Mission Statement

The mission of the Hofstra University Department of Music is to provide a balanced program of educational instruction that allows and encourages students to reach a high level of musical ability, knowledge, and understanding. The basic program for music majors, constituting the departmental requirements for the B.A. in Music and, serving as the foundation for further specialization in our B.S. in Music and B.S. in Education degrees (as well as our graduate degrees), stresses the interpretation of musical styles through the development of performance skills and the understanding of musical language and its expression in historical contexts through the study of music theory, analysis, history and performance. The purpose of the B.A. in Music degree is to produce graduates whose education — combining specializations in music with a broad background in liberal arts — prepares them for a wide range of further educational and vocational activities, while our B.S. degrees allow and encourage students to reach professional levels of ability, knowledge, and understanding in music and appropriate related fields through concentrated study in one of the following categories: Performance, theory/composition, history and literature, jazz and commercial music education and merchandising.