At CalArts, the spring semester begins with Winter Session, a unique two-week period set aside for an alternate curriculum focused on intensive hands-on learning, experimentation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and skill building.
During Winter Session in the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, students will have an opportunity to engage in a unique curriculum of classes developed by faculty and graduate students. These classes are two-week intensives, allowing students to immerse themselves in various projects, ensembles, and collaborations. Students can also take classes outside of their programs, engaging various art forms and faculty across the Institute in this unique setting.
Winter Session provides graduate students an opportunity to develop and teach a two-week course with support from their faculty mentor. MFA and DMA students thereby gain teaching experience and further develop their pedagogical approaches. In addition to their course work, students will also devote time to their own creative work
and project development.
For the 2025 Winter Session, some of the School of Music course offerings are:
- Biotech Art and Code
- Music and Politics
- DIY Artist Toolkit
- Insurgent Musicalities
- Idioms & Idiots
- Text-Based Drum Sequencing
- Rave Production 101
- Generative AI for Audio Visual
- Balinese Music for Dance
- Making Music in Odd Meters
- Fast-Acting & Self-Eating Quintet
- Septimal Soundings