Comprehensive performance experience

Intensive personalized instruction - Preparation for career success

Offering the highest level of instruction by an internationally acclaimed faculty, the graduate program in piano studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts is tailored to the student’s needs and professional goals.  Classes are small and students receive personalized attention.  The graduate program enables students to refine their technical skills and develop advanced interpretative techniques through the study and performance of significant works from the piano literature.

Other Program Features:

• Opportunities to perform outside the school
• Two degree recitals
• Participation in chamber music
• Opportunities to perform in the Symphony Orchestra, Opera Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble and Contemporary Ensemble

As a conservatory, the School’s focus is on preparing students to begin their careers as performing artists; at the same time, the school actively involves the student with the practical aspects of earning a living as a musician. A combination of professional opportunities outside the School, along with this specially designed curriculum, widens the scope of the student’s career perspectives and constitutes a contemporary, market-sensitive approach to educating musicians.

New Curriculum

PIANO

Year One Course Credits

MUS 600 Lessons                                                                                                           

MUS 601 Masterclass                                                                                                      

MUS 610 Recital                                                                                                              

MUS 611 Large Ensemble*                                                  

              or                                                                                                                          

MUS 612 Chamber Ensemble*                                             

MUS 645 Career Strategies: Portfolio                                                                           

MUS 646, 647, 648, 649 Career Strategies

(a minimum of two courses are required):

Outreach, Entrepreneurship, Auditions and Recording                                   

MUS 691, 692 Library and Internet Research Lab                                                      

MUS 599 Intensive Arts Workshops                                                                              

Year Two

MUS 600 Lessons                                                                                                           

MUS 601 Masterclass                                                                                                      

MUS 610 Recital                                                                                                              

MUS 611 Large Ensemble*                                                  

              or                                                                                                                          

MUS 612 Chamber Ensemble*                                             

MUS 661, 662, 663 Research Topics in Analysis                                                          

              or                                                                                                                          

MUS 681, 682, 683 Research Topics in Musicology                                                    

MUS 599 Intensive Arts Workshops                                                                              

The repertoire listed below is an indication of the range and difficulty of works typically studied by a piano student in the graduate program. It does not necessarily indicate required repertoire.

Solo Repertoire
J.S. Bach: English Suites, Toccatas, Partitas, Goldberg Variations; Beethoven: late Sonatas; Chopin: Sonatas; Schumann: Kreisleriana, Fantasy, Symphonic Etudes; Brahms: Sonatas, Variations; Liszt: Sonata, Transcendental Etudes; Sonatas of Prokofiev, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff

Concerti
Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Brahms and Schumann

This innovative graduate program prepares students for the variety and intensity of performance as a collaborative pianist in both the vocal and instrumental spheres. When students enter the program, they become part of a team providing piano support to the entire School of Music.

For more information on the Graduate Collaborative Piano program click here.