The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Music – Sound Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding sound as a creative, physical, and relational medium. This program is designed for students interested in exploring how sound operates across music, art, technology, and environment—not only as something we hear, but as something we shape through interaction, movement, and context
Students engage with sound through composition, sound art, field recording, and multimedia performance, working with both traditional instruments and emerging technologies. The program encourages experimentation with interactive systems, spatial sound, and real-time processes, emphasizing hands-on creation and exploratory practices.
The curriculum integrates technical skills with critical listening and conceptual thinking. Through projects, collaborations, and performance-based work, students develop their own artistic approach while considering how sound connects to space, bodies, and culture.
Graduates of the program are prepared to work across artistic disciplines, creating innovative sound-based work that reflects both technical fluency and a strong personal voice.
Learning Outcomes for BFA: Interdisciplinary Performing Arts: Sound Studies
1. Sound Creation and Composition
Students will create original sound-based works through composition, improvisation, and exploratory processes. They will develop approaches that integrate traditional practices with experimental methods, including real-time interaction, spatial thinking, and system-based creation.
2. Sound Creation and Manipulation
Students will demonstrate the ability to capture, shape, and transform sound across acoustic and digital environments. This includes working with field recordings, instruments, and interactive technologies to design sound experiences that respond to movement, space, and context.
3. Critical Listening and Analysis
Students will develop advanced listening practices, engaging sound as both a perceptual and analytical experience. They will evaluate sound in artistic, cultural, and technical contexts, and apply these insights to inform their own creative work.
4. Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Students will collaborate across disciplines, integrating sound with areas such as visual art, dance, theater, and digital media. They will contribute to collective projects by designing sound that interacts meaningfully with other forms of expression.
5. Creative Innovation
Students will demonstrate the ability to develop original and adaptive approaches to sound practice. They will be prepared to work across evolving artistic and technological landscapes, applying creative problem-solving and experimental thinking to professional and artistic contexts.
All courses in major area must have a minimum grade of C.
BFA Sound Studies Required Courses
Take all in this section:
Lessons and Ensembles
Students are expected to take 2 semesters of either class piano or guitar lessons, 2 credits of beginning private lessons or MUSC 132 Beginning Voice, 2 credits of advanced private lessons, and 12 credits of music ensembles.
Sound Studies Electives
Complete 16 credits from the below list, 4 of which must be in the additional academic category.
Special topics courses in COMM/ANTH/SOCI/PSYC/BUSI/ART/ENGL may be taken with faculty advisor approval.
University Requirements
The University Requirements must also be fulfilled, and will count towards the required minimum credits for this program:
Electives
Take as many general elective courses as needed to complete a total of 121 credits, except PFIT courses.