Music

Embark on a harmonious journey of self-expression and artistic exploration with a Music degree from USCA

Your career as a professional performer starts here, where practice and training alongside highly qualified faculty members and other dedicated students help you hone your craft.

At the University of South Carolina Aiken, our Bachelor’s Degree in Music emphasizes small classes and individual attention. We challenge you, encourage personal and musical growth, and put a priority on individual accountability and leadership. Practice and training may turn you into a professional musician, but a solid liberal arts education here at USCA will help you succeed in making that a career. We offer three concentrations:

• Instrumental studies
• Piano studies
• Vocal studies

No matter which specialization you choose, you’ll graduate with the knowledge, skills, and expertise to succeed in your music career here in the Palmetto State and beyond.

Program Highlights

Our Bachelor of Music is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, which means it meets or exceeds a national framework of standards. Whether your passion lies in instrumental, vocal, or piano studies, you’ll find that USCA’s program stands out because we provide:

• Faculty with national and international experience. Our Bachelor of Music faculty are highly skilled, practicing musicians with national and international performing experience. Their subject-matter expertise is in clarinet, flute, French horn, guitar, low brass, percussion, piano, saxophone, strings, trumpet, and voice. Piano studies music majors will also benefit from USCA being an All-Steinway School—the first public university in the Palmetto State with this designation.
• A small, cohort learning environment. When you major in music, you can expect 15 students per class—with a 4-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio in upper-level bachelor of music courses. You’ll also learn within a cohort, which means you’ll build strong connections with your fellow classmates and broaden your experience in small and large ensembles.
• An affordable way to train as a musician. At USCA, we offer some of the lowest tuition rates within the Palmetto State, along with several music scholarships.

Course Highlights

At USCA, our 120-credit-hour major in music starts with foundational coursework in aural skills, form and analysis, orchestration and arranging, and music theory.

From there, you’ll take lessons and pursue independent study within your instrumental, piano, or voice specialization. As a music major, you’ll also have the chance to travel abroad to Orvieto, Italy—Aiken, South Carolina’s sister city—and complete a capstone project during your senior year.

Perform—and teach music too

While our major in music performance offers three tracks—instrumental studies, piano studies, and voice studies—you can also pursue USCA’s Bachelor’s degree in Music with teacher certification, in either K-12 choral music or K-12 instrumental music.