Composition

Creativity and innovation are encouraged and rewarded in the Colorado College Music Department. While our philosophy of music performance and theory is based in the discipline of the European and World Music classics, our program also integrates computers and state-of-the-art composition software into daily music instruction. When you have completed a composition course, your creativity will have been challenged and rewarded. This course is enhanced by our Visiting Distinguished-Composer-in-Residence program. The greatest living composers are invited for a residency which includes a concert of their music and classroom visitation in which the students experience informal interaction and instruction from the composers. World recognized composers such as George Crumb, Joan Tower, and Bernard Rands have been among the illustrious composers who have taken part in our program.

"Experimental Music" is one of our most popular courses. Students design and build their own instruments or develop "extended techniques" on traditional instruments. The Bowed Piano Ensemble is an elite student experimental group on the leading edge of piano performance, using a variety of materials to elicit an orchestral range of sound from one open grand piano. The group tours internationally to new-music festivals and is heard frequently on NPR and numerous television broadcasts at home and abroad.