The Bachelor of Music is a professional program offering the following concentrations: music education, music ministry, musicology, performance, and comprehensive. Students are able to complete one or more concentrations for their degrees. Graduates from these concentrations frequently pursue graduate studies before embarking on a professional career in music. While these concentrations are identified as career track, these degrees are also valuable as general arts degrees. B.Mus. graduates often are acknowledged as well-disciplined, well-educated, and imaginative people, with the competence to serve society well in a wide variety of areas.
Music Education Concentration - This concentration is designed for students who are interested in teaching music in the school setting. Students can focus on Early/Middle Years, Senior Years Choral, or Senior Years Instrumental. The B. Mus. in music education concentration requires a further two-year Certification program before the graduate is able to teach in the public school system (Manitoba universities offer only two-year after-degree education certification programs. Other provinces differ, with some offering 8- and 12-month programs).
Music Ministry Concentration - This concentration is designed for students who wish to pursue music ministry in congregational settings, combining two of CMU's strongest programs: music and theological studies. The program allows students to develop competencies in their instrument of choice, including the voice, and provides the student with sufficient flexibility to pursue other areas of interest in music ministry, including choral and instrumental conducting, arranging, and composition, as well as further theological studies.
Musicology Concentration - This concentration is designed for students wishing to focus their studies on music history and theory at an undergraduate level, particularly with the goal of continuing in graduate studies. Musicology is understood as an overarching discipline, incorporating music history, theory, aesthetics, and philosophy, as well as ethnomusicology. As an undergraduate program, this concentration introduces students to these disciplines, while at the same time allowing the student to begin serious work in a chosen direction in this discipline through reading courses and a thesis course.
Performance Concentration - The performance concentration allows students to focus on developing their gifts and abilities in both solo and collaborative performance. This concentration includes the requirement of two recitals within the last two years of the program. It also allows students to develop other competencies which are unique to their chosen areas of performance. Students not infrequently combine this concentration with a second concentration.
Comprehensive Concentration - This concentration allows for a great deal of flexibility within the Bachelor of Music degree program. It is particularly suitable for those planning for careers or further studies in music administration, music production, composition, or performance in folk, jazz, or pop styles. It is also a degree program which allows a student to customize an individualized program of studies not offered in existing concentrations.
This program is designed for students interested in a career in music therapy. Music therapists use music in a skilful, systematic way to promote positive changes in the mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual functioning of individuals
and groups. Employment opportunities for music therapists exist in mental health facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, schools, group homes, and many other settings. As well, many music therapists develop their own private practices. Music therapists are expected to be accomplished and versatile musicians with a solid grounding in the study of normal and abnormal human development in addition to their music therapy skills. Above and beyond the skills and techniques of music therapy, students at CMU gain an understanding of spirituality, ethics, and counselling, invaluable to a career in any care profession.
The CMU music therapy program is accredited by the Canadian Association for Music Therapy (CAMT). This means that CMU students may apply for CAMT-approved internships, and can apply for national accreditation by the CAMT once they have completed their Bachelor of Music Therapy studies.
Both the three-year and the four-year Bachelor of Arts with a major in Music provide a breadth of exposure to the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, and significant depth in Music. These programs are ideal for students who have a passion for music but may not want to work in the music profession.
A major in music equips students with healthy discipline and problem-solving creativity; skills that are valuable in many career fields. At CMU, both of these degrees offer the student a distinctive advantage in that they include a practicum, which requires at least 120 hours of experience in a setting relating to music.
