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Department of Music


Department website: https://music.uchicago.edu/

Chair

  • Anna Schultz

Professor

  • Philip Bohlman
  • Martha Feldman
  • Anne Walters Robertson
  • Hans Thomalla
  • Lawrence Zbikowski

Associate Professor

  • Jessica Swanston Baker
  • Seth Brodsky
  • Jennifer Iverson
  • Travis Jackson
  • Steven Rings

Assistant Professor

  • Alexander Cowan
  • Paula Harper
  • Senem Pirler
  • Celeste Oram
  • Corie Rose Soumah

Instructional Professor

  • Olga Sanchez-Kisielewska

Professor Emeritus

  • Thomas Christenson
  • Berthold Hoeckner
  • Robert Kendrick
  • Marta Ptaszynska
  • Don Michael Randel
  • Shulamit Ran

Performance Program Directors

  • Barbara Schubert, University Symphony Orchestra, Director of Performance Program
  • Michael Allemana, Jazz Ensemble
  • Nicholas J. Carlson, University Wind Ensemble
  • John Corkill, Percussion Ensemble
  • James Kallembach, Choral Activities
  • Liza Malamut, Early Music Ensemble
  • Elisabeth Marshall, Vocal Studies Program
  • Minu Pasupathi, South Asian Music Ensemble
  • Matthew Sheppard, University Chamber Orchestra
  • Mollie Stone, Choral Conductor
  • Sam Wek, Afro-Cuban Folkloric Ensemble
  • Heather Wittels, Chamber Music Program
  • Lam Wong, Piano Studies
  • Wanees Zarour, Middle Eastern Music Ensemble

For nearly 90 years, the University of Chicago Department of Music has been a leader in the study and creation of music, both historical and contemporary. With leading scholars in their fields, the department offers graduate degrees in Composition, Ethnomusicology, and Music History and Theory, as well as an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in music.

The trajectory of music studies at UChicago, shaped by distinguished past professors including Leonard Meyer, Howard Mayer Brown, Philip Gossett, and Ralph Shapey, has developed in tandem with, and often urged, the evolution of the discipline at large. Situated in the University’s Division of the Arts & Humanities, the Department of Music places special emphasis on interdisciplinary study, both with other disciplines in the humanities and with the social and physical sciences. In the 1980s, ethnomusicology and music theory were welcomed to the department as official subdisciplines (theory in a joint program with history), and interdisciplinary research has only expanded since, now encompassing cognitive science, psychology and psychoanalysis, physics and sound production, philosophy, theology, race and gender studies, and more.

Beyond the classroom, the Music Department hosts a thriving co-curricular Performance Program encompassing four choirs, two orchestras, two jazz ensembles, a South Asian instrumental and vocal ensemble, a Middle East music ensemble, an early music ensemble, a wind ensemble, and programs in chamber music, piano and voice. Open to all undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students at the University, the performance program offers an exceptional environment for artistic inspiration and musical growth, and for students in the department, it serves as a complement to their academic studies.

The Department is also home to a world-class concert series—UChicago Presents, welcoming internationally acclaimed performers of classical, early and world music, and jazz—and the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition—Chicago’s home for the creation, performance, and study of contemporary classical music.

Admissions

The graduate studies program in the Department distinguishes itself through rigorous scholarly training in the integrative study of music. Offering degrees in Composition and Sound Practices, Ethnomusicology, and Music History and Theory, and also offering a joint PhD program in Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS), the Department embraces the interdisciplinary nature of scholarship at the University of Chicago. 

Each of the three PhD programs requires successful completion of courses, language examinations, musicianship examinations, comprehensive examinations, a dissertation, and a final examination on (“defense of”) the dissertation. In addition, the program in Composition and Sound Practices requires approval and defense of the Research Paper, and approval of Portfolio Review; the program in Ethnomusicology requires a Special Field Examination; and the program in History & Theory requires a Defense of the Dissertation Proposal. For detailed information about requirements for all of the PhD programs, please visit the Graduate Curriculum webpage. 

Key Information

  • Time to Degree: 7 years expected (required for those students matriculating in AU25 and after)
  • Course per Quarter: 2-4 classes per quarter
  • Size of Cohort: varies
  • Degree Milestones: Completed Coursework, Comprehensive Exams, Language exams, Musicianship Exams, Minor Field Paper (composition only), Dissertation. More information can be found in the Department Curriculum.
  • Teaching Requirement: Graduate Students are expected to serve as Teaching Assistants (TA) or Lecturers beginning Year 3. More information can be found under Pedagogical Training Plan via the Music Department Handbook.  

Apply for Admission

Apply online

Further Information

The Music Department webpages provide detailed information on language programs, faculty specialties, degree requirements, teaching opportunities, sources of funding, admission requirements, and many other resources.

Courses

Can be found here