Music
New College offers an area of concentration (AOC) in music. Students can also create their own areas of concentration by combining music with another major field (a “slash”), or concentrate on music as part of an AOC in Humanities.
Students who study music at New College are challenged to test the boundaries of what exactly music is. Coursework in music provides a framework for experiencing music as creative expression, as harmony, melody, rhythm, form, and instrumentation, as a document of historical practices, as sound, as physical gesture, as a social and political phenomenon or tool, as an important and pleasurable social experience, or as a measure of cultural change. Whether encountered as a performance that resembles experimental theater, through the ear buds of an iPod, though a dorm-room wall, or as the song of the mockingbird at 3 am, the music program at New College recognizes that music challenges as often as it comforts, and represents conflict as often as it communicates a message of peace and understanding. Through developing skills of basic musicianship and introducing students to a wide array of musical styles in the Western art music tradition with a smattering of social theory, world music, and many opportunities to compose, the New College music program educates students to listen, observe, and interpret with sympathy for others.
Performance at New College is seen as a further opportunity to integrate theory and practice. Students can perform in New Music New College, which presents world-class performers in concert and master classes, and involves students in at least one performance each academic year. These opportunities for students often stem from work in courses and tutorials, and emphasize experimental approaches to music. Students may also sing in the New College Chorus or arrange their own chamber groups. In addition, the music faculty can help students make connections with musicians in the Sarasota community who teach private lessons. (However, students must pay for those lessons over and above the tuition and fees that New College charges).
New College also offers composers opportunities to hear their work played by professional musicians. Every spring semester a chamber ensemble associated with the Sarasota Orchestra (the Sarasota String Quartet, Sarasota Woodwind Quintet, or Sarasota Brass Quintet) rehearses the works of New College student composers, which culminates in a performance.
For program requirements, click here for the General Catalog.
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