The Performing Arts Department will offer a new associate of arts degree in music, replacing the old one, starting this fall.
The new degree requires students to take more of the music classes that will count toward a four-year music degree when they transfer, according to Performing Arts Department Chair Ian Wardenski.
Wardenski said with the previous music degree, many students who transferred to four-year universities needed “to spend an extra semester, or in some cases an extra year” catching up on music classes AACC didn’t require for the A.A. But the new degree “essentially mirrors what you would take at a four-year program.”
“With the current degree, they don’t have four semesters of applied [music], they don’t have four semesters of ensemble, and that can really hold them back as they move on to a four-year program,” Wardenski, a music professor, said. “The students are going to be far better prepared … both musically and in terms of their academic goals.”
Students can choose whether to focus on composition, performance or music technology for their degree.
The Performing Arts Department created two new music technology classes for the degree. Recording Industry Techniques 1 and 2, which will start in the fall semester with the degree, will focus on audio recording, mixing and production.
Wardenski added, “Students have been asking for music technology courses for years.”