Music - Master's
When you think Music, think Southern Miss
USM School of Music is recognized for its excellence in musical artistry, education and community service. The School of Music’s Graduate Program has 185 students, with 50 - 65 Graduate students admitted each semester. Our alumni have found professional academic or performing work in a variety of places from the Rascher Saxophone Quartet to the English National Opera to Broadway.
This program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.
What Will I Learn?
Students at the Master’s degree level learn to master their artistry through applied lessons, ensembles, master classes, and course work. This program offers MM, History & literature; MM, Performance; MM, Performance - Collaborative Piano; MM, Conducting; MM, Theory; and MM, Woodwind Performance and Pedagogy. In addition, we offer DMAs in both Conducting and Performance and Pedagogy.
Deadlines, Financial Aid, and more for Prospective Graduate Students
Admission Requirements
In addition to acceptable grades and test scores, successful applicants to the master’s program have an appropriate baccalaureate degree with a major in music, an acceptable candidacy audition (for performance degrees), strong letters of recommendation, and writing samples. Letters should be from persons qualified to assess the applicant’s readiness for graduate study and should be uploaded on the Graduate School application portal. Members of all underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. See the School of Music Graduate Bulletin for further acceptance requirements. Conditional admission is possible in certain circumstances.
Priority Application Deadlines
| Term | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Fall Admission (Domestic Students) | August 15* |
| Fall Admission (International Students) | May 1* |
| Fall Admission Priority | December 1* |
| Spring Admission (Domestic Students) | January 15* |
| Spring Admission (International Students) | October 1* |
| Spring Admission Priority | August 1* |
*To be eligible to receive an assistantship, new students should be admitted and enrolled
in courses by July 1 for Fall admission or December 1 for Spring admission.
Dr. Edward Hafer, Musicologist and Director of the Study Abroad Program to Vienna, Austria. Each summer Dr. Hafer travels to Vienna with an entourage of both graduate and undergraduate students from the School of Music and the Honors College for a two and a half week journey to visit and study Vienna's major historic sites - all relative to Music History. Studyabroad.usm.edu
USM Choral Activities Returns to Historic Carnegie Hall
Maestro Gregory Fuller will conduct the USM Southern Chorale and Symphony Orchestra at the National Concerts’ at the Historic Carnegie Hall presenting the US premiere of Estonian composer and NC's Composer-in-Residence Tõnu Kõrvits’s Moorland Elegies. Opening the concert, Brandon Williams will lead The Voorhees Choir from Rutgers University.
Performs US premiere by Estonian composer at Carnegie Hall
Choral Activities
Availability
| Degree Plan | Availability |
|---|---|
| Music MM | Hattiesburg |
- Higher Education Professorships
- Piano: Solo performance, collaboration
- Voice: academic, clinical, and performance
- Theory: Composers, Orchestrators, and Theorists
- Conducting: Choral, Instrumental, and Wind
- Music History: Historians, Curators, Researchers
- Demetrius Robinson, 2013 (Tuba/Voice), 2015
(MM) Choral Conducting. Instructor, STAX Academy, Memphis Tennessee. In PhD program, University of Memphis - Dr. Jonathan Rodgers,
DMA in Choral Conducting, Assistant Professor of Choral Conducting in Lee University’s School of Music, Cleveland, TN
- Dr. Jeffery Murdock, 2004 & 2006 (MM)
Assistant Director of Choral Activities, Music Education, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas. - Dr. Mary Chung, 2011,
Piano Performance. Assistant Professor of Music, Coordinator of the Keyboard Area, Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
- Robert C. Freeman,
MM in Euphonium Performance, Director of Bands, West Monroe High School Band, West Monroe, LA.