M) • Voice
Seth Orgel (M) • Horn
Ana Maria Otamendi (M) • Collaborative Piano
Dennis Parker (M) • Cello
Robert Peck (M) • Music Theory
Jeff Perry (M) • Music Theory
Pamela Pike (M) • Piano Pedagogy
Molly Redfield (A) • Jazz Studies
Alissa Rowe (M) • Choral Studies
David Saccardi (A) • Music Education
Loraine Sims (M) • Voice
Kimberly Sparr (M) • Viola
Doug Stone (M) • Jazz Studies
Damon S. Talley (M) • Bands
Scott Terrell (M) • Orchestral Studies
Christopher Trapani (A) • Experimental Music/Digital Media
Matthew Vangjel (M) • Trumpet
Yung-chiao Wei (M) • Double bass

Performance Ensembles

Performance opportunities in the School of Music are enhanced by many excellent ensembles, including the following:

• LSU Symphony Orchestra
• LSU Virtuosi
• LSU University Orchestra (non-majors welcome)
• LSU Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, Symphonic Band
• LSU Opera
• LSU A Cappella Choir, Chamber Singers, LSU Chorale, LSU Tiger Glee Club, Gospel Choir 
• LSU Jazz Ensembles
• Constantinides New Music Ensemble
• LSU Laptop Orchestra
• Various Chamber Ensembles

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Faculty members of the School of Music are recognized for their contributions in numerous areas of research and creative activity at national and international levels. They author books, chapters in edited books, critical editions, and articles in major research journals. They present research and scholarship at noted conferences. They perform in solo recital, chamber music settings, with orchestral and choir, on the opera stage, and in feature roles for society/congress meetings and music festivals. Our composers publish and have their music performed extensively by professionals, in university venues, and at festivals of new music. Our conductors lead ensembles in professional, university, and high-level amateur settings. Whether performer, composer, or conductor, much of the work is captured on various media platforms and published under respected recording labels.

Our faculty are heavily ensconced in the inner workings of research and scholarship—as editors and reviewers for the prominent research journals and chairpersons of professional organization or subsets within. They are featured as master class clinicians and adjudicators. Influenced thusly, graduate students are engaged likewise—in research, as published authors, as conference presenters, and in performance competitions, summer festivals, and auditions for roles or membership in performing arts organizations.

On the basis of their research and performance activity, our faculty are respected authorities in a number of subject matter areas including opera, music education, piano pedagogy, and electronic music and digital media. We are known for expertise in the works of Giuseppe Verdi; the music of Russian and Soviet composers; music and disabilities studies; the design of contemporary applied music curricula, and innovative translation of research into music educational practice.

Programs

• Music, M.M.

• Music, Ph.D.

• Music, D.M.A.