Graduate Programs

UCSD's Department of Music is internationally recognized as the West Coast's premiere center for education and innovation in new music. Founded in 1966 by composers Robert Erickson and Will Ogdon, it was designed to provide a unique environment in which composers, performers and scholars could collaborate and engage with the most vital ideas and newest technologies in order to push the boundaries of contemporary music. The Department offers Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doctor of Musical Arts (M.A., Ph.D., and D.M.A.) degrees. Areas of emphasis include Composition, Computer Music, Integrative Studies, and Performance.

Brochure (PDF)

As it explores music in the context of our time, the faculty provides the challenge that both focuses and energizes the unique UCSD musical community. Faculty and students frequently perform together in concerts, on recordings, and at national and international venues. Festivals, colloquia and distinguished visitors create a kinetic environment for collaboration and the investigation of new musical frontiers. The Department of Music provides, perhaps most importantly, a safe haven for the sometimes sharp clashing of ideas. The community's overlapping concerns - composition, improvisation, performance, scholarship, and technology - reveal a terrain rich in tradition but constantly expanding - sometimes shattered, then thoughtfully reinvented.

UCSD graduates can be found both happily within and decidedly outside the academic community throughout the United States, in Asia, Europe, and the Nordic Countries. Many are active performers and recording artists. This now extensive, international alumni group provides increasingly significant networking opportunities for current and future students.

Helpful Links

Office of Graduate Studies

Graduate Program Brochure in PDF (New for 2005-2006 32MB)