Undergraduate Piano
Undergraduate Piano
As a student in the undergraduate piano program at University of North Carolina School of the Arts you will be part of a renowned program that educates you to be a versatile artist, ready for the challenges and opportunities of today’s professional world.
Bachelor of Music
You will be immersed in a conservatory experience that has you taking 70 percent of your classes in the School of Music and 30 percent liberal arts classes. The intense undergraduate piano degree course of study includes chamber music, large ensemble participation, the contemporary music ensemble, piano literature and pedagogy. You can also study harpsichord and organ as secondary instruments. The unique curriculum at UNCSA, with its high school through postgraduate programs, provides positive interaction between students of different experience levels. The program exposes you to a variety of instruments and music selections from different periods and from around the world.
You will have access to 14 piano-student-only practice rooms, equipped with grand pianos, and play in the acoustically-designed Watson Hall, Crawford Hall, Gerald Freedman Theatre and the 1,300-seat Stevens Center. As a piano student, you will be actively engaged in performing across North Carolina and beyond, in the community and in professional concert venues and concert series. You may also benefit from summer study grants and participate in prestigious national and international music festivals, along with local and regional competitions.
Your professors not only expect you to be the best pianist, but to shape how the next generation of piano players will impact the world. They do so by making your success a top priority. You will work with peers from across the globe who come to UNCSA for the same reason you do – your passion for making music and mastering your craft.
First–Second Years
During the first two years of undergraduate study, you will become well-grounded in
the foundations of music, aural skills and keyboard skills. Along with your liberal arts classes, you will study the History of Musical Styles and Composition.
Third–Fourth Years
In years three and four, you will continue with your lessons and master classes and
dive deeper into piano literature and theory analysis. You will refine your artistic,
technical, sight-reading, collaborative, ensemble and performance abilities. The course
in pedagogy stresses teaching skills as well as running a teaching business. Graduation
requirements include a full solo recital plus three years of chamber music or collaborative
piano. You will be well prepared to pursue a graduate degree in music or to appear
on concert stages around the world.
Careers
Graduates of the piano program at UNCSA have performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras, recorded for RCA, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon and EMI and are on faculty at the Juilliard School, California State University and the University of Texas, among others.
