Points of Distinction: College of Music

  • The most recent ranking of university music programs (U.S. News & World Report, Graduate Rankings, 1997) placed the MSU College of Music in the top 30 nationwide.
  • For the last six years, the music education program—widely acknowledged to be among the finest in the United States—has maintained a 100 percent placement rate for PhD graduates and a 98 percent placement rate for bachelor’s degree graduates.  
  • The choral conducting program has a 100 percent placement rate for doctor of musical arts graduates.
  • Faculty members have performed with world-class music ensembles, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Cleveland Orchestra, Russia’s St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic.
  • MSU’s  jazz studies program, which boasts a faculty of performing and recording artists, is considered among the top university jazz programs in the United States by peer institutions and the jazz community.  
  • Rodney Whitaker, professor of double bass and director of jazz studies, is one of the leading performers and teachers of jazz double bass in the United States.
  • Jazz faculty and students provide outreach services, through teaching and mentoring, to more than 250 middle and high school student musicians throughout the Lansing and Detroit areas annually. Outreach is provided through collaboration with YouthViille Detroit, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the MSU Community Music School.
  • Nine-time Grammy Award–winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis was commissioned by the MSU College of Music, MSU’s Wharton Center for Performing Arts, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to create a new piece of music for jazz and symphony orchestra. The premiere of the piece, “Two in 3,” was performed by Marsalis with the MSU Symphony Orchestra and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in September 2008.
  • The MSU Wind Symphony was chosen by peer review as one of the 10 college ensembles to perform at the College Band Directors National Association convention in Austin, Texas, in March 2009. 
  • The University Chorale was chosen by peer review to perform at the American Choral Directors Association convention in Miami in February 2007.