Home | Welcome to the School of Music
 Director's Welcome
On behalf of the faculty, staff, students, and supporters of the University of Missouri School of Music, I offer you a hearty and heartfelt welcome! The School of Music at Mizzou is a special place, filled with thoughtful, talented, and award-winning students, and a faculty of highly active, professional performers, composers, and scholars, unusually committed to helping students succeed in their musical journeys.
To prospective students, I hope this website provides you with some measure of the breadth of our programs. We offer a full range of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music, including performance (brass, percussion, piano, strings, voice, and woodwinds), composition, music education, music theory, and music history at the undergraduate level, and all of those areas plus conducting, collaborative piano, and piano pedagogy at the master’s level. We are also the only Missouri institution to offer the Ph.D. in music education. Our extensive ensemble offerings are complemented by a highly individualized approach to student success, centered on the studio lesson in most areas of study. Non-music majors, we are here for you too. We offer the minor in music and a specialized jazz minor, and of course hundreds of non-majors participate in our ensembles—everything from Marching Mizzou to chamber groups—and music courses.
Another thing that makes studying music at the University of Missouri so special is that this is the state’s flagship public university and one of the top universities in the country. This means that all of our students benefit from the wide-ranging resources available at a large and comprehensive university. And Columbia is a very lively college town, with a richly diverse array of musical and artistic offerings.
To our other stakeholders, we are here to serve your needs too. You will find on this website, for example, information about our community programs, including the Community Music Program, the Missouri String Project, and the Missouri Youth Orchestra, which allow us to connect broadly with musicians of all ages from Columbia and the region. Details about the Mizzou New Music Initiative, a diverse array of programs positioning the School of Music as a leading center in the areas of composition and new music, can be found here too. And you will also find information about the Friends of Music, a group of highly committed supporters that raises funds annually for scholarships for University of Missouri music students. This is such important work—each year allowing many students to realize their dreams of studying music.
We are committed to improving this website and all our communications vehicles, so please check back frequently for the latest news and concert information. Please also see and join our Facebook page (MU School of Music), where in addition to concert publicity, you will find additional news and an ongoing discussion about some of the latest items of interest to School of Music students and faculty. If you have suggestions for further improvements, please do not hesitate to contact me.
With best wishes,
Robert Shay
Director, School of Music
Professor of Music
Email: ShayR@missouri.edu |
