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An invitation to explore Music at the University of Rhode Island --
I am very pleased to learn of your interest in the University of Rhode Island and its Department of Music. I can tell you from personal experience that URI is a top-rated university. Its music department is part of that excellent standard. The music faculty ranks among the best, and the department’s music curriculum is based on high expectations, exciting challenges, and impressive standards. The vitality of the department is evident in several ways: a vibrant student body of music majors and minors, three highly acclaimed concert series -- the University Artist Series, Kingston Chamber Music Festival and Great Performances, arts computer and keyboard pedagogy labs, a variety of ensembles giving several performances each semester, dedicated teachers with impressive artistic and scholarly reputations, and music curriculums and degree programs offering a variety of educational opportunities for students.
The University of Rhode Island (URI) continues to be highly rated in various guides. As a prospective student, you would be interested to know that URI has earned a place in the following selective publications: Barron's Best Buys in College Education, The Templeton Guide: Colleges That Encourage Character Development, Peterson's Competitive Colleges, and The Princeton Review: The Best 331 Colleges. I invite you to explore URI further. Our music students include B.M. and B.A. degree candidates, as well as double majors (music with communication studies, psychology, or elementary education), double degrees (music with general business administration or computer science), and music minors. Many students who major in non-music areas continue playing or singing in one or more of our performing ensembles. We offer a broad-based series of opportunities. Regardless of which college or university you decide to attend, I hope this is a very productive and enjoyable year for you. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Best wishes.
Our expectations for our music majors -- The task of becoming and being professional musicians and music teachers who are able successfully to bring the joy of music to others, to instill the aesthetic sensitivity to music in others, and to develop musical achievement in young students is a difficult one. Yet, effective musicians and teachers eagerly accept this important task as a challenge and become dedicated to accomplishing it. Exemplary music students make exemplary musicians and teachers. It seems wrong to be mediocre as a student, yet later as a professional expect excellence from one’s students and colleagues. As a music student, you should not only demonstrate high standards in performing, teaching, conducting, composing, and researching and writing, but also demonstrate high standards in learning. In addition, music students should show evidence of their love of music by choosing every opportunity to participate in a variety of performing ensembles and musical events; to attend concerts and recitals; to participate actively in student and other professional music organizations; to write about, perform, conduct, compose and/or arrange music; and to verbalize excitement and express understanding about music, from classical to jazz, from early music to contemporary, across as many cultures as possible. Finally, music students should become progressively independent, responsible and academically/socially secure persons. This can be done by taking the full responsibility for knowing about and completing all degree requirements and increasing the ability to work towards the solution of personal and professional problems in a positive way. Love of music, excellence in scholarship, significant progress in understanding and performing music, interest in teaching others, and independence -- these form the basis for future success as a musician and music teacher. As a music student at URI, we urge you to dedicate yourself to these goals.
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