UWSP - Music Department

Musicianship

(Composition, Music theory and ear training)

Musicianship is on the "cutting edge" of curricular development, not only in the courses that we offer, but in the way that we teach them.

Composing

TOP TEN REASONS TO STUDY MUSICIANSHIP AT UWSP

  1. At UWSP every music student learns to compose and improvise. This means that you will be part of a large and vibrant community of creative students.
  2. Composers at UW-Stevens Point are ENCOURAGED to write in many different styles, pitch languages and media. We will teach you how to communicate through music, not merely learn techniques.
  3. Access and Training for the Computer Music Center (CMC) during first week of classes for all new students. This facility is designed for creative students! If you qualify, you can even make money while working in the CMC. Some of our past CMC lab assistants have gotten jobs at CODA Music Technology (makers of FINALE), Sweetwater and MUSITEK.
  4. Students at UWSP have won national and statewide awards as diverse as the ASCAP/H. Robert Reynolds Young Composer Award to the John Lennon Songwriting Competition. Students have had their works published by numerous publishers and featured in Music Education textbooks. Other students have produced their own professional CDs of their works for sale. Student composers have presented in statewide presentations for UW Day, UW Board of Regents, UW System Symposium on Undergraduate Creativity, UWSP Technology Summit, WMEA conventions and others. UWSP composition students have also been the feature of magazine articles in the Wisconsin School Musician magazine, Korg Soundtree, and Wisconsin Ideas magazine.
  5. UWSP has Student Composers Concerts each semester which are open to any interested student, regardless of major. Composers Concerts here regularly have large ensemble works, popular music, jazz, folk music, collaborations with other media, contemporary Christian, hard rock, and many other styles of music.
    6. Composing on the computer
  6. UWSP hosts many Guest Composers:
    • Lorre Lynn Trytten
    • Gwyneth Walker
    • David Amram (twice)
    • Edgar Meyer
    • Laura Caviani
    • James Cohn
    • Christopher Young (Film Composer)
    • Fred Karlin (Film Composer)
    • Fred Steiner (Film Composer)
    • Elizabeth Alexander
    • Velvet Brown
    • Donald Sosin (Silent Film Composer)
    • Joel Saltzman
    • Ney Rosauro
    • Peter Gilbert
    • James Chaudoir
    • Chris Norman (twice)
    • Phillip Rhoads
    • Keith Hill
    • Marianne Ploger (annually)
    • Ching Chu
    • James Territo
    • Eric Mandat
    • Nebosja Zivkovic
    • Jeff Agrell (twice)
    • David Gommper
    Wisconsin Alliance for Composers State Conference (1999) Global Alliance for the Teaching of Comprehensive Musicianship Conference (1995)
  7. UWSP invents effective technologies (like the Portable Practice Unit and UW-SP MIDI Archive) to assist in your musical development.
  8. You will bring your instruments to classes each day during Freshman Theory (Musicianship) and Sophomore Theory (Musicianship). Singers and percussionists use the piano as their major instrument. By using your instrument, you can make better connections between academic subjects and performance classes.
  9. UWSP has a dedicated and award-winning faculty to assist you in your development:
  10. UWSP provides additional emphasis on Acoustics, Intonation and Rhythm beyond the traditional Music Theory (Musicianship) subject materials.