Postgraduate - Area of study Music

Music at Monash comprises the areas of composition, ethnomusicology, musicology and performance; students may choose to complete a postgraduate program in music that is oriented towards one or more of these areas. Facilities are available for the supervision of research candidates in most of the main areas of music, including historical and systematic musicology and ethnomusicology, music pedagogy, music performance and music composition.

The school's concentration is on:

• 19th and 20th-century music
• composition and music technology
• contemporary music
• European (Western), including Australian music
• music pedagogy
• music of Southeast Asia
• music semiotics
• organology
• popular and folk music.

Composition

The Monash Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music has one of the finest composition programs in Australia in terms of works composed and performed by staff and students. The school also offers performance opportunities dedicated to the development and performance of works written by its students. Composition students will have access to a wide range of facilities at various levels of sophistication in computer music, studio recording, and electronic music. They can also be involved with the sonic art group, which is a studio-based ensemble for composition students interested in electronic and computer music.

Ethnomusicology and musicology (music studies)

The programs in music studies are designed for musicians who wish to develop a greater knowledge, understanding and competence in music. Students can acquire skills in research methods and techniques and develop the capacity for critical reflection and informed assessment in the area of music specialisation. Vocational outcomes include musicology, ethnomusicology and world music, composition, music education and pedagogy, contemporary music and Australian music.

Performance

The Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music is involved in presenting sixty to seventy concerts a year by students, staff and outside artists. They include large-scale choral/orchestral and small-scale solo and chamber music concerts, covering music from countries from all continents. The concerts are widely advertised as part of the Monash performing and visual arts activities and are presented mainly in the excellent venues of the Monash Arts Precinct (which comprises the Robert Blackwood Hall, Music Auditorium, Alexander Theatre, and Drama Theatre, as well as the Religious Centre) but also in the city of Melbourne, and overseas.

The school offers many major concerts of choral and orchestral works as well as solo, chamber and small ensemble concerts. The large ensembles in the school and their vibrant public concert seasons include performers from across the faculties of the University and from the external community. They include the Monash Academy Orchestra, the Monash Sinfonia (string orchestra), the Monash Wind Symphony, the Monash Viva VoceChoral ensemble, re-sound (a contemporary music group), and the Monash Gamelan Orchestra. There are also several chamber groups. In recent years, the school's choirs and orchestras have toured Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.