The Department of Music at UCI is a dynamic center of excellence that has at its heart the mission of the University of California as a public-serving institution. The expertise of our faculty spans a wide range of music stylistically, chronologically, and geographically including Persian music, Jazz, Karnatic music and South Indian dance; African-American music, the historic silk road, European art music from the 17th century to the present, popular music, hip-hop, electronic music, and music technology. We equip students with the skills necessary to understand a wide variety of musical practices, and to interrogate musical material and modes of research through an array of critical lenses. Our undergraduate degrees (B.A. and B.Mus.) offer strong foundations in both practical and intellectual approaches to music, and allow our students to develop skills to think critically about music. Our graduate programs provide students with the opportunity to work closely with scholars, performers, and creative practitioners of international standing, while also encouraging independent practice and research.
December 2024 Announcement on Undergraduate Music Degree Programs
Our department has long been known for its excellent undergraduate performance degrees, with specializations in all orchestral instruments, piano, voice, guitar and jazz studies. Each of these degrees requires individual lessons. After careful consideration of our resources, and to ensure that our programs are sustainable for the future, we will be transitioning to a new model in which we will offer lessons-based performance degrees only for a select number of instruments (voice, classical piano, violin, viola and cello). In addition, we are designing new degree options that will accommodate and serve students with other musical backgrounds, interests and goals.
To support this transition, for Fall 2025 admissions, the Department of Music will only be auditioning and admitting new music majors in the following instrumental areas: Voice, (classical) Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello. For undergraduate applicants specializing in other instruments, we will not be admitting new students and are not able to advance any applicants to second-round auditions in January 2025. We are actively developing new pathways for students to major in Music at UC Irvine.
We are currently creating those new B.A. degree emphases, which will draw on the diverse specializations of our faculty to bring exciting new degree pathways for UC Irvine students who wish to major in music. At the same time, by scaling our performance degrees to a sustainable level, we aim to ensure that our excellent performance programs in voice, piano, violin, viola and cello will continue to thrive in the years ahead.
Importantly, all currently enrolled music majors will continue to receive the lessons and courses required for the degree into which they were initially admitted. We will also continue offering our many ensemble courses, which serve both music and non-music majors.
We remain positive about our department's future, which will be an exciting one, even if it will look different than its past.
