Pictured | Bryant Williams | M.M. Performance | B.A., Vocal Performance, Rollins College, 2016 | Orlando, Florida (hometown)
Club Affiliations | Indiana Bandmasters Association; American String Teachers Associations
Professional Positions | Lumiere School (Director of Music); Grady-Rayam Negro Spiritual Foundation (Resident Artist)

General Information

Admission

In addition to the general admission requirements for IU South Bend, prospective music students must take the following steps:

• Students must audition on their major instrument. A later change of major instrument requires an additional audition. For information about audition dates and repertoire, contact the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts office.
• All entering first-time students must complete an assessment process to determine their placement in music theory and music history classes. There is no charge for this examination which is administered the week before classes start each semester.

Once the above steps are complete, the student may be certified as a music major. However, up to the time when 45 credit hours are successfully complete, the student may transfer to another academic degree program, either at the student's request or on the recommendation of the music faculty.

Transfer Students

Transfer students must audition in a major performing area for admission to a particular curriculum. Applicants with cumulative grade point averages below the requirement may petition for admission on probationary status on the basis of musical talent demonstrated by an audition before music faculty members.

Transfer students who have completed college coursework in a music degree program must take placement examinations in music theory, aural skills, music history, and keyboard proficiency. These examinations are administered the week before classes start each semester.

All credit hours in music and world languages from an institution other than Indiana University are subject to placement and evaluation in the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts and must be validated upon entrance by examination or audition.

Transfer students, especially those transferring for their junior or senior years, must be aware of the possibility that not all credit hours in the above areas are accepted or counted toward degree requirements in the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts. These students may have to spend a longer time to complete their bachelor's degrees.Transfer students may take a music examination to demonstrate their comprehension when they have passed an equivalent course at another institution. (See Credit by Examination within Academic Regulations and Policies of the university in this publication for more information.)

Credit for Professional Experience

Students seeking credit for equivalent professional experience are evaluated as follows:

• In academic courses, on the recommendation of the department chair, the student may gain Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts credit by examination.
• In applied music, advanced placement in a medium is achieved only through parallel music performance and literature examinations which evaluate the composite level of experience.
• To acquire music course credit by examination, the test must be conducted by the music faculty at IU South Bend.

Ensemble Requirement

Music students in the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts perform in ensembles for which attendance at public performances is often required.

To preserve necessary performance balances, no withdrawals from music ensembles are permitted after the second week of the semester. Appeals must be directed to the music faculty. Students should note that absence from a public performance, for any reason other than emergency illness, is regarded with the utmost seriousness, and is grounds for failure in ensemble.

Commencement activities and similar ceremonies may require performances by university ensembles after semester classes are over. The music faculty issues grades in such cases pending satisfactory participation by all performers and reserves the right to revise those grades after original issuance where necessary.

Checklist

Students who do not return equipment, music, instruments, keys, locks, etc., to the music office or other designated area by the designated date are placed on a checklist. A student on the checklist may neither register in the following semester nor receive honorable dismissal to enter another institution. If the item cannot be returned, the student is charged for its replacement value, plus necessary fines to cover the clerical operation. Keys that are lost or not returned require a complete lock change, and this cost is charged to the student.

Applied Music Procedures

The assignment of students to teachers for applied music lessons is the responsibility of the music department chair, and is made on the basis of student request and availability of the preferred teacher. At the time of enrollment, students may indicate their first, second, and third choice of teachers. (It is recommended that major and concentration-level students contact their preferred teacher(s) before enrollment.)

No one may withdraw from an applied music course once the formal assignment list is posted except by appeal to the music faculty. Because a major portion of a faculty member's time is allocated by the enrollment process to a single student, assignment in these courses must be final. A jury is the assessment method in applied music equivalent to the final exam. Juries are held at the end of each semester for students taking applied music in the enrolled instrument.

It is common for applied lessons instructors to include attendance guidelines and students are encouraged to read each instructor's course syllabus carefully.

This is an example of a common attendance policy:

A student who cannot come for a scheduled lesson is required to notify the teacher at least 24 hours before the beginning of the lesson; otherwise, except for illness immediately prior to a lesson, the student will forfeit the right to a make-up lesson. 

The number of lessons in a semester depends upon the number of lesson hours falling upon regular school days, once applied-music assignments are complete, not including University holidays.

Students must register for applied music courses at least one week prior to the start of classes each semester. If a student misses this deadline, they forfeit their spot in the studio, which may be assigned to another student. Students who miss the deadline may appeal to the faculty for enrollment in applied music.

Performer's Certificate

The IU South Bend Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts faculty established the Performer's Certificate to honor those students who exhibit exceptional abilities in music performance. While all applied music students are eligible, the certificate is rarely awarded to those below senior standing. No regular schedule of awards is established nor shall any student receive the certificate twice.

A student is nominated for the Performer's Certificate by the student's applied music instructor. If the nomination is agreed to by two-thirds of the full-time music faculty, all full-time music faculty members are thereby obligated to attend the public recital itself, following which a final ballot is taken from a minimum of six full-time faculty members. The certificate is awarded unless two or more negative ballots are cast by those present and voting.

