Tomorrow starts here.
Music Music
School of
“There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.”—Johann Sebastian Bach
This is yo This is your time. This is your place.
As East Carolina grew from a small teacher-training school to a nationally known research university, its music program followed, starting from a single faculty member in the beginning, growing to a full department in 1946, and finally maturing as one of East Carolina’s premier professional schools in the early sixties. After nearly 50 more years of virtuoso performances both on stage and in the classroom, the School of Music is today one of the finest schools of its kind. As a musician, you know what it’s like to put that kind of time, work, and dedication into something you love—all the studying, the hours of practice, the years of lessons, and the countless performances. Now it’s time to find out how far your talent and all that hard work can take you.
It’s time to take your professional training to the highest level. It’s time to learn from the best teachers, to hear great artists, and to meet fellow students as dedicated and talented as you. It’s time to add your success story to thousands of others. It’s time to come to the place where all this can happen.
“In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.”—Robert Schumann
Beginning his college career as a computer science major, Aaron Brooks followed his passion and switched to music composition. “Working with student players is a lot of fun and hearing my pieces and other students’ pieces in concert is very cool,” he says. Brooks played piano as a child and experimented with electric guitar before finding his niche at the School of Music. Composing in the classical genre, Brooks creates works for chamber ensembles, incorporating rhythmic energy and dissonance together with more classical idioms of composition.
facilities Facilities
The East Carolina University School of Music is one of the premier music schools in the Southeast, offering one of the largest, most recognized, and most comprehensive music programs in the region. At East Carolina, you are a part of an intentionally small, high-quality student body of about 260 undergraduate and around 50 graduate students. This select group works and plays (and almost lives) in the A. J. Fletcher Music Center, a facility dedicated entirely to music.
“The level of talent here is higher than at a lot of universities. That’s what sets us apart. That may sound arrogant, but it isn’t. We’re out there performing on the major stages and playing at the major festivals. That’s what makes our faculty great. A good student who comes here will soon know we really are as good as we say.” Professor Ara Gregorian, violin
The building features two large rehearsal halls and a 250-seat recital hall. Within the center are electronic piano labs, six organs, more than 50 practice rooms, faculty studios, the Music Library, and the Center for Music Technology. The Music Library’s collection contains more than 85,000 books, scores, periodicals, and media materials representative of all types and periods of music. The Music MIDI Lab, the Center for Composition with Electronic Media, the KORG Learning Center, and a state-of-the-art recording facility that allows for audio and video capture in multiple rooms constitute the Center for Music Technology, an outstanding resource and teaching facility for students and faculty. The School of Music offers some of the best facilities for performance and research in the state. Student and faculty performances are held in the A. J. Fletcher Recital Hall, Hendrix Theatre, McGinnis Theatre, and the 1,500seat Wright Auditorium, considered one of the finest halls for musical performances in North Carolina. Our Music Living and Learning Community offers students a chance to live together in a learning community in one of the residence halls on campus. Close proximity to peer groups helps students foster personal growth and the highest musical standards for their careers. But beyond all the physical trappings, electronics, and square footage, you will notice a feeling of openness about the school, an atmosphere of camaraderie, an aura of belonging. Fletcher has a warm, caring atmosphere that you can’t see in a picture or find on a list. But you can feel it. This is a place where music reigns, where musicians learn to play, to sing, to teach, to compose, and even to heal. This is a place where we study great musicians of the past, learn from great musicians of the present, and create great musicians for the future. This is a place where the brightest are taught by the best. This is the place for you.
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“The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes—ah, that is where the art resides.”—Artur Schnabel
On founding the NewMusic@ECU Festival, Professor Ed Jacobs was amazed at the responsiveness of the regional audiences and the enthusiasm of the faculty in participating in his weeklong event. The School of Music has become a top center for premieres on the East Coast. With the continued support of student, faculty, and guest performers and composers, Ed Jacobs’ vision is in good hands.
faculty Faculty
Do you want to know what makes a school of music great? The one thing that you should really focus on when deciding if a school is right for you? It’s the faculty. And at ECU, there’s one of them to every seven of you.
