This degree is designed to prepare the graduate for a career in composition, college teaching, or doctoral study.

MU offers numerous opportunities for collaboration with artists various mediums, community engagement in the creative process, and performance of works on and off campus. The graduate New Music Ensemble is dedicated to performing works of student composers studying at MU. Our annual Sinquefield Composition Prize gives one of our students the opportunity to have a work for large ensemble performed at the annual Chancellor's Concert. In addition we host a Student Composers Concert each spring, a Composers Forum, and a student chapter of Society of Composers, Inc. Our graduates have been admitted to some of the most prestigious doctoral programs in the country, and our students have won many competitions of the Music Teachers National Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the prestigious Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) Student Composers.

Prerequisites 

• Bachelors degree in music (or demonstrated equivalent) 
• GPA of 3.0 in the last 60 hours 
• 3 credits of 18th- or 16th-century counterpoint 
• 2 credits of orchestration 
• 8 credits of composition 
• 4 credits of music history (equivalent study to Music 2307-2308) 
• 16 credits of applied instruction (or equivalent) 

If an applicant does not meet the required prerequisites, then appropriate course(s) may be added to the degree requirements.

Additional Requirements 

• See Comprehensive Exam Information pdf
• See Degree Plan Guidelines pdf
• No more than one course with a grade lower than B- may count toward completion of the degree. 
• All studies in music must be at the 7000 or 8000 level and at least fifteen must be at the 8000 level.
• Nine credits are required in theory and history combined, either three history and six theory OR three theory and six history. A list of the theory courses that will fulfill the first three credits required are available on the attached pdf. No other theory courses can be used for this requirement.
• The student must assemble a faculty thesis committee and pass an oral examination regarding the thesis (a final, substantial original work).