Facts About the School of Music

The School of Music offers programs of study exclusively for undergraduates. We are an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music, the music accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education.

Students

  • Music majors: 112
    • 47 in performance
    • 21 in music education
    • 12 in music with elective studies in business
    • 32 in Bachelor of Arts
  • Music minors: 44
  • Community Music: Over 500 students from the Puget Sound region enrolled weekly through traditional studio instruction, Kindermusik, Suzuki violin and piano, chamber music, musical theater, and harp ensemble.

Ensembles 

  • Symphony Orchestra (50 players, auditioned)
  • Wind Ensemble (52 players, auditioned)
  • Concert Band (45 players, non-auditioned)
  • Voci d'Amici (14 singers, mixed ensemble, selected from Adelphian Concert Choir)
  • Adelphian Concert Choir (44 singers, mixed ensemble, auditioned)
  • Dorian Singers (37 women, auditioned)
  • Chorale (50+ singers, unauditioned)
  • Chamber music groups in strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion

Degrees

Clubs

  • Curtain Call (music theater review)
  • Garden Level (male a cappella)
  • MuSAC (Music Student Advisory Committee)
  • New Music Society
  • Logger Pep Band
  • Underground Sound (mixed a cappella)
  • What She Said (female a cappella)

Workshops

  • BrassWorks
  • Master Classes & Lectures by Visiting Artists
  • Northwest Honor Choir
  • Piano Festival
  • Serious About Singing Vocal Workshop
  • Women's Chorus Festival

Faculty

  • Full-time faculty and their teaching areas: 12
  • Part-time faculty: 25
  • Professional staff: 7

Community Music

  • 52 part-time faculty positions covering piano, organ, strings, voice, woodwinds, brass, percussion, chamber music, Kindermusik, Suzuki, musical theater, and harp ensemble.

Facilities: Music Building

  • Classrooms: 3
  • Rehearsal Halls: 2 (instrumental, choral)
  • Performance Halls: 2 (Schneebeck Concert Hall, seating 500; Kilworth Chapel, seating 330)
  • Teaching studios and offices: 27
  • Recording spaces and equipment: 2 (Schneebeck Concert Hall and choral rehearsal hall)
  • Practice Rooms: 28 including special practice rooms:
    • Rooms reserved for advanced pianists, organists, (in addition to the Bethel Schneebeck organ), and harpsichordists. Pianists have the opportunity to perform on our fortepiano, a modern copy of a Viennese fortepiano from the 1780s.
    • Rooms for chamber group practice
    • Percussion studio
    • "V-Room," a unique room designed by the Wenger Corporation in which the acoustic properties of the room change through a system of microphones, speakers, and sensors.
    • Electronic Spaces: Lawrence Ebert Electronic Music Lab, and a keyboard lab with 5 midi workstations.
  • Other spaces: student lounge, green room, kitchen, music score library, music office, community music office

Collins Memorial Library

  • Music Books: 10,220 vols.
  • Scores: 12,300 vols.
  • Music Videos/DVDs: 580 titles
  • Audio/CDs: 5,370 items
  • Music Periodicals: over 300 titles (Including electronic full text journals)
  • Summit: The University is a member of the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a collection of academic libraries in Washington and Oregon that provides access via a courier system to 28.7 million volumes through a web based union catalog called Summit. The city of Tacoma also has an excellent public library system, and faculty may arrange for borrowing privileges at the University of Washington (approximately 50 minutes away). The University of Washington's holdings are also available through Summit.
  • Naxos Music Library: online subscription service to more than 50,000 recordings