Our department offers a rigorous preparation for continued music study. All students undertake an eight-course program in music theory, music history, and
world music. They have the opportunity to study a variety of more advanced topics, such as orchestration, conducting, electronic music, counterpoint, and
composition. They may participate in seminars on specialty topics, ranging, in recent years, from Music and Myth, to Music and Art, The Business of Music,
and Music of the Silk Road.

All students study privately (instrumental or voice), and perform in ensembles. We have three choirs (small, medium, large), orchestra that also plays wind
ensemble music, a jazz band and jazz combo. We provide high quality coaching for large variety of chamber groups, including brass groups, a flute choir, string
groups, and mixed ensembles. Our students have an abundance of performance opportunities, ranging from informal recitals on Friday afternoons to full evening solo recitals. Our concert season, with approximately 50 concerts each year, also includes visits from touring professionals.

Our faculty are selected from among the best of the busy professional musicians in the Washington/Baltimore region. Collectively, our faculty perform in approximately 1500 concerts each year. Our faculty is composed of people who perform regularly as soloists with orchestra, recording artists with critically-
acclaimed CDs, and winners of major national and international competitions.

We have excellent teachers on all of the major orchestral instruments, plus piano, guitar, saxophone, celtic harp, conducting, and voice as well as composition, music history, world music, and theory. For singers, we have a large choir, a women’s choir, and a small chamber choir. For instrumentalists, we have an orchestra, chamber groups (different each semester according to student interest), a jazz band, and a jazz combo. There are also student-run groups (gospel choir, a cappella vocal groups). And there are a number of student rock bands.