Music at the University of Waikato is dynamic and progressive in outlook. Students benefit through teaching by staff who are not only highly qualified professionally but also are at the forefront in their fields nationally, and benchmarked to top international levels in key areas. All lecturers are professionally active in their fields as composers, performers and musicologists. We teach Western classical music from Baroque to contemporary, through performance, compostition, and musical scholarship. Our electroacoustic stream encourages students to utilise the latest in computer music technology in their music production.

• music technology/computer music - electroacoustic and computer music composition and production, from sequencing to generative and interactive systems.
• composition - training in classical foundations progressing to interactivity in live performance using digital technology.
• performance - specialising in solo performance (strings, piano, voice and wind instruments), chamber music ensembles and premiering new works.
• musicology - special emphasis on the history and analysis of New Zealand music.

Music has conjoint programmes and teaching arrangements with several other academic offerings within the University of Waikato, notably the School of Computer Science and the School of Maori and Pacific Island Development. ... check out courses for more details.

The aim of our teaching programme is to assist you in developing knowledge, skill and understanding to help you to achieve your full potential in music. The BMus programme has a number of compulsory elements to ensure a solid skill base is established in aural training, harmony and counterpoint, together with an informed awareness of the history and techniques of Western classical music.

Students recieve lessons and are able to perform and have works performed in the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, through events such as the annual opera production, our contemporary music ensemble - Okta, the Lilburn Trust Student Composition Awards, weekly lunchtime recitals and performance hours. Music has excellent facilities available for students to rehearse and compose, the electroacoustic music studios are of an international standard. A long-standing feature of the Music Programme is our committment to intergrate the latest technological developments throughout the programme as appropriate.

Staff composers have new works commissioned, performed, broadcasted and recorded by leading professionals in New Zealand and overseas. The research and work of our electroacoustic staff is recognised internationally, and here at home they publish the New Zealand Sonic Art CD Series. Performance staff regularly record and perform throughout New Zealand and overseas, and have recently collaborated to form the New Zealand Chamber Soloists ensemble. Musicological work from is published internationally in sources such as the The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians(Oxford University Press).