Many options make strong resumes
You'll have plenty of opportunities to fill out your college experience and your resume.
Choose from more than a dozen ensembles and four student organizations. Perhaps attend or perform at a conference. There are off-campus performances and groups that travel overseas.
We offer a Community Music School and give students the chance to talk with our guest artists. Our students have also been invited to perform with celebrities on stage through the Lively Arts.
Our ensembles are legendary
Check out our more than
20 ensembles. Instrumental groups include
Marching Band (“The Legend”),
Concert Band,
Symphony Band,Wind Ensemble, and
Symphony Orchestra. Jazz groups include
Jazz Band and
Jazz Ensemble.
Vocal Groups are
Chorus,
Chorale,
Chamber Singers, and
Music Theater. Area Groups include
Percussion Ensemble and
Brass Ensemble.
There are also additional groups such as the Trombone Choir and Clarinet Choir.
Music student organizations
We have active
student chapters of
Phi Mu Alpha, An all-male music fraternity;
Sigma Alpha Iota, an all-female music sorority; and
Delta Omicron, a co-ed, professional fraternity. All three groups participate in service activities for the Music Department.
You can also join our student chapter of the
Pennsylvania Collegiate Music Educators Association.
Attend conferences, travel to performances
Our students have opportunities to attend conferences. The organ studio recently attended a conference in Michigan, and the University Chorale performed at the Pennsylvania convention for the American Choral Directors Association, where one of our students,
Tate Dewalt, took second place in a state-wide student conducting competition. Also, our Marching Band performs across the state at football games and exhibition performances.
Recent opportunities to perform overseas have taken our trumpet students and some student vocalists to Italy.
Work with youth
If you are planning a career in music education, you may want to help with the
String Project, which gives children the chance to learn to play a string instrument and perform in a concert. We also have a new
Community Music School that coordinates requests for college students to teach music lessons and conducts youth choral groups.
Meet and perform with international stars
Guest artists are brought to campus regularly, not just to perform but to hold master classes with students.
You'll talk with them and have the chance to ask questions. When Bernadette Peters performed in Fisher Auditorium through
the Lively Arts, students were invited to fill out her band for the performance.
Campus and community opportunities
Students here find other opportunities available to them as well, such as playing music for the Footlight Players summer youth theater program or working part-time at the campus's office for
ArtsPath, which is a regional arts-in-education program in partnership with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Students who want more opportunities to sing can
also join Voices of Joy on campus.
Our ensembles and smaller groups sometimes perform in the community. Within walking distance of campus, there are also small venues such as an art shop and a local restaurant where students have performed.