Music Department

If you’re serious about pursuing music as your career, take a good look at Cornish. Founded in 1914, Cornish College of the Arts is the oldest music conservatory on the west coast. Today we’re nationally recognized as a premier college for the visual and performing arts, and one of only three, fully accredited, private colleges in the entire nation dedicated to educating both performing and visual artists. When you select Cornish, you select its illustrious history, intimate size, excellent reputation and long tradition of educating emerging artists.

We offer programs leading to a Bachelor of Music degree in voice, instrumental performance, and composition with emphases in both classical and jazz music. No matter which program of study you elect to pursue, you’ll receive highly personalized training through weekly, hour–long individual lessons with one of our distinguished faculty members.

As a Cornish Music student, you will not only gain a solid foundation in musicianship through a rigorous program of study, you will learn to challenge yourself in exciting new ways. So, if you’re the type of student who enjoys a challenge, who questions assumptions, who demands excellence of them self, and expects it of their peers, Cornish just might be the place for you.

If you would like to learn more about the opportunities you’ll find at Cornish, take a look at this story about jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s residency and performance with Cornish students during the 2012 spring semester.

Concentrations

The Instrumental Program

Instrumental performance majors choose to focus on either classical or jazz performance practices. In addition to private instruction, students audition to participate in a variety of small and large ensembles.

If chamber music is your passion you’ll work closely with one of our faculty members to hone your craft while participating in a variety of mixed classical chamber ensembles, percussion, guitar, or string quartets. Cornish also will offer you the possibility of participating in a variety of performance opportunities with Seattle area orchestras.

Perhaps your interests lie in jazz or other improvised music. Cornish will offer you the chance to sharpen your skills in our Latin, bebop, fusion, free jazz or contemporary big band ensembles. Cornish faculty members not only coach all ensembles — they also play in them, contributing valuable insight gained through their real–world experience touring, recording and performing as professional, practicing artists.

The Vocal Program

As a vocal major you can concentrate on either jazz or classical voice, or chart an entirely new path of your own design that defies any genre.

Jazz vocalists gain valuable experience through immersion in an intensive program focused on learning the jazz vocal repertoire and developing the skills necessary to create their own arrangements. Classical voice majors have the opportunity to participate in the annual opera/musical theater production, musical theater workshops, chamber choir, and various other studio performance classes.

The Composition Program

A long and distinguished tradition of innovation and experimentation has attracted composers to Cornish since John Cage was here in the 1930s. Today that tradition continues with our composition program — ranked as one of the most innovative in the country.

As a composition major you’ll be invited to explore private instruction in a broad range of styles and skills–based and survey courses that offer a chance for collaboration and feedback. These include classes in counterpoint, orchestration, arranging, notation, electronic music, digital audio, and scoring for film and video.

You’ll also have an opportunity for professional resident ensembles to perform your compositions in readings, workshops and special performances. In recent years ensembles in residence have included the Pacific Rims Percussion Quartet, the Corigliano String Quartet, the Jim Knapp Orchestra, the Seattle Chamber Players, the Saint Helens String Quartet and the Javanese gamelan ensemble Gamelan Pacifica.

Recent guest composers have included Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Trimpin, Bun–Ching Lam, Meredith Monk, Rinde Eckert, Tania León, and Kyle Gann.