Music

The Music program gives students a thorough grounding in the four fundamental areas of music instruction – theory, general musicianship, history and performance, and allows students who are interested in teaching careers to specialize in Music Education, while those interested in academic studies and graduate school may emphasize such topics as Music History and Music Theory.

Students may also choose our ground-breaking new specialization in Music Cognition, which explores exciting new research into how music is perceived in the brain and how music intersects with other aspects of intellectual development.It’s also possible to combine the study of music with another subject from Humanities or Social Sciences.

WHY MUSIC AT McMaster?

With a ratio of approximately one professor to every 15 students and private lessons in the student’s principal instrument or voice, the Music program offers an exceptional level of faculty contact within the conventional classroom.

Experiential Learning

Our program also emphasizes learning outside the classroom. There are several ways in which music students at McMaster are exposed to a wide range of world-class artists. These include free lunchtime concerts and the Celebrity Concert Series (to which Music students receive free admission). The series brings top calibre international musicians to McMaster, whose musical styles range from the standard repertoire to recent music, jazz, early music and world music.