Department of Music

The Department of Music offers students comprehensive training in performance, music theory, music education, music therapy, and music history and literature.

Music students enter regional and national competitions and go on to prestigious graduate programs and/or successful careers in performance, education, scholarship, and industry.

Non-majors are also highly involved in the department, taking classes and lessons, participating in ensembles and performing on recitals.

If you are considering a career in music or want music to be a significant part of your life, the Music faculty will help you expand your understanding of musical style and structure, improve your musicianship, and set the groundwork for an evolving, mature, and lifelong interaction with music as a form of profound aesthetic expression.

MUSIC SCHOLARSHIP EXPECTATIONS

Beginning with the first semester of the first year and continuing for as long as the music scholarship is held, recipients must:

  • Enroll in private lessons on the instrument or voice in which the scholarship was awarded or in composition lessons if the scholarship was awarded for composition.
  • Participate in the Wooster Singers, Wooster Chorus, Wooster Symphony Orchestra, Scot Band, or Wooster Jazz Ensemble, as assigned by the ensemble directors.  (Depending upon need, pianists might be asked to enroll in Accompanying instead of a large ensemble during some semesters.)
  • Must earn a satisfactory grade (C- or higher) or a satisfactory audit in the required lessons and ensembles each semester in order to maintain the scholarship.

RECITAL ATTENDANCE POLICY

All Music majors must successfully complete 4 sections of the Recital Attendance requirement (MUSC-09900) prior to graduation. The procedures governing successful completion are as follows:

  • To complete one section, a student must attend, as an audience member only, 10 approved recitals/concerts during a semester.
  • At least 5 of these must be official Wooster Music Department events on campus.
  • Events on which a student performs or serves as usher or recording crew member do not count toward the total.
  • If a student gets credit for more than 10 recitals in a given semester, up to 3 of these can “roll over” into the recital total for the next MUSC-09900 section; however these cannot count toward the 5 required on-campus concerts. In other words, even if students roll over recital credits, they still must attend at least 5 events on campus each semester.
  • Incompletes are possible if a student ends the semester with 8 or 9 credits, but the full total of 10 must be reached before the College’s Incomplete deadline passes. (See Catalogue for details.)
  • If a student fails to satisfactorily complete a section of the course, it must be retaken.
  • Credit for an off-campus, non-Wooster event can be given if it is a performance by either a professional musician/group or by a school group (another college; a public-school ensemble) and if there is a printed program (copy or picture to be submitted to the Chair).

The degree recital requirement will appear on each Music major’s Degree Audit. Declared Music majors will automatically be enrolled each semester in a section of MUSC-09900 until the Recital Attendance requirement has been completed.

Near the beginning of each semester a list of Department-sponsored events that will satisfy the requirement will be distributed to all declared music majors and to second-semester sophomores who are likely majors. This list will include concerts in the Wooster Chamber Music Series.

APPLIED MUSIC LESSON FEE POLICY (“Expenses” section of 2022 Catalogue)

With respect to private music lessons, a fee of $750 is charged for fourteen weekly one-half hour lessons per semester, regardless of whether the lessons are taken for credit or audit. This fee is reduced to $25 (half-hour lessons) or $50 (one-hour lessons) for:

  • lessons in the primary instrument or voice required of declared music majors in all music degree programs, or
  • lessons required of Music Performance Scholarship winners regardless of class year or major, or
  • lessons covered by a (lesson) scholarship given to the student by the Scot Band, Wooster Symphony Orchestra or Wooster Chorus.

MUSIC TUTORS

Tutors for courses in music history and music theory are appointed by the Music Department, free of charge, for the following courses.  Please contact them as needed.                   

MUSC 101/102 – THEORY I

  • Ethan Yoder
  • Ryan Yonek 
  • Sitara True                              

MUSC 201 – THEORY III

  • Jane Nolte
  • Kiran Ravichandran
  • Jaden Levine
  • Jemella Piersol-Freedman                                                                   

MUSC 305 – ORCHESTRATION

  • Sitara True
  • Gracelyn Jack
  • Ryan Yonek
  • Ethan Yoder                                                                          

PIANO

  • Jieun Chung  
  • Tara McGovern