At the School of Music, your professors are not distant figures waving chalk at a blackboard. They aren’t just academicians, although their credentials as educators, scholars, and authors are second to none. These people are—first and foremost—performers. We are proud to say that our faculty includes Fulbright Scholars, internationally known speakers, and award-winning teachers. But these same people have also been in the spotlight of Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. They have played with the Temptations, the Chicago Symphony, Barbra Streisand, and the New York Philharmonic. They have traveled the world, performing in Paris and Prague, St. Petersburg and Singapore, Cape Town and Cleveland. In short, they’ve been there and done that.
“At ECU, participation in the many teaching opportunities in the choral and string children’s programs, youth choirs and orchestras, and school service music projects allows our
As a student here, you will enjoy a personal relationship with your instructors. You will learn from them in the classroom. You will work one on one in their studios. You will consult with them on decisions affecting your academic and professional career. You will hear them on CDs and read their reviews in newspapers and profiles in magazines. You may even perform side by side with them on the stage. And they will be there to support you, instruct you, push you, guide you, and see that you go as far as your talent and desire will take you.
music education students to graduate with confidence in their real-world scholastic music and community music-teaching skills.” Jeffrey Ward Assistant Professor, Choral Music Education Associate Director of Choral Activities
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“All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music.�—Walter Pater
Elizabeth and Kathryn York were born into a large musical family. Their grandmother sings and teaches piano, their grandfather led a big band in Greensboro, and their mom raised them in the Suzuki method from childhood. The sisters came to East Carolina on the reputations of violin professor Ara Gregorian and cello professor Emanuel Gruber. Elizabeth is a violin performance major, while Kathryn double majors in cello performance and music education. They perform frequently with the ECU Symphony Orchestra, the chamber music ensemble, and the string chamber quartet. Of note, Elizabeth was selected to practice and perform on a professional-quality instrument given to the School of Music by a generous patron. We provide the right tools for success at East Carolina.
performan Performance
Whatever your course of study, performing is a central piece of your education, both as an undergrad and as a grad student, and it’s an experience not to be missed.
It’s a crucial part of developing your talent. It’s an opportunity to join your classmates—and sometimes your professors—in the thrill of a recital in front of an enthusiastic and appreciative audience on campus, on the road, at conventions, or even on television and radio. At ECU, you will find yourself on stage—a lot.
Your opportunities here are enormous. ECU is a place where the arts hold sway. Performance is part of everyday life, not only for those studying music but also for those in our excellent art, dance, and theatre programs. There’s an extensive schedule of events featuring students, faculty members, and visiting artists, making East Carolina a lively center for artistic activity. So you will perform, and you will have the chance to learn from and be entertained by others in concerts, plays, musicals, operas, and exhibitions. Something is always happening on or near campus. For music lovers, there are more than 200 concerts each year, appreciated by students and faculty as well as citizens of Greenville and the state. The performances represent the best of the traditional repertoire, contemporary jazz and electronic works, and premieres of compositions by student and faculty composers.
P e r f o r ma n ce G r o up s Brass Quintet
Marching Pirates
Chamber Music Ensembles
Opera Theatre
Chamber Singers
Percussion Ensemble
Choral Scholars
Percussion Players
Concert Band
Saxophone Ensemble
Contemporary Jazz Ensemble
Symphonic Band
Early Music Ensemble
Symphony Orchestra
Guitar Ensemble
University Chorale
Jazz ’Bones
Zamba Yawar (Afro-Andean Ensemble)
Jazz Ensemble A Jazz Ensemble B
Symphonic Wind Ensemble
There are many established student ensembles that perform regularly, in addition to groups pulled together for specific projects and productions. Your education is designed to give you the opportunity to be a part of one or more of these groups. Many tour each year and perform throughout the United States and abroad. They have appeared by invitation at state, regional, national, and international conventions and festivals in locations including Miami, Anaheim, Montreux, Vienna, New Orleans, Jacksonville, New York City, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. The East Carolina choruses and orchestra combine forces annually to present major works by composers such as Handel, Brahms, Bach, Duruflé, and Vaughan Williams, most recently performing by invitation at the NCMEA state conference. Students who perform at the highest levels compete each year in the annual East Carolina Concerto Competition. Winners perform in concert with the ECU Symphony Orchestra or Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Faculty members routinely prepare outstanding students for participation in state, regional, and national competitions.
