Undergraduate Applied Music

1. Student requests for applied faculty will be reviewed by the Division during the time of admission to the program or during the registration process for each semester.

2. The assignment of students to faculty—either full-time or academic professional faculty—is made solely by the School of Music, based on the following considerations in no rank order and not limited to:

1. • Curricular and programmatic needs of the School of Music

   • Studio balance

   • Balance and quality of instrumentation in the ensembles

   • Student request

   • Student technical needs

   • Workloads and availability of full-time and academic professional faculty

   • Faculty consultation with a SOM Undergraduate Advisor

3. Students will normally stay with the same teacher through the degree program to graduation.

4. Requests for a change of applied teacher will be handled by a SOM Undergraduate Advisor. In most cases, changes will not be approved in less than two-year intervals. 

When a change is desired, either the teacher or the student can initiate the request by sending a written request to a SOM Undergraduate Advisor. The advisor, after consultation with the faculty and the Director/Director of Undergraduate Studies, will render a decision to all concerned. Except for unusual situations, no change will be allowed until the completion of the semester.

5. Music majors and minors studying their major performance medium must study with an authorized member of the professional faculty. Music majors studying a secondary instrument or voice may be assigned to qualified teaching assistants, or other faculty who have studio availability.

Studio Class is required of all students receiving private instruction from a School of Music Faculty member at the major, minor or secondary required level. There shall be fourteen (14) meetings of the studio class per semester. Where there is only a small number of students in a studio, those students may be combined with one or more other studios to make up a group within the same division. All students are required to attend studio class. The division head, under the most grievous circumstances, may excuse students with exceptional conflicts from studio classes and only if all other avenues to reschedule the conflict have proved impossible to change. The student’s need to work at the time a studio class is taking place is not an acceptable conflict for release of this obligation. Studio class is a requirement of our degree program and a stipulation of our NASM accreditation.

As part of registration for lessons, students are required to attend a weekly recital hour, during which degree and non-degree recitals are performed. Unless excused by the division, students are required to attend recital hour each time it is held. It is important to attend recitals in order to support fellow students.

Students who do at least one degree recital during an academic year are exempt from juries, except for those who need to do Mode Change Juries, Upper Division Juries, or Transfer Juries. (See details below). These juries are called "Special Juries". Students should check with their private instructors to see if a jury is required during a given semester.  Juries are administered and scheduled through each division.

Mode Change Jury: A student  who has completed sufficient credits will move from 1xxx lessons to 2xxx lessons after passing this jury.  If they fail the jury, they will have to retake that same level. 

Upper Division Jury: This jury is for undergrad students who have completed sufficient credits to move from 2xxx lessons to 3xxx lessons.  If they fail the jury, they will have to retake that same level. 

Transfer Jury: This jury is used for transfer students, to determine how many applied lesson credits will be transferred and which level of lessons the student should register for the next semester. All transfer students must have applied transfer credits evaluated by the Director of Undergraduate Studies prior to their second semester of study. Students may be asked to provide transcript(s) and syllabi from their previous institution(s) before transfer credit can be determined.

Degree program recitals are required for the Bachelor of Music in Performance and for the Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Music Therapy.

Students must register for Mus 901: Junior Recital and/or Mus 951: Senior Recital, and must also reserve a recital time in Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall. (More information on reserving rooms is included in the Room Reservations section of this document or on the School of Music Intranet.)

For complete and current information regarding the University of Minnesota School of Music recitals and accompanying policies and fees, please visit the School of Music Intranet (UMN login required).

As policy, the SoM does not supply accompanists for students. Each applied studio has its own policies regarding accompanists. Please check with your specific applied instructor for information about accompanists.