Composition

Our composition program offers the degrees of Bachelor of Music in Composition and the Master of Music in Composition, now offered in both resident and low residency modalities. It is designed to develop your personal voice as a composer through private instruction, supporting theory and analysis courses, fostering the entrepreneurship skills needed by the today’s professional composers, and providing a platform for you to experiment and try out new directions through our campus student ensembles, the IU South Bend Philharmonic, Choral Union, Wind Ensemble, as well as resident and professional ensembles such as the award-winning Euclid Quartet and Ensemble CONCEPT/21, dedicated to performing diverse musical output since 2000. EC/21 is devoted to premiering works by the new generations of composers. There is a state-wide call for scores every fall semester and a concert in the spring features selected works. Every year we hold our Symphonic Composition Competition. Selected works are premiered by the IU South Bend Philharmonic. We also offer readings to our students for their choral and chamber works.

Guest composers visit our campus regularly to offer masterclasses and presentations to our young composers. Recent masterclasses have been given by composers Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, Tonia Ko, Molly Joyce, Joel Thompson, Leonardo Balada, Moisès Bertrán, John Liberatore, Ilya Levinson, and Kenn Kumpf. The composition area supports a student chapter of the Society of Composers, Inc. and holds weekly composers’ forum meetings, which are the perfect platform for composers to share their ideas.

An integral part of our curricula includes the study and performance of electronic music. Ryan Olivier, assistant professor of music, electronic music, music technology, and multimedia composer manages this discipline and directs the Audio-Visual Collective, a performing ensemble focused on electronic music and multidisciplinary performances. They host every year the Performing Media Festival [PMF~], which features ensembles and multimedia artists from the Midwest on IU South Bend’s Campus.

New Low-residency Master of Music in Composition, starting in the Fall 2024

Starting in the Fall 2024, Indiana University South Bend will be offering a new modality of its Master of Music in Composition degree for those composers who are already in professional commitments that do not allow moving their residency to South Bend, Indiana to complete a standard, two-year resident graduate program. This graduate program in composition has been recently re-envisioned to become a lab for composers pursuing the development of their professional careers and portfolios. This four-semester program is centered around the practical experiences of three, four-day residencies in South Bend, Indiana with professional performers and composers to rehearse, perform, and record their portfolio compositions, attend and participate in masterclasses and seminar presentations, as well as completing in-person work needed for certain courses.

In addition to these three residencies, the program is designed to provide the 21^st-Century composer with the tools and experiences to succeed in their professional growth. It features individual composition lessons with our resident composer, Jorge Muñiz, practical experience developing new works in electronic, mixed-media, and live electronic music, including the option of individual instruction with composer and multimedia artist Ryan Olivier, conducting studies, training in marketing management, and seminars on current music topics, music bibliography, and contemporary music, among other options. Most of the courses are offered through synchronous or asynchronous formats, allowing the most flexibility for those composers who are immersed in professional work anywhere in the world and cannot halt their professional and personal lives to achieve their next goals as composers.

For about one third of the cost of many graduate composition programs and with no additional cost for relocation and housing (except for traveling costs to South Bend for four days in three of the four semesters), the Low-residency Master of Music in Composition offers one of the most affordable composition programs, the flexibility that today’s composers need, and quality and standards of an Indiana University degree. Scholarships are available for composers who are accepted to the program, including the Craig and Carol Kapson Bicentennial Scholarship in Music, which can cover up to 100% of the tuition cost.

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