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“No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”—W. H. Auden
“The devil couldn’t do what a woman can—make a thief out of an honest man,” writes Gian Carlo Menotti in the libretto of The Old Maid and the Thief, an ECU Opera Theatre production. Months of rehearsal culminate in four filled houses at A. J. Fletcher Recital Hall. Professor John Kramar directs the production, making certain the backstage preparations are complete. The curtain parts, the audience rises in applause, the pit orchestra sets the mood, and the Opera Theatre delivers. It’s another opportunity to groom your skills at East Carolina.
curriculum Curriculum A wide variety of options offered to students through East
Carolina’s School of Music, complemented by the broad requirements of the general college’s core course work, create a top-notch music education.
We offer bachelor of music degree programs in music education, music therapy, theory-composition, and performance. Jazz studies, music theatre, organ, piano, piano pedagogy, percussion, sacred music, strings (including guitar), voice, and winds are the performance options. Jazz studies is further divided into instrumental or vocal concentrations, and sacred music offers the choice of organ or vocal. Several of these alternatives are unique to the region, including music therapy, sacred music, and jazz.
“Teachers need to be active performers in order to bring experiences to life in the classroom. Why read about a performance by Ray Charles or the Boston Pops when you can hear about it from a guy who played the gigs? It seems that with teaching, we try to make everything a science, but that’s not the way it is with jazz.” Professor Carroll Dashiell Jr., jazz studies
Music majors also can earn a bachelor of music degree in two or more areas (such as music education and performance or music therapy and music education), or they can double major in an unrelated field. A double major usually adds one or two semesters to the time it takes to complete the degrees. A minor or certificate in jazz studies is an option with any undergraduate music degree. Undergraduates enrolled in degree programs other than music may also minor in music. At the graduate level, the School of Music offers master’s degrees in music education, performance, and theory-composition. Graduate work in performance is available in accompanying, instrumental, and choral conducting, jazz studies, pedagogy (piano, Suzuki, and vocal), sacred music, applied music (as a specialist in piano, organ, voice, winds, percussion, woodwinds, and strings, including guitar). A graduate certificate in Suzuki pedagogy is also available. The graduate program allows students to combine programs to meet individual needs and goals. In addition, student chapters of professional music organizations are valuable extensions of the classroom experience. The Music Educators National Conference, American Guild of Organists, Music Teachers National Association, American Choral Directors Association, and American Music Therapy Association are all represented. The school is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music and the American Music Therapy Association. The university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. ECU is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States. For more information on our degree programs, please refer to our Web site.
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“Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.”—Anais Nin
“I want to make a living making music, and I also want to help people. These goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” says Christian Enojado, a graduate of East Carolina’s music therapy program. “Music is a very powerful medium for reaching people. Whether I’m serving the well-elderly, patients with advanced Alzheimer’s, children with special needs, or working in a kindergarten classroom, music is the tool for teaching and healing.”
outreach Outreach
The music therapy and music education programs at East Carolina are worthy of special note. Both are avail-
able to graduate and undergraduate students wanting to use music as a tool to teach, to comfort, to inspire, and to heal. Our music education graduates need no introduction at schools in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast. East Carolina’s School of Music and College of Education are two of the finest programs of their kind on the East Coast. There’s an excellent chance that your elementary school music teacher, your high school band director, or your piano teacher studied at East Carolina. Students complete their professional requirements (such as classes on teaching and classroom management) in the College of Education and spend the rest of their time in the School of Music for their core and applied music classes.
The East Carolina University Marching Pirates entertain more than 300,000 fans each year at ECU football games and regional high school marching band festivals. The band’s unique style combines exciting musical arrangements with traditional and contemporary drill design. In the past several years, the band has traveled to regular-season football games at a number of universities. The Marching Pirates have also performed for President George W. Bush during his visit to Greenville; at a NASCAR race in Rockingham, North Carolina; and at college football bowl games in Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee. Recent appearances also include performances during Carolina Panthers and Washington Redskins football games. Financial assistance is available for band members. For more information, please first review the Marching Pirates pages on our Web site, then contact Dr. John Franklin, director, at 252-328-6982 or franklinj@ecu.edu.
