Program Overview
Boston Conservatory at Berklee's percussion performance program is known for providing students with a multitude of performance opportunities with Conservatory and Boston-area musical groups, including symphonic orchestras, chamber ensembles, student-produced collaborations, and pit orchestras for the Conservatory's dance, opera, and theater productions. Additionally, students can supplement their studies and performance experience with access to faculty, classes, and world-music performance groups at Berklee College of Music.
Percussion faculty members at the Conservatory represent a wide range of expertise. During their course of study, students may choose to study with one general percussion teacher, or divide each semester's lessons between two, three, or all four of the school's renowned studio teachers. Through performance opportunities with the vast array of Conservatory and Berklee College of Music ensembles, students become intimately familiar with standard percussion repertoire and techniques while exploring new musical outlets and styles for percussion instruments.
The Conservatory's curriculum challenges students to view their talents through a global lens. Students are encouraged to become artistic innovators who inspire communal responsibility and engagement.
Our Students
Students who flourish in the Conservatory's percussion performance program are eager to uncover the various career paths available to them as percussionists. They are fearless creators and desire to share their music with others in innovative ways. They are collaborative by nature and open to learning new musical techniques and ideas from their teachers and peers.
Curriculum Overview
The first two years of the undergraduate percussion performance program are designed for students to build strong music and performance skills. Ensemble rehearsals and performances allow students to apply the knowledge they have gathered in their music theory, rhythm, and ear training courses.
In their junior and senior years, students delve deeper into their musical studies by customizing their course work to reflect their unfolding career goals. To do this, students may choose from a variety of electives, including film studies, the history of performance technology, nonverbal communication, and career skills. They can also elect to take advanced music courses designed to enhance their existing abilities and talents, such as complexity in rhythm and score reading. For their degree recitals, students are responsible for coordinating with fellow student composers, instrumentalists, and vocalists to produce a well-rounded program of music that showcases all they have learned throughout the program.
Program Requirements
The Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance requires students to complete 120 credits, consisting of the course requirements listed below. View the Sample Curriculum by Semester for additional details.
Core Studies
Major Requirements
- M-AP 0009 / M-AP 0509 Applied lessons (24 credits total, 1.5–3 credits each)
- M-EN 0069 Instrumental Ensemble (8 credits total, 1 credit each)
- M-EN 0501 Orchestral Repertoire 1: Percussion (1 credit)
- M-EN 0502 Orchestral Repertoire 2: Percussion (1 credit)
- M-EN 0509 Percussion Ensemble (6 credits total, 1 credit each)
- M-PD 0501 Pedagogy 1: Percussion (1 credit)
- M-PD 0502 Pedagogy 2: Percussion (1 credit)
- M-PR 0009 Concert & Recital Attendance (0 credit, completed four times)
- M-PR 1501 Foundations of Instrumental Studies 1: Percussion (1 credit)
- M-PR 1502 Foundations of Instrumental Studies 2: Percussion (1 credit)
- M-SK 0009 Recital (0 credit; completed two times)
- M-SK 0991 Conducting 1 (1 credit)
- M-ST 0509 Performance Seminar: Percussion (6 credits)
General Education and Liberal Arts
- C-PR 1001 Introduction to i-Pad Media Technology (1 credit)
- L-CM 1301 Introduction to College Writing (3 credits)
- L-CM 1302 Literature Topics (3 credits)
- L-CM 739xx Liberal Arts elective: Arts & Humanities (3 credits)
- L-CM 749xx Liberal Arts elective: Social Sciences (3 credits)
- L-CM 759xx Liberal Arts elective: Math/Science (3 credits)
- L-CM 7x9xx Liberal Arts electives (12 credits total, 3 credits each)
- M-LT 1103 Musicology 1: Music and Culture – Understanding Music in Context (2 credits)
- M-LT 1104 Musicology 2: Music and Narratives of Western Classical Music – Ancient Greece through the Renaissance (2 credits)
- M-LT 2103 Musicology 3: Humanism and the Western Classical Tradition – Baroque through Classical (2 credits)
- M-LT 2104 Musicology 4 (2 credits)
- M-LT 3101 Musicology 5 (2 credits)
- M-LT 3102 Musicology 6 (2 credits)
- Xxxxx General electives (5 credits total)
What You Will Learn
The Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance program features a range of course experiences to allow students to build a toolkit of the skills required for success as an impactful artist-performer today. Upon successful completion of the program, students will:
- prepare and accurately perform a wide range of musical styles, genre, and repertoire through the foundation of technique and musical comprehension developed in applied instrumental lessons, large and small ensemble experiences, coachings, master classes, and observations, as well as through genre-specific repertoire courses, and the study of percussion pedagogy, music theory, and music history;
- apply ear-training skills, knowledge of theoretical and harmonic analysis, as well as historical context to the study and performance of a score;
- sustain and build upon their instrumental technique, based upon their understanding of the foundational techniques of their instrument, studied in applied lessons as well as in percussion pedagogy;
- perform with meaning and context, informed by an ability to analyze and place into context the material of a score;
- develop and foster meaningful artistic collaborations with partners across the musical and artistic spectrum;
- cultivate meaningful connections to the communities in which they perform and teach, informed by their experiences in large and small ensembles, and through special partnership programs at Boston Conservatory; and
- establish an artistic identity that represents their individuality, celebrating music of past and present, and serving as a champion for the future of our industry.
Your Future
Alumni of the Conservatory's percussion performance program have won prestigious competitions and are creating fulfilling and dynamic careers in solo, ensemble, and orchestral performance, as well as in arts administration and teaching positions around the country.
Ensembles
- Boston Modern Orchestra Project
- Boston Pops Orchestra
- Kansai Philharmonic
- Malaysian Philharmonic
- New World Symphony
- Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Awards
- Belgium International Marimba Competition
- Concert Artists Guild Competition
- Houston Symphony Ima Hogg National Young Artist Competition
- International Marimba Competition
- Libertango International Music Competition
- Montreal Symphony Standard Life Competition
- Percussive Arts Society Marimba Competition
- Prix d'Europe
- Southern California Marimba Competition
- Tromp International Percussion Competition
- World Marimba Competition
- Young Concert Artists Competition
Faculty Appointments
- Berklee College of Music
- Hochshule fuer Musik–Detmold (Germany)
- James Madison University
- University of Evansville
- University of Oregon
- Winchester Community Music School
How to Apply
