OSU School of Music

School of Music - The Ohio State University

Composition Audition Information

 

 

Composition (BM)

 

Pursuing Music Composition at Ohio State

Students interested in music composition should develop performance skills in preparation for the School of Music entrance audition. Piano lessons and music theory classes are also recommended, if available. All students planning to pursue music major complete an entrance audition and the Theory Placement Exam (TPE). Normally students do this during the senior year in high school on a scheduled Audition Day. Transfer students and students already at Ohio State should also plan to complete an audition and the TPE.

 

Acceptance into the Bachelor of Music degree program in music composition requires a minimum of a 3.0 cumulative point-hour ratio (CPHR) in first- and second-year music theory courses and in first- and second-year aural-training courses, admission to the second-year level of performance (private lessons) on the student’s principal instrument, a portfolio of the student’s original music compositions, and approval by the music theory and composition area faculty.  School of Music students should apply for acceptance into the Bachelor of Music degree program in composition at the end of the second year or the beginning of the third year of study. 

Degrees offered include Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts.

 

Course offerings include composition (both private lessons and a beginning course taught as a class), counterpoint, orchestration, and special-topics courses such as spectral music and film scoring.

 

Our composition students are a close-knit group that meets weekly in a composition seminar where students discuss their own music as well as the latest works and compositional trends and techniques. The seminar produces regular concerts of students’ work on which students often perform and conduct.

 

Our students are active in promoting their music nationally and internationally, winning competitions, grants, and having their work performed at national and international venues. They write for the many performing ensembles in the School of Music — Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, Collegiate Winds, Ohio Show Band, Jazz Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble and various chamber groups.

 

The composer-in-residence program with the enables a student composer, selected in a competitive process, to collaborate with the Ohio State Symphony Orchestra to write a new work for that ensemble. The orchestra also reads student works in the autumn and spring semesters.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                         Updated on 04/15/2019