Music Department

Return to: Departments and Programs

Goucher students are encouraged to engage in the performing arts as both participants and observers. The Music Department produces 40 to 60 public events each year. Student vocalists are invited to audition for the Goucher Chorus, Chamber Singers, Jazz Ensemble, and Opera Workshop. Instrumentalists are encouraged to audition for the Goucher Chamber Symphony, the Goucher Chamber Music Group, the Goucher Jazz Ensemble, and the Goucher African Drum and Dance Ensemble. Computer enthusiasts are invited to participate in the music department’s two computer music studios. Numerous artists and companies perform in the college’s Kraushaar Auditorium during the academic year. Many events are free, and students may attend others at reduced rates. The Music Department and the Office of Student Engagement plan several trips off campus each year to cultural and performing arts events. While opportunities for performance are available to all students at all levels, public performance and exhibition are granted through audition and selection only. Because adjudication is a fundamental aspect of the arts professions, the Music Department considers the process of evaluation, through audition and performance, to be an important aspect of professional training and education in music.

The Music Department offers a major and a minor in music. The major in music requires a choice of one of seven concentrations: theory and composition, music history, performance, arts administration, computer music, jazz studies, and music and theatre.

Music has held a central and honored position in Western culture since antiquity, yet its essential nature remains ever a mystery to us. Its power to evoke emotion-and even to persuade and inspire-has been regarded in certain periods and cultures as magical, for although it affects us strongly, it is also fleeting and ephemeral. No doubt for this reason Plato said, and many after him have affirmed, that “education in music is most sovereign.” At Goucher music is one of the liberal arts. Questions about the place of music in culture, its power, and hence its mystery, and the diversity of its appearances are important issues in the department curriculum. Goucher’s approach to music is not for everyone, but it is ideal for the student who wishes to explore musical interests in depth and who also wants the kind of intellectual challenge that is not often available in a conservatory setting.

The Music Department provides instruction to students who wish to study music as a manifestation of a civilization or culture, who will use music as an avocation, and who wish to enter professions in music. Thorough preparation is given to those who intend to pursue graduate study or begin a career. (See specific descriptions of the major and minor programs.) In both the music major and minor, courses are designed to enable students to acquire a balance of harmonic and structural study, historical and analytical information, interpretive and performing experience, and compositional technique. In addition, specific career tracks in music are outlined in the major’s concentrations. Students may also pursue other interests and career options by combining music courses with courses in other departments. (See Music in the Individualized Major.) The department curriculum provides graduates with the knowledge and experience to become music educators, composers, performers, critics, journalists, and arts administrators, as well as to work in computer music or pursue graduate study in music technology.

Department Faculty

Professors

Frederick H. Mauk (history and musicology, associate dean of graduate programs; currently on leave from the Music Department), Lisa Weiss (director of chamber music seminar, opera workshop and piano)

Associate Professors

Kendall Kennison, chair (theory and composition), Elisa Koehler, director (instrumental ensembles, orchestra, fundamentals, music appreciation, trumpet, and conducting)

Assistant Professors

Tom Hall, director (choral activities), Geoffrey Wright, director (computer music, composition)

Instructors

Jeffrey Chappell, director (jazz studies, composition, and classical piano), Joanna Greenwood (history and musicology), Richard Hartzell, director (opera and musical theatre workshop, voice)

Lecturers

Kwame Ansah-Brew (African drum and dance ensemble), Christopher Correlli (chamber singers), Mathew Lane (ear training, piano, chamber music) Samuel Burt (computer music)

______________________________________________________________________________________

Applied Music Associate (Private Instrumental and Vocal Lessons)

Kwame Ansah-Brew (African drums), Karen Bakkegard (French horn), Joan Bob (viola), Phil Bonsiero (accordion), E.C. McGregor Boyle (classical guitar), Laura Byrne (Irish flute), Wes Crawford (drum set), David Evans (mandolin), Gretchen Gettes (cello), Mary Hamlin-Spencer (organ), Richard Hartzell (voice), Heather Haughn (violin), Rhoda Jeng (piano), David LaVorgna (flute, flute ensemble), John Locke (percussion), Nick Mazziott (trombone), Benjamin Myers (cello), Sheila Nevius (saxophone), Jacqueline Pollauf (harp), Mary Poling (oboe), Betty Ridgeway (voice), Dave Rybczynski (jazz flute), N. Scott Robinson (world percussion), Laura Ruas (double bass), Hsiu-HuiWang (piano), KristinWinter-Jones (flute), Steve Yankee (jazz guitar)

Performance

The Music Department offers a broad range of opportunities in group and solo performance. Musical performance at Goucher includes both large and small ensembles as well as private lessons.

Ensembles

The Orchestra, the Chorus, and the African Drum and Dance Ensemble are Goucher’s three large ensembles. Small groups include the Goucher Chamber Music Group, the Chamber Singers, the Opera Workshop, Percussion Ensemble, Piano Ensemble, and the Jazz Ensemble. Participation in group performance ordinarily requires audition or permission of the instructor. Audition times are announced at the beginning of each semester. Course credit may be earned at the rate of 1.5 credit hours per semester per group. Ensemble participation can be taken for credit or as an audit. The department maintains informal ties with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra (BCO) and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (BCAS), whose director, Tom Hall, is also the director of the Goucher Chorus. Goucher is the home base for the performances of both the BCO and the BCAS.

Private Instruction

Individual instruction in woodwind, brass, stringed instruments, guitar, organ, piano, percussion, and voice is available to all students at all levels, from beginning through advanced. Lessons are given by the finest musicians in the Baltimore-Washington area, many of whom also teach at the Peabody Conservatory and perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Course credit is earned at a rate of 1.5 credit hours per semester. Ordinarily, there is a limit of one course of private lessons per semester. (See course descriptions for MUS 160 - MUS 188 (Private Instruction) for information regarding requirements.) Students may take up to 24 performance credits (including credit earned in private instrumental and vocal lessons and in ensembles).With the permission of the instructor, there is no limit to the number of times that ensemble performance courses may be taken as an audit. Music majors who concentrate in either performance or education may take an additional 1.5 credits for the senior recital. Ordinarily the 24-credit limit may not be exceeded unless the student petitions the department explaining the need for more performance credits in a particular course of study. (Private conducting and composition lessons may be included in the 24 performance credits, at the discretion of the department chair.)

Music in the Individualized Major

Goucher’s flexible program allows students with interdisciplinary interests to structure a major among three or more departments. The individualized major under the jurisdiction of the interdisciplinary division of the faculty (see discussion of the individualized major under requirements for the bachelor of arts degree). Although the curriculum of the major is determined through the student’s discussion with a faculty sponsor and an interdisciplinary committee formed to evaluate each major curriculum, the Music Department suggests study at the lower level in each of the three component areas outlined in the description of the music minor. It is recommended that students interested in this major meet with the chair to discuss an appropriate course of study.

Return to: Departments and Programs