The Lawrence University Conservatory of Music offers three degree programs:
Bachelor of Music DegreeThe Bachelor of Music degree, with two-thirds of course work in music (24- 26 credits) and one-third in courses other than music (10-12 credits), meets requirements set by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the State Department of Public Instruction (DPI), and the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCA). Students are admitted to the degree by audition and proceed through successive qualifying exams to one of three majors: performance; music education; or theory/composition. Further options include emphases in piano pedagogy, piano accompanying, and jazz studies (within the performance major or the theory/composition major) and completion of two music majors in five years. A few students are approved for student-designed majors, usually in pedagogy, music history, or theory. Individual and ensemble performance standards are high for all majors and all Bachelor of Music students must demonstrate keyboard and sight-singing proficiency. Core requirements in music theory and history are demanding; general education requirements include Freshman Studies, foreign language, math or science, social science, and electives drawn from the categories of language and civilization or logic and observation.
Five-year B.A. and B.Mus. double-degree programIn recent years, approximately half of all incoming Conservatory students have matriculated as double-degree candidates, with the intention of combining professional study in music and study in the liberal arts, leading both to the Bachelor of Music and to the Bachelor of Arts degrees, the latter with a major other than music. Students have completed combinations such as vocal performance and German, music education and government, jazz composition and economics, piano pedagogy and biology, cello performance and physics, to name a few. The double-degree program attracts students to the university who are gifted musically and intellectually, and permits them to pursue a wide variety of interests, to change focus to a single degree when appropriate, or to persist to earning both degrees.
Bachelor of Arts with a major in musicThe Bachelor of Arts with a major in music requires 21 credits in courses other than music, including electives and the specified general education courses required of all students in the B.A. program. In addition, the music major comprises 15 credits in music, including performance, keyboard skills, required sequences in music theory and history, and music electives. Students often complete a second major using their electives to fill requirements of that major.