Undergraduate Music Degree Programs
The Bass School offers two undergraduate tracks. The performance-intensive Bachelor of Music degree programs are designed to develop comprehensive musical skills and literacy. The Bachelor of Music is offered in instrumental performance, music theater, vocal performance, music education, and composition. The Bachelor of Arts with a major in Music is designed for the study of music within a broad-based liberal arts curriculum. The Bachelor of Arts is also the degree for students with an interest in studying music and Pre-Med or Pre-Law.
Instrumental
Performance Degrees
The performance-intensive Bachelor of Music degree programs are designed to develop comprehensive musical skills and literacy, leading to a professional career as a performer in a broad variety of idioms or to graduate study in music. Graduates of the Bass School of Music leave campus not only with a diploma, but with a discipline and versatility that positions them for successful professional lives.
BM Instrumental Performance Degree Requirements
BM Guitar Performance Degree Requirements
Instrumental Audition Requirements
Liberal Arts Degree
Please see the Bachelor of Arts description below, or click here to see degree requirements.
Keyboard
Piano Performance
The Bass School of Music seeks to produce exceptional and knowledgeable performers who have a broad understanding of diverse musical styles. The Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance degree is designed to produce pianists who can perform solo repertoire at a high level, collaborate with other musicians, and attain gainful employment as pianists. This degree also prepares students for top level graduate programs across the nation.
BM Piano Performance Degree Requirements
Instrumental Audition Requirements
Organ Performance
The Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance prepares students for professional work as organists in the fields of solo concertizing and collaborative and church playing. Perhaps the greatest strength of Oklahoma City University’s organ department is the varied and abundant opportunities afforded to the organ students. Organists are able to perform in several capacities: studio classes, chapel services, preludes for Christmas Vespers and baccalaureate, community concerts, etc.
There are multiple impressive instruments within a few miles of campus, so students are able to practice, perform, and have lessons on various organs.
Students in the program also enjoy working with the chapel staff in planning and executing weekly worship services.
Education
Instrumental
The purpose of the Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Education is to prepare the student for a professional career in teaching instrumental music in a group setting. Students are trained to teach individual instruments, as well as instrumental ensembles, which results in public school certification at the K-12 levels.
Graduates of the program have 100% pass rate on the Oklahoma Teacher Certification Exams and 100% placement rate for those who were actively seeking teaching positions. Those not seeking positions have been accepted into graduate programs. Students have accepted positions throughout the U.S., Europe, and South Korea. Several instrumental alumni have been named school and district Teachers of the Year. Two of those alumni have gone on to be named Oklahoma Teacher of the Year (2006, 2013).
Instrumental Music Education students have the opportunity for music teaching and conducting experiences outside of the Oklahoma City University classroom through a variety of means. Students teach private lessons in the schools and through the Oklahoma City University Performing Arts Academy. Students are hired or volunteer as sectional coaches for school ensembles, as well as for the Oklahoma Youth Orchestras that rehearse in the Bass Center. Students serve in leadership positions, such as marching band "techs" and drumline coaches, as well as music arrangers. Students also teach at summer music camps and festivals.
Music education method courses contain an observation component that helps the student to become acquainted with master teachers, as well as the discourse of school. Through COMEA students participate in state and regional music education conventions and activities. As a Conn-Selmer School, Bass School of Music students are afforded the opportunity to attend the Conn-Selmer Institute.
BME Instrumental Education Degree Requirements
Instrumental Audition Requirements
Vocal
This Bachelor of Music in Education program is designed to offer students professional teacher preparation leading to certification for public school teaching K-12 or preparation for graduate study in music education or choral conducting.
These activities also provide a framework for continued discussion about teaching philosophies, styles, and what it means to become an effective music educator in the 21st century.
Voice
Performance
The performance-intensive Bachelor of Music degree program is designed to prepare students for a professional career as a performer in a broad variety of idioms or graduate study in music. The program is geared towards the entering student with a high proficiency in vocal performance, along with previous performance experience.
BM Vocal Performance Degree Requirements
Liberal Arts Degree
Please see the Bachelor of Arts description below, or click here to see degree requirements.
Music Theater
The Bachelor of Music in Music Theater is focused on training students with a high proficiency in singing for a career in Broadway-style performance. The degree is one of the most music intensive in the country and couples rigorous music training with equally rigorous courses in dance, acting, performance techniques, stagecraft, and general studies. The faculty is committed to training musical theater majors as professional musicians as well as highly skilled dancers and actors. Our graduates have experienced great success due, in large part, to the music training we provide.
Students in the musical theater program audition for all six of the Bass School of Music annual productions and are cast in musicals and operas alike. Our productions integrate the skills of the curriculum: music and text analysis and preparation, character analysis, acting skills, movement, dance, and diction. Students gain performance skills in not only musical theater but also classical and operatic repertoire. Each student must complete a junior recital consisting entirely of classical repertoire and a senior recital focused on music theater repertoire and related styles. This vocal cross training makes our graduates competitive and versatile.
In addition to the rigorous training our musical theater students receive, graduating seniors audition for a New York City Showcase and have the opportunity to work with professionals in the field and audition for agents and casting directors.
Composition
In the Bachelor of Music degree, students develop knowledge, skills, and insight into writing single line melodies, counterpoint, traditional and contemporary harmony, various notational methods, form, the compositional process, orchestration, and develop an understanding of musical development throughout history.
Students graduating from the Bachelor of Music in Composition program will be able to compose idiomatically for voice and all orchestral instruments and/or be proficient in sequencing, recording, and scoring for media. All will be prepared to conduct, rehearse, and present their music, expressing their authentic selves through original compositions. They will be prepared to enter a top graduate program in composition and/or secure work as a composer/musician.
BM Composition Degree Requirements
Instrumental Audition Requirements
Please check out Project 21, our composers concert series.
Bachelor of Arts
The Bachelor of Arts in Music program is designed to provide students the opportunity to enrich their music studies with a greater number of non-music elective hours and less music-specific hours than their colleagues pursuing Bachelor of Music degrees. As such, the Bachelor of Arts in Music curriculum allows students to explore their academic and professional interests outside of music while pursuing a basic curricular track in musical studies.
The Bass School of Music faculty believes that all students graduating with a music degree from Oklahoma City University must be competent performers. Although Bachelor of Arts in Music students embark on a less extensive term of musical study than their Bachelor of Music peers, this degree incorporates a significant performance component.
BA Music with an Emphasis in Pre-Medicine Degree Requirements
BA Music with an Emphasis in Pre-Law Degree Requirements