Department of Music Education

For more than 60 years, the Department of Music Education has been at the forefront in preparing successful music educators at every instructional level. A national leader in music education, the department is home to a highly successful and visible faculty, degree programs of extraordinary quality and diversity, and one of the top PhD programs in the world. Uniquely positioned to offer students the opportunity for world class performance experiences while simultaneously supplying high quality and rigorous preparation in acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills, and insights to be successful teachers, and has a 100 percent job placement rate for graduates seeking positions in music education.

The music education department is a member of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) for Music Education.

Faculty


Kate Fitzpatrick

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs and Professor of Music

Marie McCarthy

Earl V. Moore Collegiate Professor of Music; Professor of Music Education

Our Stories

Alumni Notes

Eden West (BM ’25, piano, music education) was hired as a repetiteur and vocal coach with the Opera Company of Middlebury for their fall 2025 production of Trouble in Tahiti and a recital of Leonard Bernstein classics, including selections from Candide, West Side Story, and On the Town.
Daniel Kumapayi (BM ’20, music education) represented Àkójọpọ̀ Music Foundation at the SphinxConnect: DISCOVER! Convention, highlighting insights from the Àkójọpọ̀ Commissioning Project and Kumapayi’s work with African arts administrators. He and co-presenter Seyi Ajibade discussed their recently published paper on integrating Pan-African art music into U.S. orchestral programming. (Spring 2026)
In January, Andrew Lu (MM ’24, music education) was honored as the 2026 Early Career Conductor of the Year by the California Choral Directors Association (CCDA) at the California All-State Music Education Conference. The award recognizes Lu’s work with young musicians during his first decade in the field.

Show Your Support

Any gift to SMTD helps launch the next generation of artists, scholars, educators, and entrepreneurs who challenge and inspire the world.

You can support the Department of Music Education with a contribution to the Music Education Enrichment Fund.

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