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California Institute of the Arts

BFA: Music Technology

The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts

A person sits in a college classroom with other students surrounded by tech equipment. They are holding a small sound mixing board in their lap.

Ela Orleans’ Sampling the Past with Serge at AIR Week 2023.

Interaction, intelligence, and design

Exceptional musical skills and technological prowess converge in CalArts’ four-year BFA in Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence, and Design (MTIID). As a BFA student, you’ll develop your creative engineering skills through a broad spectrum of classes at the intersection of art and technology, ranging from custom software design, physical computing for human-computer interaction, electromechanical systems for mechatronic performance, and many more contemporary music subjects. 

A person stands alone on a stage at a table with sound-mixing equipment. Frequency graphics are displayed on a screen behind them.

Interested in this program?

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

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The art and technology of sound

BFA: Music Technology

The BFA in Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence, and Design (MTIID) curriculum is designed to prepare you for a career focusing on electronic composition and performance, sound design and synthesis, web/multimedia design, audio electronics, immersive environment design, recording, software development, interactive audio—or maybe a career no one’s even thought of yet. 

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With an emphasis on the sonic arts, you’ll take classes covering subjects like electrical engineering, computer science, physics, acoustics, and mathematics, along with many courses reflecting the program’s core focus in electronic music composition, production, and performance.

Contemporary music subjects you’ll study include concert production, acoustics, sound synthesis, electronic composition and performance, interface design, audio electronics, interactive media, and a number of wide-ranging elective topics. BFA graduates leave CalArts as trained artists able to work in any orchestral, ensemble, or global music production, with skills that include knowing how to produce a concert, manage a stage, understand a sound board, and run stage monitor and main audience sound.

You’ll find you have a considerable amount of creative freedom to pursue projects in and out of class and take part in digital performance ensembles, such as the Machine Orchestra, Sonic Boom, Creative Electronic Ensemble, and Improvisation Ensemble, or groups formed in connection with classes. The program also fosters collaboration between departments within the School of Music and CalArts as a whole—MTIID students are often found scoring and sound designing for the Animation programs, building installations with the Schools of Art and Theater, and engaging in musical collaborations with other students studying world music. Performance opportunities are plentiful across the abundance of concerts and events that occur year-round at CalArts.

All undergraduate 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. As a BFA student, you’ll 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 MTIID students are required to fulfill all course requirements and pass a mid-residency and graduation recital in order to earn the degree.

Explore the MTIID program

Admission requirements

To be considered for the BFA program in Music Technology, you must complete an application and all program-specific requirements. Due to its specialized and highly selective nature, before applying, students should email a brief description of their musical and technical background to the program director. See the application requirements for more details. 

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.

View BFA Music Technology 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 enable students to consider aesthetic questions within larger socio-cultural, ethical, and political contexts.  

View 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 Jazz 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.

Explore our course catalog

Meet the faculty

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

Projects, people, and research

Inventing new products, technologies, and instruments; staging world-class performances; and recording compilation albums showcasing our future stars are just some of the projects hatched in the MTIID program each semester.

Small groups of musical instruments, stands, speakers, and technology are arranged on a large white floor. Some people play the instruments while others watch or walk around.

Meason Wiley, Hemispherical Speakers

Byungkyu Lee (BFA4, Music Technology) and Romy Jiwoo Song (BFA1, Fine Art), Anthesizer IV (Ant + Synthesizer), a sound installation that transforms the activity of ants within their nest into a dynamic soundscape and LED sequence, akin to a conductor orchestrating a symphony. 

Gallery

Some of our alumni

More School of Music alumni

Sounds of Innovation

Explore performances, projects, and collaborations that highlight the unique artistic voice of CalArts musicians.

Spend some time on the School of Music’s YouTube channel and get to know the vibrant and diverse work CalArts students are creating and performing, showcasing their talent and innovation across a range of styles and disciplines. 

Indoor music performance with an audience and a drummer on stage.

School of Music Events

See more events

  • Performance School of Music

    Join us as the vocalists of CalArts sing some of their recent favorites. What are…

    Sun, Oct 20 / 8:00 PM

    CalArts Campus

  • Performance School of Music

    A lovely concert of chamber music performed by students and faculty, followed by a Porto's…

    Tue, Oct 22 / 8:00 PM

    CalArts Campus

  • Performance School of Music

    A concert of music by Brandon Becker (MFA 2023) who with his passing earlier this…

    Fri, Oct 18 / 8:00 PM

    CalArts Campus

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.