The Sunderman Conservatory of Music prepares students for a variety of careers in music and the arts through preparation in both the study of music as a academic field and as a medium of artistic expression through performance.

Upon graduation, music majors in the Sunderman Conservatory will have achieved mastery of the following goals:

• Students will demonstrate the ability to hear, identify, and work conceptually with elements of music such as rhythm, melody, harmony, structure, timbre, and texture.
• Students will be able to identify and explain compositional processes, aesthetic properties of style and the ways these elements shape and are shaped by artistic and cultural forces.
• Students will acquire a basic knowledge of music history and repertories through the present time, including study and experience of musical language and achievement in western and other cultures.
• Students will develop the technical skills necessary for artistic self-expression in at least one major performance area in solo and ensemble performance and understand procedures for realizing a variety of musical styles.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of basic compositional techniques and improvisation by creating original or derivative music.
• Students will gain the ability to read at sight with fluency demonstrating both general musicianship and the appropriate level of mastery in the major performance area.
• Students will experience a broad range of repertory through attendance at events such as recitals, concerts, opera and music theater productions, and other types of performances.
• Students will be able to form and defend value judgments about music, communicate musical ideas and concepts through writing and speaking, and employ communication conventions of our discipline.
• Students will develop the skills to make informed, critical evaluations of the quality and effectiveness of performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvised solos by comparing them to similar or exemplary models.