Composer's Certificate

The faculty also established the Composer's Certificate to honor those composition majors who exhibit exceptional abilities in composition while at IU South Bend. Composition majors are normally considered for this award in conjunction with their senior recital in composition.

The criteria for this award are not only the quality of the student's compositions, but also the degree of professionalism exhibited in the preparation of the compositions for public performance. No regular schedule of awards is established. A student who is awarded the Composer's Certificate shall not thereby be prevented from also receiving the Performer's Certificate, and vice versa. The procedures by which a student is nominated for and elected are identical to those established for the Performer's Certificate.

Events Attendance

Music students (undergraduates, minors, graduates, and diploma students) must enroll in MUS-I 100 Cultural Events Attendance, (a pass-fail zero-credit-hour course) every semester at IU South Bend. Students may submit ticket stubs and programs to an instructor who uses Canvas to maintain student records. Students must enroll in and pass this course every semester of enrollment (with the exception of BME students who student teach in the final semester of their degree). Students in the Master of Music Composition program are not required to enroll in MUS-I 100.

A list of the events available will be published by the Production Office.

Convocation

In addition to cultural events attendance, students enrolled in MUS-I 100 Cultural Events Attendance are required to meet once a week for every week of the semester in a Convocation/Recital Hour, where post-upper-division undergraduates, and graduate students will perform, as well as freshman and sophomore students by nomination.

Performance Lab

All undergraduate students and minors must also enroll in MUS-U 310, Performance Laboratory, prior to passing the upper-divisional examination

Bachelor's Degrees in Music

Keyboard Proficiency Exam

MUS-P 105 Keyboard Proficiency Exam is a requirement for graduation for all undergraduate students majoring in music (with the exception of BM in piano). Graduate piano majors in the MM and AD need to enroll in MUS-P515 and pass the piano-specific requirements.

The proficiency examination tests the student's ability to use the piano as a tool within the framework of professional activities; thus, the requirements vary in emphasis according to the area of major study.

The examination is offered at the end of each fall and spring semester. Examining committees will consist of at least one member of the piano faculty plus a representative from either the theory or music education faculties, or both.

The sequence of courses Class Piano MUS-P101 through MUS-P 104 is designed to prepare students for the Exam. Entering students will take a placement exam to determine the appropriate starting level. Entering students who have qualified out of Class Piano MUS-P101 through MUS-P 104 at the placement exam may take the Keyboard Proficiency Exam at the end of the entering semester.

Students are auto-enrolled in MUS-P 105 when they enroll in MUS-P 104. If a student is not able to pass all parts of the exam on the first attempt, it is recommended that the student enrolls in one semester of MUS-P 100 piano lessons to prepare for the second attempt in the semester immediately after the first attempt. If the student does not pass all requirements of the Proficiency Exam by one semester after initial enrollment in MUS-P 105 (after the second attempt), the student must re-enroll in MUS-P 104.

The successful completion of the examination will confer the grade of S; the completion of part of the examination will confer the grade of I, and the failure of the entire examination (or the refusal to attempt it) will confer the grade of F. Once students have passed part of the examination, they are required to pass the exam within one year of initially registering for MUS-P 105. After one year, the I will become an F. If the student has an F, the student must enroll again in MUS-P 105. Students are required to enroll in MUS-P 100 piano lessons in the semester that they re-enroll in MUS-P 105.

Requirements for Keyboard Proficiency

• Play any Major scale, two hands together, 2 octaves
• Read a melodic line at sight, incorporating a simple accompaniment with indicated chords
• Sight-read a four-part chorale or hymn
• Sight-read an accompaniment to an art song OR an accompaniment to an instrumental solo, depending on degree focus
• Play a Roman numeral chord progression, such as I IV ii 6 V7 I, in a major key (to four sharps or flats)
• Perform a prepared repertoire piece from the last semester of the Piano Class sequence, or similar level for transfer students, such as a movement from a Clementi sonatina. Acceptable repertoire can be found in Alfred's Group Piano for Adults Book Two, Edition 2, pgs 345-377 (excluding p. 364) or any piece from Easy Classics to Moderns Vol. 17

Additional requirements: (required of students in the degree programs indicated)

Piano (B.M.)

• Scales and arpeggios, major and minor keys, in sixteenth notes, two handsfour octaves, quarter note = M.M. 144.
• Sight-read a portion of an open vocal score (SATB written on four different staves)

Choral and Instrumental (B.M.E.)

• Sight-read a portion of an open vocal score (SATB written on four different staves)

Voice (B.M.)

• Sight-read a solo vocal part together with the piano accompaniment (one example will be given: student will perform as an accompaniment only, then incorporating the voice line)

Composition (B.M.)

• Sight-read a portion of an open vocal score (SATB written on four different staves)
• Realize in four parts a Roman numeral progression which modulates to a distantly related key, and which may include chord types such as the augmented sixth, Neapolitan sixth, altered dominants, etc.
• Sight-read a portion of a twentieth century piano work of moderate difficulty, e.g., Bartok Mikrokosmos, Vol. V