Mission
The Music Program is committed to providing the highest quality musical education in an environment that provides an inclusive and engaging learning experience for all students. The program serves the Bronx and surrounding areas with its diverse and active free admission performance schedule, involving students, alumni, college faculty and personnel, and many members of the community.
The program offers comprehensive undergraduate and graduate degree programs with a variety of opportunities for individual creative and professional development.
The Music BS (64-credit major) provides the foundation for the study of traditional and contemporary musical styles, digital music production, as well as music performance, theory, composition, and music therapy.
The two graduate degrees, the Master of Arts in Teaching and the Advanced Certificate, prepare students to teach music in the public schools with New York State Professional Certification.
Vision
The program strives to be the premier music program in the Bronx and surrounding region by attracting a diverse and talented student population by the quality of its faculty, performing ensembles, academic offerings, and its integration with the many cultural offerings of New York City.
Values
The program believes that the study and performance of music in a serious and consistent manner encourages self-expression and confidence and will result in life-long engagement with the arts.
Music Learning Objectives
Goal I (Musicianship and Performance): Develop understanding, hearing, and performance of music of different styles.
Learning Objectives:
- Correlate internal hearing with singing and pitch identification
- Identify and perform various rhythmic patterns of increasing complexity
- Sing a piece of music at sight based on the tonal, modal, chromatic, and atonal systems
- Notate a piece of music in different musical styles
- Demonstrate proficiency on a primary instrument (or voice), in solo performance and in large ensembles such as concert band, chorus, and jazz ensemble, and in small chamber groups
Goal II (History): Understand musical styles and genres in relation to the key social, political, economic, philosophical, and aesthetic forces that helped shape them.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify genres and styles of various musical traditions and historical periods both in notation and aurally
- Analyze and evaluate music in relation to its historical, cultural, and social circumstances
- Write effectively about music using precise analytical vocabulary
- Conduct research and evaluate research material on music and its performance
- Communicate research findings in coherent prose with precise citations following an accepted standard, such as the Chicago Manual of Style
Goal III (Theory and Composition): Demonstrate a functional knowledge of music’s grammar and formal structures.
Learning Objectives:
- Be able to analyze music of the Western classical tradition from the 18th-21stcenturies
- Write brief exercises using musical materials and concepts from the periods
- Compose appropriately for instruments of the standard orchestra for small and large ensembles
Goal IV: Leadership and Professional Skills: Demonstrate the skills and habits of mind expected of those in the music profession.
Learning Objectives:
- Demonstrate leadership in rehearsal and performance contexts appropriate to the instrument or ensemble at Lehman and in the community
- Pursue independent and collaborative projects in composition, theory, history, or performance and present the results in a formal and professional manner.
- Demonstrate an awareness of the mind-body connection in personal artistic development.
- Evaluate and assess personal musical achievement; develop personal goals for future musical endeavors.
- Demonstrate an ability to use music technology appropriately in a variety of settings.
- Consider the musician’s role and responsibility in society.
