Keyboard Bachelor of Music Curriculum

Life isn't an audition.

Any music school can make you a better player. Our interconnected courses are built to transform you intellectually, artistically, professionally, and individually. You'll understand the roots of your music, freeing you to take it somewhere new. You'll see how your training broadens your options, rather than narrowing them. You'll find your voice. And you'll enter the world with the same confidence you bring to the stage.

Required Courses

Curriculum: Bachelor of Music in Piano
Credit Total: 127

Requirement	Cr.
Private Instruction	32
Performance Classes	2
Humanities & Sciences	30
Musicianship & Music Theory	24
Music History & Literature	20
Professional Development	4
Applied Practical Training	2
Baroque Studies	2
Ensemble	10
Electives	3
Winter Term	3 Years
Digital Portfolio	4 Years
Juries & Recitals	N/A

Historical Performance Emphasis for Keyboard (undergraduate) (total credits: 9-11)

ENS 210 (Conservatory Baroque Ensemble) (2 semesters, 4 credits)
ENS 212 (Continuo Playing) (1 semester, 2 credits) (not required if students can demonstrate prior experience)
MHL 400 (Introduction to Performance Practice) (1 semester, 3 credits)
PRF 354 (Harpsichord Class) (2 semesters, 2 credits)
Jury requirements as determined by Historical Performance faculty

These credits also count towards the Bachelor of Music degree.

Piano Jury and Recital Requirements

Freshman Jury

A prelude and fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier or another work of Bach containing a fugue
An entire sonata by Beethoven, Mozart, or Haydn
A romantic work by a nineteenth-century composer or a work by a representative French composer (Debussy, Ravel, or others)
A work by a twentieth-century composer genuinely representative of musical and technical concepts developed in the last 80 years

Sophomore Jury

Any complete partita, French suite, or English suite, or any major work such as the Italian Concerto, or five sinfonias or two preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach
A work from the classical period
A major romantic work (corresponding in importance and difficulty to a Chopin ballade or scherzo or Brahms’ Eight Piano Pieces, Op. 76)
An etude or prelude by Debussy
A 20th- or 21st century work

Junior Jury

A program of completely new material of not less than 60 minutes in length, to be approved by the major professor and the piano department, including etudes by two different composers (Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, etc.)

Senior Jury and Senior Recital

Piano majors must perform a senior jury to determine fulfillment of performance requirements. A public recital also must be performed, with repertoire approved by the major professor and the piano department.

Concerto Requirement

At any time during an undergraduate's residency, a one-time concerto performance requirement must be satisfied at an additional concerto jury. This requirement may be waived by permission if the residency is one year or less. Finalists in the Conservatory's annual concerto competition are also excluded from this requirement.

General Repertoire Requirements

Students should play the following works by the end of their undergraduate career:

Bach: one trio sonata, two chorale preludes from the "Great Eighteen" or Clavierübung III (with pedal), three large preludes (toccatas, fantasies) and fugues
Buxtehude or other North German masters: one prelude and fugue, one chorale fantasy, three chorale preludes
Franck: two major works
Mendelssohn: a sonata or prelude and fugue
Brahms: four chorale preludes
Early Spanish or Italian: one significant work
French Classic Period: major portions of masses by Francois Couperin or Nicolas de Grigny
Modern French: two works
Modern German: two works
Modern American: two works
Post-1970: one work