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California Institute of the Arts

BFA: Composition and Experimental Sound Practices

The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts

A lone person sits at a table on a stage surrounded by musical instruments and technology, a screen projection behind her. A small audience watches.

Practice sonic experimentation

Experimentation is in CalArts’ DNA, so you’ll find plenty of opportunities to explore the more radical branches of contemporary sound as a BFA student in the Composition and Experimental Sound Practices program. Recognized internationally for its contributions to contemporary music, the program is structured to maximize the development of your unique artistic voice. The curriculum proceeds through foundational studies in composition, experimental sound practices, theory, technology, and professional development that enable you to develop a broad range of theoretical, technical, and creative tools. As you progress through the program, you’ll create a portfolio of original work—all the while cultivating your own distinctive approach to music and sound.

An abstracted image that appears to be a mix of photograph and digital drawing showing a figure with their arm raised as if they’re painting on an easel.

Experimental Sound Practices concert at the Wild Beast, 2023. Photo by Alejandro Caminos.

Make some noise

BFA Composition and Experimental Sound Practices

Recognizing the ever-evolving aesthetic and stylistic spectrum of music today, CalArts’ program enables you to acquire a broad range of skills as you engage with ideas that will empower you as a music artist to build and sustain your future as an innovative creator. 

Let’s connect

At CalArts, you’ll join a community of artists that includes a stylistically diverse faculty of world-class artists at the cutting edge of aesthetic and technical developments in the field, whose individual mentoring and guidance, coaching, and instruction will help you develop the tools to establish a lifelong musical practice and individual voice. In keeping with the Institute’s spirit of artistic exploration, your mentor and faculty will encourage you to seek out collaborative opportunities with your peers throughout CalArts’ six schools— filmmakers, directors, dancers, designers, musician, writers, and other artists—benefitting from the program’s unique location within the only accredited arts college in the United States that gathers the full range of visual and performing arts under one roof.

The program takes a global view of stylistic and cultural backgrounds and sources of inspiration, and the curriculum encourages the exploration of diverse interests. You may choose to focus in areas such as contemporary composition and performance practices for all instruments and media, installation work, electronic and computer music, digital multimedia, sound art, field recording, experimental popular forms, improvisation systems, performance art, experimental performance, new methods for notation, interdisciplinary collaboration, or other areas of interest.

All BFA programs in The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts offer a broad and rigorous general musical education alongside highly individualized lesson instruction and mentoring. All undergraduate students engage in intensive shared training in musical techniques and concepts spanning classical, jazz, popular, electronic, and experimental styles, and both Western and non-Western musical cultures. You will graduate with experience in creating original work, ensemble performance, music notation and theory, professional development, and artistic metiers outside of music.

All BFA candidates in Composition and Experimental Sound Practices studies are required to pass a graduation portfolio review in order to graduate and earn the BFA degree.

Interested in this program?

View our step-by-step application guide to learn more.

Start your application

Admission requirements

To be considered for the BFA in Composition and Experimental Sound Practices, you must complete an application and all program-specific requirements, including a portfolio representative of your work, an artist statement, a brief video introduction, and two letters of recommendation. The program does not require an audition, but some applicants may be asked to take part in a virtual interview. Before applying, please familiarize yourself with the detailed application requirements and resources available to assist you in this important process. 

View application requirements

Degree requirements

Each CalArts music student designs their course of study in collaboration with a faculty mentor, with the first two BFA years focused on building a strong foundation in music theory, performance, and diverse musical cultures, and the final two years dedicated to personalized exploration through specialized concentrations, creative projects, and individualized mentorship.

BFA Composition and Experimental Sound Practices academic requirements

In addition to work in your specific program, all undergraduate students must complete requirements in general education, which we call Critical Studies. This liberal arts curriculum is designed to equip students to consider aesthetic questions within larger socio-cultural, ethical, and political contexts.  

Critical Studies requirements

Minors and interdisciplinary opportunities

CalArts offers students the chance to pursue additional interests alongside your chosen discipline, such as a minor in Music Theory, Digital Arts, or Arts Education.

Learn more about minors and interdisciplinary opportunities 

Courses you might take

What courses would you take as a BFA Composition and Experimental Sound Practices student? Browse the courses offered in the School of Music, including opportunities to study jazz, world music, experimental pop, film scoring, improvisation, electronic music, composition, vocal performance, African and Balinese ensembles, and much more.

School of Music courses

Composing and Experimental Sound Practices concentrations

The program also provides several optional concentrations. While a concentration is not required, students who fulfill the necessary coursework may have these noted on their transcript.

  • Avant-Garde Rock and Noise aims to develop necessary technical and professional skills to cultivate awareness of the socio-historical context for such music, and to create an environment that promotes radical collaboration and stylistic innovation.
  • Electronic Music fosters a strong technical foundation in studio and live electronic music-making, with instruction in advanced techniques for today’s computer musician.
  • Experimental Music addresses the current frontiers of radical exploration in music and sound art from creative, technical, historical, and philosophical perspectives.
  • Composition for Film and Video affords a technical and aesthetic foundation for students who wish to collaborate with film and video artists.
  • Instrumental Concert Music Composition offers a technical foundation for contemporary chamber and orchestral composition as well as providing a broad survey of the diverse stylistic, methodological, and aesthetic possibilities available to today’s concert music composer.

Meet the faculty

At CalArts, faculty and students are collaborators, teaching, learning, and working together as members of our community of artists.

Embrace the alternative

Experiments in Electronic Sound Festival

The Experiments in Electronic Sound Festival offers a platform for musicians and artists whose works blur the boundaries between composition, improvisation, and sound art. Following a rich tradition at CalArts for embracing alternative ways of thinking, being, and creating in relation to electronic sound, the series of concerts invites the community to come together and share their work.

A woman wearing a blue parka, warm hat, and headphones stands next to a blue and silver contraption that resembles a megaphone on a tripod. The scene is outdoors in the snow on a sunny day.

Christina Milinusic is one of the artists featured in the 2024 Experiments in Electronic Sound Festival.

Gallery

Some of our alumni

* Pulitzer Prize in Music winner

More School of Music alumni

CalArtian duo Tauri talks creative process with Bitwig Studio

“The idea was to make something that was for artists,” says Alex Monasterio, who, with fellow alum Nicole Orlowski, comprises the duo Tauri. Talking about the duo’s single In the Dark, he says, “We wanted it to be about, like, defining your own terms of success and figuring out what aspects of creation are worth it and not worth it.” 

Album cover for the band Tauri, featuring an illustration of a woman with blue hair on the left, and legs on the right. A box in the middle says “In The Dark.”

Music Events

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Want to learn more?

We got you. Our Admissions team is all about providing the information you need to decide if CalArts is right for you. We’re excited to connect with you for a tour of our legendary campus, a virtual info session, or at one of our admissions events across the country or around the world. Take the next step—we’re here to help.