Dear prospective
students:
Welcome to the School
of Music & Dance at SJSU from all the faculty and staff. We offer graduate
students outstanding teaching from world-renowned performers, scholars, and
composers; an excellent library to support your studies, including the unique
resources of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies; the benefits of
our resident string quartet, the Cypress String Quartet; opportunities to
perform as soloist or in the chorus of the professional opera company, Opera
San José; and the good fortune to study in one of the most beautiful and
culturally diverse areas in the United States.
We offer you
opportunities to perform solos on and off campus, to conduct ensembles on and
off campus, to participate in many different performing organizations, to
compose your own music, to take part in festivals and conferences, and to
undertake research with the guidance of the faculty.
Music resources are
located in the new Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, a 177-million dollar
joint project of the University and the City of San José. An eight-story
building, the Library is also home to the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven
Studies, the only research and study center in the Americas devoted solely to
the composer. The SJSU music collection includes over 16,000 books, 16,500
scores, 5,000 CDs and another 13,000 LP recordings, and 28 print periodical
subscriptions. Other online resources include full text databases (such as
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the
JSTOR Music Collection archive of journal articles) and indexes ( Music Index, RILM , and Music in Print). Students have
access to these and many other online databases from computers at home as well
as on campus. Also readily available are the San José Public Library's
collections of sheet music and scores, music books, and sound recordings.
The masters program at
SJSU will help prepare you for a career as a teacher or performer, give you the
credentials needed to teach at a junior or community college, enhance your
public or private school teaching, and prepare you to undertake doctoral work
upon completion of your degree. The program can be completed in three semesters
by full-time students, and part-time students have up to seven years to
complete their degree. Core classes are offered during the late afternoon to
accommodate teachers.
San José,
located at the south end of the San Francisco Bay, is ranked as the eleventh
largest city in the country. It is home to the highly acclaimed Opera San
José, a vibrant chamber music society, the innovative San José
Chamber Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, art museums, the "Tech," theater
companies, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, and downtown San José, which
has been transformed in the last two decades. Nearby attractions include the
Monterey Bay, home to the city of Santa Cruz and its famous beaches, Monterey,
Carmel, and Big Sur. San Francisco, with its wonderful opera house and
symphony, is an hour north by car or train. Stanford University, with its
excellent music library, is twenty minutes away, and the library of the
University of California at Berkeley also serves as a local resource for
additional student research. The world famous vineyards of Napa Valley, as well
as those in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma Counties, are close by for
those interested in the art of oenology.
This handbook is
designed to give you a thorough overview of the program and its requirements.
It includes information on various procedures, suggested programs for different
emphases, a list of courses graduate students may take for credit, and
information about the entrance examinations. You will also need to obtain a
copy of the University catalog and refer to the section on the Graduate School.
The Graduate School webpage contains a great deal of information on how to
apply, and you can download the forms you will need to submit as part of your
degree as you progress: http://www2.sjsu.edu/gradstudies/.
Please be sure to keep
your copy of this handbook as you progress through the program. It serves as a
contract between you and the School as to the requirements under which you
enter, and if requirements change, you will have the choice of following either
the handbook under which you entered or the new requirements.
If you decide to join
us at SJSU for your masters, you will be assigned a faculty mentor and will
also work with the Graduate Advisor. Together they will assist you in
progressing through your career. We urge you to stay in close touch with your
mentor and the Graduate Advisor. We will do everything that we can to make your
progress through the program smooth and expeditious!
Sincerely,
Dr. Edward C.
Harris
