The mission of the Mead Witter School of Music is:
- to provide a rich, integrated program of undergraduate and graduate education that promotes the highest levels of professional, creative, and scholarly development while challenging students to achieve their greatest potential;
- to cultivate an environment that inspires creativity, stimulates intellectual curiosity, and fosters critical thinking; and
- to serve the university community, the public, and the profession through performance, composition, scholarship, music education, outreach, and engagement.
The Mead Witter School of Music enriches students' educational experience by hosting guest artists and scholars for master classes, recitals, colloquia, seminars, and festivals. Its performing organizations and ensembles perform more than 350 recitals and concerts every year, making a significant contribution to the cultural life of the university and the wider Madison community.
Degrees and Majors
The master of arts in music is offered with concentrations in the two areas of historical musicology and music theory.
A double master's degree with the Information School is also offered.
Each master's degree track varies slightly and may impose additional requirements. Details on the degrees are available through the Requirements tab. Contact the Mead Witter School of Music graduate office, [email protected], for further information about the M.A. degree.
The M.A.music degree offers tracks in historical musicology and music theory. The appropriate faculty area appoints an advisor for each new student the first semester of enrollment. When the time comes for comprehensive examinations in the second year, an examination committee is formed. Upon completing the thesis, the student sits for an oral examination by the examination committee, consisting of members of the area faculty.
A summary of important academic policies are available through the Policies tab. A more complete document, the Mead Witter School of Music Graduate Handbook, lists all academic policies and procedures in music graduate programs. All students need to be familiar with the Graduate School's Academic Policies and Procedures.
Mentoring of students is of prime importance to faculty members at Mead Witter School of Music. The faculty advisor and the director of graduate studies both guide the student's course planning. While each faculty member has a unique style of mentoring, every student can be assured of abundant time working closely with more than one mentor in addition to the advisor during the course of a UWMadison degree program.
The Mosse Humanities Building, built in 1969, houses most of the music classrooms, rehearsal rooms, faculty studios, and 111 practice rooms. Most recitals and concerts take place in one of three performance spaces: Mills Concert Hall, Morphy Recital Hall, and Eastman Organ Recital Hall. The school's extensive collection of instruments, both common and unusual, is available to both faculty and students. Music Hall with its clock tower, built in 1879, is a campus landmark. Renovated in 1985, it is the home of the opera program. The new Hamel Music Center includes a concert hall, a recital hall, and a large ensemble rehearsal space.
Memorial Library is the home of the Mills Music Library, which offers extensive research and circulating collections, attractive study space, and personal staff assistance with research. Music materials on campus number over half a million, ranging from scores and sheet music to archival collections and historic audio recordings. Through Mills Music Library and other UWMadison libraries, students have access to a wide range of online research databases as well as millions of articles, books, and streaming media. All genres of music are represented, with notably strong collections in Americana and ethnic music. Nationally known special collections include the TamsWitmark Collection, a treasury of early American musical theater materials, and the Wisconsin Music Archives.
The Mead Witter School of Music is a member of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the national accreditation body for schools of music, and was reaccredited in 2014.