A bachelor’s degree in music education leads to initial licensure in North Carolina with options for licensure in many other states. Master’s degree candidates have two choices. Option A (for candidates already possessing a bachelor’s degree) earns graduate licensure in North Carolina and many other states. Option B allows master’s candidates to enter our music therapy program. An established cohort-based distance education master’s degree in music education is a convenient way to study while maintaining a teaching career away from campus. The bulk of the degree is offered online, with applied courses offered during summer sessions. The entire degree is designed to be completed in a two-year period. Music therapy is not so much music for its own sake as it is music for the sake of others. Graduates of the music therapy program work anywhere from schools and hospitals to long-term care facilities and substance-abuse treatment centers. They are often in private practice alone or with psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists. Some common examples of music therapy sessions include performance and improvisation, songwriting, relaxation and guided imagery, and movement and dance. For undergrads, the music therapy program leads to a six-month, off-campus internship and entry-level professional credentials through board certification by the American Music Therapy Association. Graduate students who have earned a bachelor’s degree in music therapy and have completed an internship may pursue a master’s degree. Those who wish to do graduate work in music therapy but do not hold the appropriate bachelor’s degree also have options available to them. For more information on degree programs requirements, please refer to the Web site.
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“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”—Confucius
Music education major Adrea Reavis had a solid musical background before entering the School of Music. Her family is musical—her dad is a professional jazz pianist—and Adrea got her chops performing with Raleigh’s Triangle Youth Philharmonic. At East Carolina, she performs with the ECU Symphony Orchestra, in the opera theatre’s pit orchestra, and in small ensembles. And when she’s not performing? She’s attending North Carolina Symphony Orchestra concerts to hear her applied professor, Leonid Finkelshteyn, perform.
degrees Degrees
“How can I make a living as a musician?” It’s a question on the mind of every student and every student’s parents. Surprisingly, it often goes unasked. Perhaps musicians are not supposed to concern themselves with such pedestrian matters as the rent, food, and their 401k ... right? The beauty of the music programs at East Carolina is their flexibility and diversity, allowing your skills to be as broad or as focused as you like. Music majors can also earn a music degree (bachelor’s or master’s) in two or more areas in the curriculum, such as music education and performance or music therapy and music education. You can double major in music and almost any other field. Undergraduates enrolled in degree programs other than music may also minor in music.
If you like bells and whistles—or at least things that can sound like bells and whistles—the state-of-the-art Center for Music Technology is for you. An outstanding resource and teaching facility in the School of Music, it is made up of the Music Multimedia Electronic Classroom (the MIDI lab) and the Center for Composition with Electronic Media. The MIDI lab is a multimedia environment consisting of the newest computer hardware and software packages available. Each station has a Korg TR workstation interfaced with computers that are constantly updated. Some of our current software offerings include Sibelius, Finale, Practica Musica, Photoscore Professional, iLife (including Garage Band), ProTools, Peak LE, Final Cut Pro HD, and many others. The lab is also equipped with music scanning and printing capabilities, projection, and broadcast quality video production decks. The Center for Composition with Electronic Media (CCEM) is a fully sound-isolated environment that contains multiple workstations consisting of some of the first Moog analog synthesizers and the newest digital ProTools HD equipment and software.
You can focus strictly on performance. Or you can supplement your specialty with teacher training. You can double major—perhaps you’re a cellist with a flair for calculus or a trombonist with an interest in biology. Go for it. It works the other way, too. A future journalist or computer programmer could choose to minor in piano or voice, for example. The point is that the ECU School of Music allows you extreme flexibility in choosing what skills and knowledge you will gain. School of Music alumni perform in dozens of symphonies, orchestras, and bands. They work in music publishing. They run opera companies. They teach all across the country, even serving as deans and winning teacher of the year awards. We have an alumnus who is a luthier (violin maker) and one who is a nuclear reactor technician (who also gigs most weekends as a jazz trombonist). And let us point out once again how valuable your professors will be to your career. They have no intention of simply handing you a degree and pushing you out into the world. They will work with you to solidify a plan you are comfortable with, and many take pride in using their connections to secure positions for their students after graduation.
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“A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.”—Benny Green
Providing students with meaningful experiences requires exceptional professors, such as John O’Brien. The professor of keyboard moves with ease among pianos, harpsichords, organs, and the harp. A prolific performer, he co-directs the Early Music Ensemble and frequently appears with the Chatham Baroque, most recently at Piccolo Spoleto.
visitors Visitors
At East Carolina, you’ll not only be surrounded by talented classmates and learning from gifted professors, but you’ll also get to see, hear, and learn from some of the most brilliant artists and performers around.
