Music - Harp Performance - BM

The Harp Program at Utah State University offers a rigorous, rewarding, and well-rounded experience that prepares students for graduate study or a professional career in teaching and performing. The focus is on the whole person, cultivating and fostering a healthy, engaged, and creative individual. By putting into action what is learned during one-to-one instruction, students solidify technical goals and explore their own musical personality while developing critical faculties students need for wherever life takes them.

Harp Performance is an emphasis for students who are passionate about discovering all that a musical life offers in an environment that encourages individual exploration.

Opportunities abound in the professional world as a teacher, a member of an orchestra or a military band, studio musician, therapeutic musician, and entrepreneur. In addition to many other professional possibilities, graduates of Utah State University will be prepared to continue their study at the next level in a graduate program. Most importantly, students learn that their future depends on their ability to create opportunities for themselves, to be proactive, seeking their musical life goals, rather than expecting them to materialize upon graduation.

Program Specifics

In addition to the core general education and music courses, harpists take classes exploring the multi-faceted world of their instrument. Focusing on the breadth of the harp repertoire, students learn about various musical styles including: orchestral, choral, chamber, contemporary, ballet, and popular music. Participation in a Harp Pedagogy and Solo Literature class prepares harpists to teach students of all ages and provides the opportunity to survey the solo repertoire.

Harpists collaborate in chamber music each semester with performers from other areas of the music department as well as fellow harpists. The latter may include harp ensemble.

Musical elements such as breathing and phrasing are reinforced in private voice lessons or a voice techniques class, while individual percussion instruction allows for focused concentration on timing and rhythm.

A healthy body and mind are fortified through yoga classes, performance exercises, and an educational atmosphere that inspires internal motivation.

For specific information regarding coursework required to earn a Harp emphasis, please refer to the BM Harp Performance degree map.

• For more information about Harp Performance, see the department website.

• All music majors must pass an audition to be admitted.

• Admitted and current students must meet with an advisor.

• Log on to Degree Works to check student-specific program progress.

• The highest math requirement for this degree is the Quantitative Literacy (QL) of the student’s choice.

• Must pass entrance audition on primary instrument

• New freshmen: Admitted to USU in Good Standing

• Transfer students from other institutions or other programs at USU: 2.75 GPA