Music Composition
Bachelor of Music
Prepare for a career in music composition, film and media scoring, orchestration and arranging, copying, and/or producing, guided by top-notch faculty.
Learn the artistic, intellectual, entrepreneurial, and technical skills needed for career development, from current aesthetic trends to negotiating a commission agreement, through presentations and master classes by faculty and visiting guest composers. Present your work at the weekly composers' forum, developing your teaching and public speaking skills. Benefit from a strong liberal arts background.
Highlights
Develop expertise through weekly, private composition and performance lessons
Choose a focus: concert music, film scoring, pop/rock composition
Benefit from guest composers' presentations and master classes
Hear your compositions live in Glazer Music Performance Center
Career Paths
- Composer for film, TV, video games, commercials, theatre, dance, opera, concerts
- Arranger/orchestrator
- Music copyist/engraver
- Music producer
Internships
Nazareth University film and media scoring students collaborate with students from School of Visual Arts (SVA) and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City, from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), and from Pasadena College in Los Angeles. Each film and media student “hires” a Nazareth composer to score and then produce a complete soundtrack for one of his or her films made as part of a course. The collaboration mimics the professional client-composer process.
550-seat
Glazer Music Performance Center — designed to provide excellent acoustics for large instrumental and vocal ensembles, multimedia collaborations, and live recording
98%
of new Nazareth grads are employed or in grad school within six months of graduation
$4,000
Our SPARK Grant provides up to $4,000 for you to pursue internships, research, and study abroad. SPARK details »
Film & Media Scoring Track
Nazareth University School of Music offers a unique focus in film & media scoring for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Music in Composition degree program.
- One-on-one applied lessons geared toward film scoring
- Presentations & masterclasses with film and media composers
- Access to state-of-the-art facilities: the Jack Allocco Film and Media Scoring Studio and the film-scoring computer lab
- For-credit collaborations with the Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Film and Animation, the School of Visual Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology (both in New York City), and Pasadena College (Los Angeles)
- Contacts/networking in Los Angeles lead to internships for our students, including at Remote Control Productions
- A vibrant local community including opportunities at the Eastman School of Music Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media, and the George Eastman Museum. The Eastman Museum houses both the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation and the Dryden Theatre, exhibiting more than 300 different films every year and hosting the annual Nitrate Picture Show—A Festival of Film Conservation
- Classes required: Digital Composition (MUS 306); Film Music Analysis (MUS 417); History of Film Scoring (MUS 416); Scoring for Video Games (MUS 307)
How to Audition
Auditions are required for this major. View audition details and register »
Program Director
Alumni Spotlight
Aaron Siebert-Castiñeira '19
Nazareth faculty helped Aaron, a composition major, get an internship at Remote Control Productions, the Los Angeles-based film score company run by noted composer Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek). Siebert-Castiñeira says Nazareth has stimulated his personal growth “at a multilayered level that goes beyond a specific degree,” by giving him “a scope of appreciation for detail” and the tools needed for making any kind of decision. “I actually observed a notable advantage over others during my time in L.A. due to this preparation,” he says.