Music
An innovative conservatory-quality music education.
Offering degrees in music performance and study, UMass provides students with a conservatory-quality education through a combination of established and innovative approaches. Ours is a supportive community that cultivates individual growth through artistic and intellectual discovery.
The music faculty works cooperatively, inspiring students to realize their full artistic potential, while equipping them with skills to succeed in today’s world. Students choose from a range of academic concentrations, from instrumental and vocal performance to music history and education, along with opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. Through the Five Colleges they have additional opportunities for study and performance. Students receive optimal professional training in a variety of disciplines and for careers as music teachers, performers, composers, scholars, arrangers, and conductors.
We also have music courses for non-music majors, including music theory, music appreciation, jazz history, African American music, American popular music, and the lively arts, as well as nearly 20 vocal and instrumental ensembles that are available to all students through audition.
Explore our programs
Undergraduate
Graduate
Continuing and professional education
Alumni spotlight
In the spotlight
“It was a gut feeling. At the end of the day, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is it. I’m going to UMass.’ I just fell in love and knew this was where I was going to be.”
Featured faculty
Matthew Westgate
Director of Wind Studies
Associate Professor
Conductor Matthew Westgate leads with a combination of expressivity and crispness. His performances are praised as dramatic, incisive, and passionate.
Erinn Knyt
Professor, Music History
Erinn E. Knyt is professor of music history.
In the news
Second Annual UMass Amherst Spring Arts Festival to Include Inaugural ‘HFA Days’ and Outdoor Performances from the Fine Arts Center
The second annual UMass Amherst Spring Arts Festival—created in partnership between College of Humanities & Fine Arts and the Fine Arts Center—begins April 2.
Professor of Percussion Ayano Kataoka Delivers Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Live Performance to Packed Audience
It was a full house for Professor of Percussion Ayano Kataoka as she delivered "The Rhythm of Change" on Feb. 29 for the Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series.
Music Historian Emiliano Ricciardi Named 2024 Spotlight Scholar
Music Historian Emiliano Ricciardi has been named a 2024 UMass Amherst Spotlight Scholar.