Music, Theatre and Dance

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207 Varner Hall • (248) 370-2030 • Fax (248) 370-2041  (map)
www.oakland.edu/mtd

Chair:
Jacqueline H. Wiggins
207 Varner Hall
(248) 370-2030
jwiggins@oakland.edu

Program directors:
Michael Mitchell, Music
Kerro Knox 3, Theatre
Gregory Patterson, Dance
 

Center for Applied Research
in Musical Understanding (CARMU):
Joseph Shively, Director
Deborah Blair
Jacqueline Wiggins

Degree programs:
 

Doctoral:

• Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education     

Master’s:

• Master of Music in Conducting   
• Master of Music in Music Education   
• Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy       
• Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy       
• Master of Music in Instrumental Performance     
• Master of Music in Piano Performance       
• Master of Music in Vocal Performance      
   

Graduate Certificates:

• Graduate Certificate in Conducting         
• Graduate Certificate in Instrumental Performance   
• Graduate Certificate in Music Education            
• Graduate Certificate in Piano Pedagogy         
• Graduate Certificate in Piano Performance       
• Graduate Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy       
• Graduate Certificate in Vocal Performance    
   

Post-Master’s Graduate Certificates:

• Post-Master’s Graduate Certificate in Conducting        
• Post-Master’s Graduate Certificate in Instrumental Performance      
• Post-Master’s Graduate Certificate in Music Education      
• Post-Master’s Graduate Certificate in Piano Pedagogy      
• Post-Master’s Graduate Certificate in Piano Performance     
• Post-Master’s Graduate Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy      
• Post-Master’s Graduate Certificate in Vocal Performance      
   

Certificate:

• Performer’s Certificate in Piano     
  
   

Accreditation

The degree programs offered by the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance are fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, the National Association of Schools of Theatre, and the National Association of Schools of Dance.

Ensemble auditions

Auditions for music and dance ensembles are held during the first few days of each semester. Auditions for other groups and theatrical productions are announced throughout the year.

Honors and awards

The Department of Music, Theatre and Dance offers honors and awards for students, alumni, and community supporters. Departmental honors are awarded for a combination of academic achievement (minimum 3.3 GPA), artistry in the major area of study, and contribution to the operations of the school. Alumni Arts Achievement Awards are presented in dance, music and theatre. The department also awards a Distinguished Community Service Award and an Outstanding Student Service Award.

The department confers a Distinguished Musicianship Award as its highest honor in music and Outstanding Student Awards to students who distinguish themselves in performance, music education, chamber music, and jazz. The Joyce Weintraub Adelson Memorial Award for Piano Ensemble honors the memory of an Oakland University piano instructor, and the Jennifer Scott Memorial Award honors the memory of an Oakland University piano student.

The department confers a variety of awards, including Outstanding Student Awards in musical theatre and theatre design and technology. The Gittlin Theatre and Gittlin Achievement Awards are scholarships offered to theatre students of promise and outstanding ability.

Services and opportunities

• Center for Applied Research in Musical Understanding (CARMU)
  The mission of the Center for Applied Research in Musical Understanding (CARMU) is to:
  • transform practice in music education
  • build and advance a research-based pedagogy of teaching for musical understanding
  • support pre-K-12 music educators in Michigan, the United States, and internationally
  • demonstrate how research informs professional practice in music education
  • seek national and international eminence in applied research in musical understanding at Oakland University
  • support faculty, graduate and undergraduate research in musical understanding

•  Music Preparatory Division
  The department offers music programs to the community through the Music Preparatory Division, 302 Varner Hall, (248) 370-2034. The Prep Division offers private studio lessons in voice, piano, guitar, and all orchestral instruments for elementary and secondary school students and adults, as well as classes in music theory, early childhood music, creative music for children, and piano readiness.
  
  The Music Prep Division also provides lessons for undergraduate students who wish to study an instrument or voice but do not have enough prior experience to study for college credit.
  Lessons are available on Oakland’s main campus, at Oakland’s Anton/Frankel Center in Mt. Clemens, at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Pincus Music Education Center adjoining Orchestra Hall, and at various locations in the surrounding community.
  

• Professional development
  The department offers a full complement of courses and workshops designed for performing arts professionals. The Department of Music, Theatre and Dance offers summer workshops in a variety of special topics in both theatre and dance. For information about current offerings, go to www.oakland.edu/mtd.
  All graduate courses and workshops offered by the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance are open to qualified professional development students. These offerings are advertised in our annual graduate brochure (available at www.oakland.edu/mtd). For eligibility to enroll, go to www.oakland.edu/grad and complete a graduate application checking the Professional Development category.
   

Affiliated professional organizations

• Eisenhower Dance Ensemble (EDE)
  The Eisenhower Dance Ensemble is a professional modern dance company in residence in the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. Many part-time dance faculty are members of this ensemble. Dance majors also have performance and apprenticeship opportunities with the ensemble. The company performs at Oakland University and in venues across the state and nation. For information about the company, go to www.ede-dance.org.
   
• Meadow Brook Theatre Ensemble
  The Meadow Brook Theatre Ensemble is a professional theatre company in residence at Oakland University. Many part-time theatre faculty are members of this ensemble. Theatre majors also have some opportunities to intern in the ensemble. The company presents a full season of productions in Meadow Brook Theatre on Oakland’s campus.
   

