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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.

The BFA in Music Technology is now a specialization in the new BFA in Creative Computing.

If you’re interested in working at the intersection of art and technology, we suggest exploring CalArts’ newest BFA offering: Creative Computing. In this dynamic, interdisciplinary program, code becomes a medium for artistic expression and technological experimentation, preparing students to lead and innovate in the ever-evolving world of digital arts.

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

The art and technology of sound

BFA: Music Technology

The BFA Music Technology curriculum is now a foundational pillar of the new BFA in Creative Computing. This evolution integrates Music Technology’s core focus on electronic composition, sound design, and audio electronics into a broader computational framework, preparing students for careers in software development, immersive environment design, and interactive audio.

Let’s connect

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—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.

The Music Technology specialization within Creative Computing offers 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.

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 Music Technology 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

    Maddie Goldsborough and friends present opera pieces, original songs, and improvisation!

    Wed, Mar 18 / 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM

    CalArts Campus

  • Performance School of Music

    OK Composer is a student-led concert series promoting original student works from around the institute…

    Sat, Mar 21 / 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM

    CalArts Campus

  • Sol

    Exhibition School of Music

    Cas Lleras’ BFA Thesis! An interactive wavecave installation, with a reception on March 27th.

    Sun, Mar 22 / 12:00 AM - Sat, Mar 28 / 12:00 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.