Don Wright Faculty of Music

www.music.uwo.ca

Western offers a broad range of programs, a challenging learning experience, and outstanding facilities. With about 600 undergraduate and 150 graduate students, our Faculty is small enough that you can develop close working relationships with your professors and colleagues, yet large enough to support a full symphony orchestra, prize-winning choirs, fullystaged operas, jazz and various other wind ensembles and more than 350 concerts each year.

 

Program Information

Music

The first year for all Bachelor of Music students includes courses in Music Theory, Music History, Music Skills (Sight-singing, Ear-training, and Keyboard Harmony), an introductory course in Vocal Music, a half-course music elective and one elective from outside the Don Wright Faculty of Music. Bachelor of Music students also receive weekly hour-long lessons plus regular master classes and ensemble experience.

In the Bachelor of Arts music modules, lessons are optional (with an extra fee) and are often replaced with an additional elective from outside the Don Wright Faculty of Music. The BA music modules are especially well suited for students who wish to combine their music interests with other fields of study from across the University.

In the Bachelor of Music programs a specific area of study is normally selected toward the end of the first year, once the student has had the opportunity to assess their particular strengths and interests.

In all programs, the core subjects — Music Theory, Music History, Music Skills — continue in the second year. The third and fourth years are the period of the greatest concentration in the specific area of study.

Hour-long weekly lessons may continue through to the graduating year in all Bachelor of Music programs.

The Bachelor of Musical Arts program offers hour-long weekly lessons in years one and two, and half-hour weekly lessons in years three and four.

The one-year Artist Diploma program is only offered to students who have previously completed a music degree. The Three- Year Music Performance Diploma is primarily for students who wish to concentrate on the study of Music Performance concurrently with a course of study leading to a non-music academic degree at Western.

Admission to Western’s Don Wright Faculty of Music is limited and competitive. Admission is awarded on the basis of your audition, your high school average (we do not use a strict “cut-off” average, but most of our students are above 80 per cent), and your Theory Placement Test score. We also evaluate your general background and preparedness for university music study, as assessed from the interview, questionnaire, letters of recommendation and level of piano proficiency.

FACILITIES FOR MUSIC STUDENTS

• 150 practice rooms, studios, and large and small rehearsal rooms
• Newly renovated Paul Davenport Theatre – a 400-seat fully equipped theatre
• Newly renovated von Kuster Hall – a 250-seat recital hall
• Video and digital audio (DAT) recording facilities
• “CEARP” (Composition & Electroacoustic Research & Performance facility)
• Two New York Steinway concert grand pianos, one Hamburg Steinway concert grand piano, one Kawai concert grand piano, five Yamaha disklaviers,140 acoustic pianos and 40 digital pianos
• Two fortepianos, five harpsichords and six pipe organs
• A “string bank” of more than 40 valuable instruments for loan
• Hundreds of other orchestral and band instruments, including period instruments

 

Programs by Faculty

• Faculty of Arts and Humanities
• Faculty of Engineering
• School of Nursing
• School of Kinesiology
• Faculty of Health Sciences
• Faculty of Information
  and Media Studies
• Faculty of Music
• Faculty of Science
• Faculty of Social Science
• Management and Organizational Studies
• Second-Level Entry Professional Programs
• Faculty of Law

Academics

• Academic Choices
• Scholar's Electives
• Western Scholars
• Graduate Studies
• Affiliated University Colleges