Music, Theatre, and Dance

Ithaca College’s nationally-recognized BFA in Musical Theatre is an intensive, performance-oriented training program in acting, singing and dancing designed to develop and strengthen the skills, hone the instincts, and foster the passion necessary for a professional career in musical theatre.

This program combines professional education as a musician with focused study in a field of your choice outside of music. This degree is ideal for musicians who want to explore; it is for students with curiosity about connections and intersections. Just like our other Bachelor of Music degrees, this degree has a full core of music requirements and expectations, and at the same time it also provides room for discovery and specialization in another area of interest.

Recent choices for the outside field include: business, communications, psychology, computer science, neuroscience, clinical health studies, and theater. As a comprehensive college that offers both liberal arts and professional degree programs, Ithaca College offers an exceptionally broad array of possibilities for your outside field. With the help of an advisor, you will design your outside field, drawing on courses offered throughout Ithaca College. This program is flexible and adaptable, not only preparing 21st-century musicians for the multifarious demands of their careers, but also maximizing well-rounded opportunities for inquiry and innovation.

Ithaca's commitment to hands-on, field-based learning means you will observe classes in your freshman and sophomore years and teach classes in your junior year -- earlier than in most undergraduate programs. Two years of foundational study -- teaching techniques and educational psychology, for example -- prepares you for the classroom. Then, to help refine your teaching skills, a teaching professional and mentor will provide you with one-to-one advice. You will gain additional professional experience and feedback in your senior year as a student teacher in a local public school.

Although the program is designed for focused work in vocal and instrumental music education, it fulfills the academic requirements for a birth-through-12th-grade New York State teaching certification for all areas of music. Through reciprocity agreements, the program also fulfills basic academic requirements necessary for certification in most other states.

Still not convinced this is one of the finest music education programs in the country? On a consistent basis, one hundred percent of our graduates who actively seek a teaching position find one, and they also have a strong record of being accepted into major graduate programs.

In this degree program you can pursue liberal arts studies while building a strong background in music. About sixty percent of your coursework will be in the liberal arts in areas outside of music. You will study your major instrument and foundational areas of music—history, theory, aural skills, ensembles, and repertoire—as in other music degree programs.

Our students have won multiple regional and national competitions, including Fulbright scholarships; our graduates take their places daily on stage, at the podium, and in the classroom. In fact, you'll find Ithaca alumni in almost every music field imaginable—performance, teaching, arts administration, music therapy, instrument manufacturing, music publishing, sound recording, and the entertainment industry.

The jazz studies curriculum is a rigorous one that includes course sequences in arranging, improvisation, jazz piano, and history, as well as traditional music theory, piano, and Aural Skills. You'll study your chosen instrument or voice in disciplined weekly lessons with both Ithaca jazz faculty and classical performance professors -- which is why all students auditioning for the program are required to take both a standard entrance audition with performance faculty in addition to a jazz audition with the jazz studies director.

There are a wide variety of ensembles in which you can hone your talents, including three big bands, a vocal jazz ensemble, and multiple small jazz combos. Simply put, there are an overwhelming number of possibilities for performances, recordings, and jam sessions both on campus and in the Ithaca community at large.

As a composition major, you will gain a foundation in traditional Western art music, while having the opportunity to explore jazz, electronic music, film scoring, and other media. In addition to having individual lessons with our award-winning faculty, you will have the opportunity to work with renowned composers through our Karel Husa Visiting Professor of Composition series. While taking courses such as orchestration, counterpoint, and arranging, you will hear your music performed by highly skilled musicians on a regular basis. Each year, composers such as John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, George Crumb, Chen Yi, William Bolcom, and Alvin Singleton present master classes, critique student works, and give lectures on their own work.

Ithaca College’s nationally-recognized BFA in Acting offers the rigorous, highly-individualized training of a conservatory within the enriching foundation of a liberal arts education. Through a range of classroom and performance experiences that prepare actors for the profession, our faculty are committed to helping young artists develop and deepen their talent and hone their technique and expressive abilities.