Visit the Music Department Web Site
If you have aspirations to be a professional musician or a music educator or if you just enjoy playing and singing, the Alma College Music Department has a place for you.
Performing Organizations
- The Alma College Choir is one of the nation’s finest and most highly respected college choirs. The Choir’s concert tours have taken the singers to all corners of Michigan, across the country from New York City to Miami and around the world.
- The Kiltie Marching Band, in its colorful Scottish regalia, performs at home football games and is a favorite at off-campus events such as the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade. After the marching season, this group becomes the Kiltie Concert Band.
- Alma’s Jazz Ensemble also performs in concert and for special on-campus events. This exciting group of instrumentalists and vocalists performs the great jazz standards.
- The Alma Symphony Orchestra presents four concerts each year in the Heritage Center for the Performing Arts, including works by the world’s greatest composers. The ASO collaborates regularly with the Dance Company, the Choir and many famous soloists, and has brought professional ballet and opera to the campus.
- The Glee Clubs and College Chorale enroll both advanced and inexperienced singers, who perform in all the major concerts including the Festival of Carols. They bring a musical dimension to the Alma campus usually found only at large universities.
- Alma’s Scottish Pipers welcome beginning and advanced pipers.
- The Alma College Percussion Ensemble is a contemporary chamber music group performing two concerts a year in the Heritage Center. Performances include traditional and contemporary percussion chamber music, jazz and world music. While on tour with the Kiltie Band, the Percussion Ensemble has performed in Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, Orlando and throughout Michigan.
Programs of Study
In addition to three professional degrees — a Bachelor of Music degree in music education, a Bachelor of Music degree in performance and a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in music — Alma offers the option to study for a music-related career in arts management, business, music technology or teaching.
- From the start you study with Alma’s most experienced professors.
- You can study for a term in Vienna, Austria, one of the musical capitals of Europe, through Alma’s program with the Midwest Consortium for Study Abroad.
- Non-music majors enhance their college experience by performing in Alma’s choirs and ensembles. Non-music majors constitute as much as two-thirds of the Alma Choir and Kiltie Marching Band.
- Average class size at Alma is 19 students, and opportunities for one-on-one studio instruction abound.
- Private instruction is available by audition in brass, organ, percussion, piano, strings, woodwinds, voice and bagpipes.
- You can meet with visiting artists in small master classes.
Heritage Center for the Peforming Arts
Alma’s beautiful Heritage Center for the Performing Arts, with 43,000 square feet, is a masterpiece of architecture and acoustics. A busy concert season with many visiting ensembles and artists has made the Heritage Center an important cultural center for mid-Michigan.
The 500-seat Presbyterian Hall is the perfect home for the choir, orchestra, bands and the Alma College Dance Company. The 190-seat Theatre, with its semi-thrust stage and intimate surroundings, is the setting for productions by the Alma College Theatre.
The Eddy Music Center
Excellent undergraduate facilities house eight practice rooms with grand pianos, faculty studios and a large rehearsal hall. Alma provides a state-of-the-art Music and Digital Media Production studio for music and multimedia production, a MIDI/Digital Keyboard Laboratory, a large record/CD collection and a full complement of orchestral instruments.
Performance Scholarships
Instrumental and vocal performance scholarships of up to $1,000 for first-year students are awarded to qualified musicians. Scholarships increase to $1,500 and $2,000 for upperclass students. The most outstanding performers are invited by the Music Department to audition for scholarships of up to full tuition. More than 250 students receive these scholarships. To be considered, you need to apply for admission to Alma and arrange an audition with the Music Department. Call (989) 463-7167.
