Culminating Experience in Contemporary Performance

Working in close consultation with their advisor throughout the academic year, students develop a unique project. This may be an artistic production or performance or a project that involves research. Research is understood here in its broadest sense, involving also artistic research. Artistic research may take many different forms, such as exploring the capabilities of an instrument in order to introduce it to unfamiliar audiences; joining different musical styles to create a new musical fusion; developing interdisciplinary performance projects that bring together literature, visual arts, sciences, poetry, jazz and/or folk; or exploring connections between language and music. Students are encouraged to be as creative and as collaborative as possible in the design of their projects. In addition, students must have a performance based outcome, such as a recording or recital. This could be accompanied with video recordings and booklet projects. Students projects will also require various supporting materials. Those supporting materials may take a variety of forms: a student might build a website to promote a recording, for example, or draft a grant proposal for a public performance of his/her music, using a recording project to supplement the grant proposal application. Students are expected to meet with their advisors on a weekly basis to assess their progress. The final project must be defended before a faculty committee chaired by the student’s advisor.