About the School of Music
The University of South Carolina School of Music has established a national reputation for artistic and scholarly excellence. An acclaimed faculty teach 500 undergraduate and graduate music majors, including students specializing in virtually every orchestra and band instrument, voice, piano, organ, and guitar. As a comprehensive program, the School of Music offers more than twenty degree programs including music education, performance, jazz, composition, theory, history, and conducting. Additionally, more than 1,500 university students, who pursue degrees outside of music, participate in School of Music ensembles and classes every year.
The USC School of Music is housed in three buildings on the USC Columbia campus. The Music Building is a 58,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility that features more than 100 acoustically designed rooms for practicing, rehearsing, and teaching; an intimate Recital Hall that is an ideal venue for solo recitals and chamber music; a comprehensive music library that contains more than 90,000 books and scores and 60,000 sound recordings; a music technology center; and a fully-equipped recording studio. In the 2008 spring semester the nationally-acclaimed USC String Project moved in to a beautiful new 16,000 sq ft facility located adjacent to the Music Building in the Innovista District’s Discovery Block at 851 Park Street containing rehearsal rooms, practice rooms, offices and a library. And in April 2009 the new Carolina Band Building was dedicated at 324 Sumter Street. This building contains a 700 sq ft rehearsal hall of the Carolina Marching Band as well as three other rehearsal rooms, offices and specialized storage facilities. The Carolina Band Building is adjacent to the Band’s own, dedicated marching field. In addition to these three buildings that house the School, the principal large instrumental ensembles perform regularly in the beautiful 2,200-seat Koger Center for the Arts, which adjoins the Music Building.
The excellence of the school is a direct result of the resident faculty members who combine distinguished backgrounds as performers and scholars with a dedication to teaching. USC music faculty perform regularly on campus and nationally and internationally in recitals and concerts, they contribute to publications and professional organizations, and they make presentations at regional, national, and international conferences. Faculty members also engage in community outreach activities by organizing and teaching workshops, classes, camps, and clinics that enroll more than 2,000 participants annually.
The School of Music enriches the musical life of the university and the City of Columbia by offering approximately 250 concerts a year. Concerts include the USC Symphony, chamber ensembles, USC Concert Choir, University Chorus, Carolina Alive, USC Bands and Wind Ensembles, Palmetto Pans and the USC Percussion Ensemble, Opera at USC, the Left Bank Big Band, Jazz combos, and solo recitals by students, faculty, and world-renowned guest artists. In addition, the School of Music’s concert calendar includes series such as the Cornelia Freeman University September Concert Series, the Southern Exposure New Music Series, and the Chamber Innovista Series.
Located just two blocks from the historic Statehouse in Columbia, USC is in the middle of a thriving mid-size city that is rich with cultural and entertainment opportunities, and the School of Music is an anchor tenant of the Innovista District of the campus—a living, learning, and research center http://innovista.sc.edu/. The University offers more than 70 undergraduate majors, 150 master's programs, and 60 doctoral programs to more than 25,000 students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries.
To learn more about the School of Music, or to sign up to receive School of Music Calendar of Events email, please call 803-576-5763 or visit us on the web at www.music.sc.edu