Our guest artist series gives you the chance to watch and learn from expert musicians who come to the school each year. It’s an eclectic series full of variety. But the performers aren’t just here for concerts. They are instructors, mentors, and guides for our students, lecturing, teaching master classes, and giving good advice. Relationships formed during these visits have opened many doors for our students and given many of them a close-up look at what it takes to make it in the pros. Here are a few examples of what’s in store for you:
2005 Billy Taylor Jazz Festival guest artist Jon Faddis (above) was inspired by an appearance of Louis Armstrong on The Ed Sullivan Show. Three years later, his trumpet teacher turned him on to Dizzy Gillespie. By his mid-teens, Faddis had sat in with his hero’s combo at the famed Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. He graduated high school and joined the Lionel Hampton band as featured soloist, toured with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, and recorded with Dizzy and Oscar Peterson. And that’s how it is with jazz. You learn your stuff, then you light out on the world to trade fours with the big boys. And that’s sort of how we do it at East Carolina. We bring the experience of guest musicians to you through our Robert L. Jones Distinguished Visiting Professor program, our guest artist series, and through the significant connections our professors have across their disciplines. Call it value added instruction. Call it modus operandi at the East Carolina University School of Music.
The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival of Eastern North Carolina brings top talent in classical music to Greenville. String and keyboard students have a unique opportunity to take private lessons, attend master classes, and appreciate the virtuosity of musicians from around the globe. Artists stay with Greenville citizens who support the series enthusiastically by packing the concerts, giving generous contributions, and making the musicians comfortable as they work with music students, visit local schools, and perform. The NewMusic@ECU Festival celebrates the composers of our time. Artists, musicians, actors, and dancers premiere their compositions over the span of a week. Those who write the notes and those who play them make this a prime opportunity to delve into the nuances of creating, rehearsing, and publishing original works. The Religious Arts Festival, held in January, brings clergy and church musicians together to celebrate the music of worship. Acclaimed guest artists lead a multitude of workshops, such as those designed to enhance the voice of the young chorister and revive church singing for older congregations. The Billy Taylor Jazz Festival packs them in every year. Recently, the ECU Jazz Ensemble was selected by DownBeat magazine to perform Duke Ellington’s “Three Cent Stomp,” a lost work from the legend’s early years. The festival provides the chance for ECU students to perform with exciting guest musicians, as well as an opportunity for high school jazz bands to visit ECU to perform, listen, and learn from the best. Each year, the nationally recognized S. Rudolph Alexander Performing Arts Series brings exceptional musicians and theatre and dance ensembles to campus for performances and master classes. Recent years have seen the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, pianist Misha Dichter, violinist Hilary Hahn, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, tenor Jerry Hadley, and Western Opera Theater’s production of Carmen.
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For nearly For nearly a century,
East Carolina University has served the people of North Carolina and the nation. From modest beginnings as a teacher training school, we have grown to become a large, national research university with our professional colleges, the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School, the School of Allied Health Sciences, the School of Nursing, and the Brody School of Medicine.
The campus is located in Greenville, North Carolina, a growing city of more than 79,000 that is a business, cultural, educational, and medical hub in eastern North Carolina. From ECU, it is just a two-hour drive to both the state capital in Raleigh and Atlantic Coast beaches. With a mission of teaching, research, and service and an enrollment of more than 27,000, ECU is a dynamic institution connecting people and ideas, finding solutions to problems, and seeking the challenges of the future.
Created by University Publications East Carolina University
Editors Spaine Stephens, Justin Boulmay Design Mike Litwin Art direction Brent Burch Photography Forrest Croce Contributing writers Michael Crane, College of Fine Arts and Communication; Liz Fulton, School of Communication Class of 2007; Shaleen Wallace, School of Art and Design Class of 2008.
“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.”—Charlie Parker
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East Carolina University is committed to equality of educational opportunity and does not discriminate against applicants, students, or employees based on race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, creed, sexual orientation, or disability. An equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, which accommodates the needs of individuals with disabilities. U.P. 10-065