ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

Composition

Bachelor of Music, Composition
Master of Music, Composition

Composition students at San Diego State University receive a diverse and thorough education in the art and craft of composition.  Students have the option of deep immersion in the European based classical perspective as well as engaging world music traditions and electro-acoustic compositional perspectives in their creative vision. Composition students have access to the state-of-the-art Electronic Music Studio (EMS), a fully equipped facility for the exploration of digital composition.

The composition program provides student composers the opportunity to compose works for various ensembles and to have their works rehearsed, performed publicly, and professionally recorded. The overarching principle of the composition area is that students are provided with the opportunity to hear their compositions and to create them at the highest levels, in both live and recorded performance. Students learn to trust their intuition, draw from the unknown, and apply structural and technical tools to realize highly personal, literate works of music. Composers at SDSU become adept at exploring and discussing the implicit aesthetic, cultural and technical issues embedded within their compositions and within the compositions of others.

Submission of a comprehensive creative portfolio is required for admission to the BM or MM programs in composition.