Music

Do you love to sing or play an instrument? Study music at Dordt, and you'll be able to focus on music education, performance, church music, or music management.

In addition to taking private music lessons and participating in ensembles, you will learn about music theory, ear training, music history and literature, conducting, music and digital technology, and more.

Learn how to advance your music skills and make a joyful noise, praising God for the gift of music.

Program Options

• Music performance and pedagogy major: prepares you for a vocation in performance, studio teaching, and graduate school.
• Music management major: combines music and business courses to prepare you for a career as an administrator of professional music organizations.
• General music major: provides a range of courses and experiences that will prepare you for graduate school. It is suggested that students interested in a career in music therapy select the general music major and minor in psychology.
• Church music major: prepares you for leadership in churches and for service as organist, pianist, or director of choral or instrumental ensembles.
• Music education major: prepares you for teaching with emphases ranging from elementary through high school.
• General music minor: provides a fine complement to majors in other fields.
• Music education minor: prepares elementary school teachers to teach music in the classroom or to be specialists in music.
• Music performance minor: prepares outstanding non-majors for performing after college.

Opportunities

Music majors and non-majors participate in a variety of small ensemble, community, and church performances in addition to those ensembles provided by Dordt. Many Dordt students provide area school children with private lessons, and several churches rely on the professional services of Dordt organ students and choir directors.

The Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra (NISO) provides advanced students with a valuable ensemble experience with their pre-professional training. Many of Dordt's adjunct faculty perform as principal players in the orchestra.

Dordt's music ensembles include:

• Concert Band
• Campus-Community Band
• Chamber Orchestra
• Concert Choir
• Bella Voce Women's Chorus
• Chorale
• 4th Avenue Band
• 4th Avenue Singers

You can also create your own small group or band.

Resources

• The B.J. Haan Auditorium is a 1,500-seat facility for concerts and solo performances that has some of the best acoustics in the region. It features a 57-rank, three manual, mechanical action Casavant pipe organ, a Steinway Model D concert grand piano, and a Kawai concert grand piano.
• The music department wing includes mechanical action and electro-pneumatic pipe organs, upright and grand piano practice rooms, and instrumental practice rooms. Dordt also has a Yamaha Disklavier and a two-manual Dekker harpsichord.
• A state-of-the-art digital music studio for composition, arranging, or editing of digital sound is one of the most recent additions available to musicians at Dordt.

Learn More

Check out our program strengths and get to know our facilities.