Partners in the Performing Arts

• Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO)
  Members of the DSO serve as applied music faculty in the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. Oakland University music education faculty have created lesson plans and materials and provided in-service workshops to support the orchestra’s annual Educational Concert Series. The department has hosted DSO outreach events.
  The department’s Music Preparatory Division is the sole provider of applied lessons and support music courses (music history, theory, improvisation) serving students affiliated with the DSO’s Civic Youth Ensembles, the Educational Outreach Program held in the Pincus Music Education Center.
   
• Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT)
  Members of the MOT orchestra serve as applied music faculty in the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. Oakland University performing arts faculty are instructors in the MOT Summer Opera Camp. Oakland voice majors have performed as part of the Michigan Opera Theatre chorus.
   
• Oakland University Cooperative Orchestral Library (OUCOL)
  The Department of Music, Theatre and Dance holds, maintains, and manages the Oakland University Cooperative Orchestral Library, a collection of orchestral music used by area community orchestras, including the Lake St. Clair Symphony, Livonia Symphony, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, Oakland Youth Orchestras, Rochester Symphony, Warren Symphony, and the Southfield Philharmonic.
   
• Teaching for Musical Understanding (TMU)
  TMU is an organization of nearly 100 K-12 music teachers in the region who hold professional development workshops to support their constructivist music teaching. The group has its own executive board and planning committee but is sponsored by CARMU and the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance.
   
• Oakland Youth Orchestras (OYO)
  The Department of Music, Theatre and Dance sponsors the Oakland Youth Orchestras which provide opportunities for elementary and secondary students from Oakland and surrounding counties to perform in full symphony orchestras. The orchestras rehearse weekly in departmental facilities.
   

Professional Internship Opportunities

• Oakland Symphony Orchestra (OSO)
  The Oakland Symphony Orchestra is a professional orchestra in residence at Oakland University. The OSO presents a full season of concerts in Varner Recital Hall and other venues.
  Eligible instrumental music students perform regularly with the OSO. Annually, the Oakland Symphony Chorus collaborates with the orchestra to perform a major work, often at Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center.
  The orchestra also holds an annual concerto competition for undergraduate and graduate music majors; winners perform with the orchestra.
  Depending on their interest area and prior experience, graduate conducting majors may have an opportunity to conduct the orchestra.

• Eisenhower Dance Ensemble Apprenticeships
  Dance majors who qualify have opportunities to apprentice with the Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, a nationally known moder dance company in residence at Oakland University.
   
• Meadow Brook Theatre Ensemble Apprenticeships
  Theatre majors who qualify have opportunities to apprentice with the Meadow Brook Theatre Ensemble, a regional professional theatre company in residence at Oakland University.
   
• Student-teaching in Regional K-12 Schools
  Music education engage in 160 hours of pre-student-teaching internship in K-12 public schools and then intern full-time for one semester with a K-12 music teacher.
   

Study Abroad Opportunities

• Classical theatre study in Greece
  The theatre program offers a summer program in Greece. Students take classes, rehearse classic Greek plays, perform in outdoor amphitheatres and visit archaeological sites and museums.
   
• Traditional music and dance in Ghana
  The world music program offers students an opportunity to study traditional music and dance of Ghana at the Dagara Music and Arts Center in Medie, Ghana, a suburb of the capital city, Accra.

Michigan Teacher Certification Requirements

Professional teacher certification

To meet the professional (formerly continuing) certification requirements of the state of Michigan, candidates must already hold initial certification as a Michigan music teacher and must:

• complete three years of experience in their certificate area
• complete 18 credits of coursework in an approved, planned program
• show evidence of having completed at least 3 credits of coursework in methods of teaching reading. To meet the reading requirement, coursework taken as part of the undergraduate degree will apply. Students who have not taken a reading method course may take RDG 538, Guiding Reading-Learning in Content Subjects.

Candidates for professional certification are urged to complete their 18 credits as part of a master’s degree. This choice offers maximum flexibility. As an alternative, students may choose non-degree planned programs. Oakland University will accept 6 to 9 credits from another institution toward certification requirements upon adviser approval.

Those teachers who wish to renew a lapsed provisional certificate may be recommended to the state of Michigan upon successful completion of 10 credits of coursework within their planned program.

Upon successful completion of coursework (3.0 for graduate courses; 2.0 for undergraduate), students must apply for certificate renewal or professional certification through the Teacher Education Advising Office, 363 Pawley Hall. The Michigan Department of Education charges for all certifications and renewals. A copy of the fee structure is available through the Teacher Education Advising Office, 364 Pawley Hall, (248) 370-4182.

Those teachers who wish to renew a lapsed continuing or permanent certificate and do not possess a master’s degree must complete 6 credits at the graduate or undergraduate level. These credits do not have to be in a planned program. On completion, the student must apply for validation directly to the Michigan Department of Education, Teacher Certification, Box 30008, Lansing, MI, 48909.

Professional certificate renewal

Teachers who earn a professional certificate (through the process described above) are required to renew that certificate every five years on the basis of 6 credits of academic credit earned from an approved teacher preparation institution or the equivalent in State Board approved teacher development programs or activities that will award credits obtained as State Board Continuing Education Units (SB-CEUs). Continuing certificates issued before July 1, 1992 remain valid as long as the holder serves in an educational capacity 100 days within a five-year period.

Initial certification as a music teacher

Students who hold a bachelor’s degree and wish to obtain initial music teacher certification must enroll in a second undergraduate degree program in music education. Contact the College of Arts and Sciences Advising Office for information on qualifications and admission. Students wishing to enroll in a music teacher certification program must audition for the music program faculty. For details, see the Undergraduate Catalog or www.oakland.edu/mtd.

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