Director of the FIU School of Music Dr. David Dolata Welcome to the School of Music at Florida International University! Our goal is to provide you with a superb education in a professional atmosphere. We offer the finest faculty available and numerous performance opportunities in varied and important venues both on campus and off. The FIU School of Music (SOM) prepares you for diverse careers as teachers, performers, composers, and scholars. Intellectual curiosity and an engaged creative spirit inspires the FIU School of Music’s pursuit of interdisciplinary global knowledge, the cultivation of imagination, and artistic expression. Emphasizing comprehensive musicianship, individualized instruction, the ensemble experience, entrepreneurship, and innovative technology, the FIU School of Music provides an outstanding professional musical education on a spectacular tropical campus in one of the world's most vibrant cities. Among the nation's 25 largest universities, FIU is ranked as a Research University in the High Research Activity category of the Carnegie Foundation’s prestigious classification system. The FIU School of Music serves over 300 music majors from eighteen countries with twenty-four full-time faculty and forty-four adjunct faculty members and is housed within the new College of Architecture and the Arts (CARTA). FIU offers the Bachelor of Music degree with concentrations in string, vocal, wind, brass, percussion, and keyboard performance; composition; jazz performance; music technology; and music education. For those students interested in crafting a plan of study tailored to their own particular musical interests or career goals, we provide the flexible and multi-disciplinary Bachelor of Arts as well as a music minor. Our graduate programs include the Master of Science in Music Education and the Master of Music in composition, conducting, jazz, music technology, and performance in all of the areas listed above, and the graduate core classes are scheduled in the evening to serve the needs of graduate students with daytime obligations. Entering and transfer students, please note that there have been numerous curricular enhancements since 2008-09. FIU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the School of Music is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). Detailed information about all of these programs can be found under "Academic Programs" on the menu to your left. Residing in the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center, FIU Music presents over 150 concerts annually featuring solo, chamber, and orchestral music for voices and instruments from the Medieval era to the present. See http://carta.fiu.edu/calendarguide.aspx for concert listings. These performances take place in the outstanding acoustics of the 600-seat Wertheim Concert Hall, which boasts a 74-rank Schantz pipe organ dedicated to the memory of Sydell Ida Wertheim whose love of organ music inspired its creation. This instrument is considered by many to be the finest in the Southeastern United States. The Wertheim Performing Arts Center also houses a more intimate 150-seat Recital Hall for smaller events, practice rooms, instrumental rehearsal halls, faculty teaching studios, and a computer music lab studio. We also have vocal facilities in Viertes Haus (VH). Since the last school year the technological infrastructure of the computer music lab and the music lab in the Green Library have been completely upgraded. Our instrument collection includes a fine double-manual transposing Flemish harpsichord and a full complement of early music instruments. A recent donation from Herbert and Nicole Wertheim enabled us to purchase a two-manual Schlicher practice pipe organ and a commissioned Bennett & Giutarri chamber continuo organ. You will also notice that there is new state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment in the Recital and Instrumental Rehearsal Halls and that Wi-Fi access is now available throughout our complex. We have also installed two recording studio practice rooms that allow you to record yourself in a variety of acoustical settings and download a recording to your laptop. Additional electrical outlets have been installed in the at the intersection of the two hallways and outside to facilitate laptop use, and more benches have been ordered for the rotunda seating area. FIU music majors have the opportunity to play in our premier performing ensembles, which have toured South and Central America, the East Coast and the Midwest, been featured on cruise ships, and recorded with many fine artists. Every year students can attend and perform in workshops and master classes by internationally-acclaimed artists, such as Tania Leon, Kenneth Cooper, Ethan Sloane, and Elliott Sharp. The 68 FIU School of Music faculty members form a dynamic community of artist-scholars who publish in respected national and international journals, perform in prestigious venues throughout the world, and record on major labels. They are also superb teachers dedicated to your success who will prepare you for professional careers in music with a rigorous first-class academic and artistic education. This year we are pleased to announce the arrival our visiting Director of Orchestras, the Music Director of the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, Huifang Chen. For a wealth of information about your school, we encourage you to regularly consult our web page. Please take some time to peruse the FIU School of Music web page for more detailed information on our faculty, curriculum, ensembles, and performance opportunities. We look forward to helping you realize your dreams! Best wishes for your success, Dr. David Dolata |
