Admission and audition requirements
Music degrees are designed to develop the student’s abilities for performance, public school certification forteaching, private teaching, or composition. These degrees also prepare students for graduate study in music.
Students desiring to pursue a BA, BMus, BME, or BS music major or minor must first audition for a committee of applied faculty in that student’s desired performance area.* This audition should take place during the semester prior to the first semester of enrollment in applied lessons. All students will be required to demonstrate, through successful completion of a Music Theory Entrance Exam, a rudimentary ability to relate musical sound to notation and terminology before beginning the theory and ear-training sequence.
All music majors must apply for formal admission to the degree program. This typically will occur at the end of the sophomore year, and must be completed before the student has finished 75 hours. In order to be admitted to the degree program, students must pass MUS 298 , the piano proficiency exam, and have a combined (Missouri State and transfer) GPA of at least 2.75 and a combined (Missouri State and transfer) GPA of at least 3.00 in Music courses. Students who have not been formally admitted to the degree program will be unable to enroll in 300-level and above applied study.
*Students pursuing the minor in either Composition or Recording Arts are not required to audition in a performance area.