Offering unparalleled opportunities for the academic study of music, our programs employ Chicago's unique interdisciplinary approach, combining music with literature, religion, politics, and other areas. Faculty represent the highest level of current scholarship, including opera, aesthetics, criticsm, tonal and atonal theory, jazz, blues, and pop music; internationally recognized composers with interest in the analysis and performance of contemporary music; and world leaders in ethnomusicology, ranging from cultures of Europe and America to Africa and the Middle East.

Professor Lawrence Zbikowski leads a Harmony course.
Photo: Daniel Collins

World-class Academics

At the Department of Music, award-winning professors in composition, ethnomusicology, history, and theory offer a rich, dynamic, and cross-disciplinary academic experience. Curricula are focused on scholarship that leads to a greater understanding of music as a human endeavor, and the writing of new music.

Students who concentrate in musical studies emerge well-qualified, skillful, confident, and ready for the next step in their careers. Undergraduates in Music have gone on to graduate schools in music, composition, and performance, or directly to such pursuits as film scoring, orchestral conducting, or music publishing. Most graduate students have gone on to pursue their chosen specialization in academic positions, while others are working in arts administration, composition, publishing, or performance.

Learn more about undergraduate programs
Learn more about graduate programs