Applied Studios

Individual Attention & Mentorship

Applied studios are purposefully small to allow for meaningful relationships and a more personalized education. Highly trained faculty who are active performers and scholars provide applied students with a weekly studio class in which students perform for one another and offer critiques to their peers. In addition to connecting you with students who share your creative passion, weekly one-on-one lessons with your studio faculty professor prepares you for public performance and pushes your creative boundaries.

Learn more about the Music, Applied Voice, Comprehensive Major
Learn more about the Music, Applied Instrumental, Comprehensive Major

Career Preparation

With its emphasis on technical mastery and high-level musicianship, our specialized studios will give you the confidence and experience needed to pursue a graduate-level performance program, establish your own private music studio, or go wherever your dreams take you. Students are encouraged to actively shape their careers while in school where they gain professional skills through:

• Enriching masterclasses and concerts with critically-acclaimed guest artists
• Training in management skills relevant to freelance careers
• Performing regularly locally and internationally
• Producing original albums
• Recording studio experience

Start building your professional network through our faculty and their connections at every level of the industry. Graduates have gone on to receive Grammy awards, join professional ensembles, as well as consistently advancing to graduate programs at prestigious institutions.

Piano Literature, Pedagogy, Accompanying, & Organ

Beyond the piano, students have opportunities to play the harpsichord in a Baroque chamber orchestra and to pursue an interest in organ with regular access to a unique Aeolian Skinner organ in the main concert hall. Students regularly gain experience accompanying for student lessons and recitals, as well as rehearsals for operas & musicals, choirs, jazz bands and more. Students have access to Steinways in the performance halls, practice rooms with grand pianos, a harpsichord and one practice organ. Faculty serve as active mentors in faculty-student research projects with topics that range from the biography of Beethoven to the challenges of performing Britten's pieces. Guest pianists from across the country are regularly invited to perform and provide masterclasses for students.

Develop Your Compositional Personality

Throughout the composition program, you'll enrich your academic experience with regular opportunities to write for a variety of ensembles. The composition curriculum exposes students to contemporary models of composition while steadily encouraging students to develop their own personal compositional style. You'll also contribute to masterclasses with internationally renowned guest composers and professional ensembles who will respond to your music with valuable critiques and perspectives on the current music composition industry. Recent departmental residencies with groups such as yMusic, Zeitgeist, Yarn and Wire, Blue Streak Ensemble and Eighth Blackbird have provided one-on-one personal interaction and specific insights into writing for a particular instrument, genre or setting.

Program curriculum is designed so that students can learn how to approach music composition from different perspectives, think broadly and critically about incorporating different musical parameters into their own voice, apply different compositional techniques, develop their own musical languages and write idiomatically for various instruments.

Learn more about our Music - Composition, BM degree program

Tradition of Excellence

The Wind, Brass, and Percussion faculty are committed to ensuring students graduate with invaluable real-world experiences, enabling them to confidently navigate a career in music. Our instrumental education is nationally recognized for its vibrant tradition of thoughtful advising, plentiful performance opportunities, and large welcoming community. Here you can push your creative boundaries, showcase and polish your skills, collaborate with experts in your field, and connect with students who share your creative passion.

Violin | Viola | Cello | Bass | Guitar

The University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire’s Music and Theatre Arts Department has a proud tradition of excellence in string performance. Our string community is woven together by close-knit relationships and one-on-one mentorship from talented faculty. Recent graduates have gone on to serve as orchestra conductors and teachers, pursue degrees in top graduate programs, establish private music studios, and perform professionally.

Studying Voice

A vocal education at UWEC consists of weekly one-on-one lessons with one of our distinguished voice faculty. You will prepare a variety of solo repertoire and perform frequently in your voice professor’s studio class. Music education and performance majors enroll in voice pedagogy, exploring voice science and how to be a successful voice teacher. Voice performance majors enjoy a vocal literature course and diction classes in English, German, French, and Italian.

Learn about Opera & Musical Theatre Workshop