Programs of Study

The Acting Program offers classically centered training with an eye toward the future, and is designed for preparing young artists for the performance challenges of the 21st Century.

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The MA Aesthetics and Politics Program engages students in an intensive critique of the relations between culture, politics and society in today’s demanding global context.

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The MFA African Music and Dance Specialization is an intensive course of study in polyrhythmic music, dance and song, drawing principally from Western African traditions. 

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A forum for the sustained exploration of possibilities in cultural production, the Program in Art pushes students to question conventional ideas about contemporary art.

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The Art and Technology Program encourages students to cultivate creative strategies, technical competencies and critical thinking skills while exploring and developing new applications of technology and media within a contemporary art practice.

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Working with a full instrument collection, The MFA Balinese and Javanese Music and Dance Specialization provides a comprehensive exploration of the music and dance of Bali and Java.

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Brass studies at CalArts is unique and innovative, with a curriculum designed to further develop the role of brass instruments in the present and looking toward the future. Building from a traditional brass foundation, these studies focus on contemporary brass works and performance practices, while also working to develop a radical expansion of the idiom.

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The BFA Program in Character Animation is designed for students who seek an understanding of the art of character performance and storytelling in animation.

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The MFA in Choreography at the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts is an opportunity accelerator for dance artists pursuing careers as creators and educators.

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Collaborative Keyboard studies prepares advanced students for careers in various collaborative keyboard disciplines. This course of study concentrates on multiple aspects of collaborative performance, including work in vocal and instrumental chamber music, conducted ensembles and opera, while also refining repertoire knowledge and language facility.

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Nationally and internationally renowned for its contributions to contemporary music, Composition and Experimental Sound Practices studies facilitates the development of students’ artistic voices through mastery of a broad range of theories, techniques and creative tools.

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The Costume Design Program encourages students to break with traditional notions of costume design—and think instead in terms of garments that expand or otherwise reshape the physical space of performers.

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The Creative Writing MFA Program views writing as an art form best practiced alongside the other arts, and students benefit from having access to the CalArts community of artists as their peers and fellow travelers.

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The BFA Program in Dance is an intensive, four-year education in which students develop high-level professional skills in a variety of dance practices.

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The Digital Arts Minor is designed to help undergraduate students grasp the knowledge to build, engineer and design innovative custom systems to change the way technology can be used with the arts.

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The selective, rigorous Directing Program prepares already experienced directors to put forward a personal vision for the theater and redefine the boundaries of performance.

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CalArts’ Experience Design and Production Program offers a comprehensive training program that includes coursework in the arts of scene, costume, lighting and sound design and technical direction.

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Art principles and practices are at the heart of the undergraduate- and graduate-level tracks in Experimental Animation—courses of study designed for innovative artists wishing to develop personal visions within the ever-expanding parameters of animation.

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In an era of accelerating change, the Experimental Pop Specialization actively embraces the diverse interests and practices of individual students as they fashion their own musical paths.

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The Program in Film and Video is designed for students who use film and video as media for personal expression and exploration—those artists for whom independent film and video is a calling and not simply a mode of production.

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The graduate Film Directing Program for independent dramatic filmmaking enables students to develop innovative approaches to storytelling based on examining the broad spectrum of narrative cinema.

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The Graphic Design Program emphasizes both practical and conceptual skills, and enables each designer to integrate a command of visual language with imagination, theory and technology.

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Guitar studies, part of the InstrumentalArts family of offerings, is a comprehensive curriculum representing the diverse role that the guitar plays in music today, through which students can develop the skills, knowledge and creative versatility necessary to pursue professional careers in a vast array of contemporary genres.

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Harp studies, part of the InstrumentalArts offerings, enables harpists to explore a full range of repertoire, ensemble performance opportunities and supplemental coursework in support of their métier.

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Integrated Media (IM) is a concentration for graduate students that’s designed specifically for advanced students whose creative use of technology—in particular digital media—goes beyond their primary areas of study.

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The Interactive Media for Performance Program trains visionary artists in the creation of interactive tools and moving imagery for live and time-based artwork.

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Founded by the late jazz giant Charlie Haden as a creative alternative to academic jazz studies, CalArts Jazz studies emphasizes small ensemble performance and improvisation, training students to become highly versatile performers, improvisers and composers.

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The Lighting Design Program provides professional training in the traditional craft of lighting design for theater while also enabling students to broaden their experience with additional projects in film, video, dance and art.

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The Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence & Design (MTIID) Specialization enables students to build both strong traditional and contemporary musical skills while mastering a variety of technologies for the creation of sonic and multimedia art.

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The North Indian Music MFA Specialization trains students to become fluent and skilled performers through in-depth, hands-on training under the direction of internationally esteemed faculty.

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As part of the InstrumentalArts suite of offerings, Percussion studies provides students resources with which to gain a broad comprehensive understanding of the percussion field, and the means to develop high-level technical skills on numerous instruments. The focus is on acquiring cultural fluency and the resources necessary to pursue careers in a wide array of musical situations.

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CalArts’ unique Performer-Composer studies reflects the increasing demand for flexible musicians who are able to integrate composition with performance practice.

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Photography and Media is dedicated to image-makers and artists interested in developing their work, engaging in critical conversations in relation to how images shape contemporary culture, and building technical and formal skills with which to expand the possibilities of lens-based work.

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As part of the InstrumentalArts suite of offerings, Piano/Keyboard studies is structured for students of piano and other keyboards to develop and refine advanced performing skills, explore new techniques and extend their artistic horizons in order to become versatile and resourceful professional performers.

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The Producing Program trains creative producers with already highly developed aesthetics, who can recognize and champion original and significant work, and invent new ways to support such work.

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The Scene Design Program is based on the understanding that the designer’s multifaceted contribution to a production involves much more than providing a visual background.

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The Sound Design Program is devoted to a rapidly evolving field that integrates aesthetic concerns with scientific disciplines and new technological tools.

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The Stage Management Program trains qualified students for careers as stage managers in a variety of professional performance environments.

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As part of the InstrumentalArts family, Strings studies surveys Western musical repertoire, from the medieval to the modern, and continues forward, emphasizing contemporary styles, diverse musical cultures, improvisation, digital media and interdisciplinary performance.

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The Technical Direction Program focuses on the group experience in collaborative design, fabrication and technical management.

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The VoiceArts Specialization is uniquely designed for creative artists whose primary means of expression is the voice—for those who wish to develop both their unique artistic voice and their vocal mechanism.

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Winds studies, part of the InstrumentalArts family of offerings, surveys Western musical repertoire from the medieval to the modern, also emphasizing contemporary styles, diverse musical cultures, improvisation, digital technology and interdisciplinary media.

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Students in the World Music Performance Specialization closely study music and dance practices from a variety of musical cultures, while simultaneously acquiring solid grounding in music theory, musicianship skills, and music history and literature.

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The MFA World Percussion Specialization trains students who already possess a strong foundation as percussionists to become exceptional, innovative performers and teachers by developing a broad range of skills drawn from the multitude of areas of world percussion.

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