Study music performance, history, theory, composition and ethnomusicology, and participate in solo and ensemble performance opportunities, all while working with critically acclaimed musical mentors.
Embracing the beauty, form, history and creation of sound, our music major and minor is a study of Western and non-Western music, broadly designed and rigorously focused.
Our instruction is designed to develop skills that include attention to detail, teamwork, creativity, problem-solving, and precise and self-assured communication.
Representative courses include History of Jazz, History of Black Song, Seven Musical Wonders of the Western World and Introduction to World Music.
Many students go on to prestigious graduate programs in music and become performers, professors, arts managers, critics and more; others enter professional fields like medicine, law and finance.
What You’ll Study
- History and theory of Western art music
- Solo and ensemble performance
- Ethnomusicology
- Senior colloquium and project
Learning at Pomona
"Le tombeau de Couperin": Nathania Hartojo '20
As an oboist with the Pomona College orchestra, Hartojo performed what she describes as one of the hardest pieces of orchestral literature that oboe players can play.
Johnny Wang ’17 and the Pomona College Orchestra
Johnny Wang ’17 was the winner of the 2013 Concerto Competition and performed Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the orchestra in 2014.
Music theory and music history classes didn’t put up walls around my creativity—it broke them down. … I couldn’t be happier with the Music Department, and I’m grateful for gaining a greater picture of what music can be.