Performance and Composition Study

Assignment of Students

Each performance faculty member has a section number for each level taught (for example V400, V700, V900, etc.). For a student to register for a specific teacher's section, that teacher must indicate a willingness to teach that student. The Office of Music Advising and Records Services (East Studio Building 120), comprised of the Music Undergraduate Office and the Music Graduate Office, will provide a list of continuing students for your approval before Continuing Student Registration. If you expect to be away from campus during Continuing Student Registration, please give the MARS office a signed list of any additional students whom you intend to teach the following semester so that students can be authorized in your absence. You may indicate your willingness to teach students not on this list via email or by signing an authorization form obtained from the MARS office.

New students and students who could not obtain a teacher's signature during Continuing Student Registration must enroll for the unassigned sections under the dean's name. Students in these sections are assigned to a studio by the associate dean for instruction at meetings with each of the performance and composition department chairs held on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week of classes. Students' preferences are taken into account insofar as possible, but no teacher will be assigned an overload of regular students (i.e., more than 18) without the teacher's permission. Students who register late do not appear on the official rosters when the assignments of students from the unassigned sections are made, so space in a studio cannot be held for them. Please make it clear to your students that it is important for them to register on time.

Each student admitted to the Jacobs School of Music is considered qualified and is entitled to class instruction and performance study. No differentiation concerning the quality of a teacher is or should be made based on the number of graduates vs. undergraduates, performance majors vs. other majors, international students vs. domestic students, etc.

Studio Instruction Policies

The Jacobs School of Music is committed to providing students with the highest quality performance and composition instruction from world-renowned residential faculty. To that end:

1. Studio instruction shall be delivered in individual lessons, unless other arrangements are made with the Associate Dean for Instruction.
2. All music majors and concentrations will study with faculty members.
3. Lessons and vocal coachings will be a minimum of 50 minutes per week.
4. Each student (major and concentration) enrolled in performance or composition study in a private lesson setting in a fall or spring semester will receive a minimum of fourteen face-to-face (in person, not online) lessons per semester given by the faculty member who is the teacher of record.
5. Each student (major and concentration) enrolled in performance or composition study in a private lesson setting in the summer will receive a minimum of eight face-to-face (in person, not online) lessons given by the faculty member who is the teacher of record.
6. Students enrolled in chamber music will receive seven face-to-face (in person, not online) coachings of at least 50 minutes each with the faculty member(s) assigned and will complete an approved public performance.
7. Students enrolled in vocal coaching in a fall or spring semester will meet face-to-face (in person, not online) with the teacher of record a minimum of seven times if enrolled for one credit hour or a minimum of fourteen times if enrolled for two credit hours. Students enrolled in one credit hour of vocal coaching in the summer will receive a minimum of four face-to-face (in person, not online) coachings with the teacher of record. Students enrolled in two credit hours of vocal coaching in the summer with receive a minimum of eight face-to-face (in person, not online) coachings with the teacher of record.
8. The lessons, chamber music coachings, and vocal coachings shall be distributed across the semester or summer term in a relatively equal way.
9. A student enrolled in secondary lessons in a fall or spring semester will receive fourteen face-to-face (in person, not online) lessons per semester with the instructor assigned to the students at the beginning of the semester.
10. A student enrolled in secondary lessons in the summer will receive a minimum of eight face-to-face (in person, not online) lessons with the instructor assigned to the student at the beginning of the summer term.
11. In rare situations of strategic importance to the school, exceptions to this policy for a limited period can occur if approved in writing by the dean.