Apply to an Academic Program Today!
About the Program
Hone skills as a musician
As a Music major at UST, you will have multiple solo and ensemble performance opportunities every semester, starting your freshman year. With rigorous training in choral, operatic, and instrumental music, you will explore the rich and diverse sweep of Western sacred and secular music, both ancient and modern.
Along with comprehensive academic work, you will graduate ready to shine as a professional musician, music teacher, or music industry maestro. Additionally, you could go on to be accepted into a prestigious graduate music program, as so many of our UST Music alumni have been.
Ready to take your music education to the next level? Consider joining our Master of Sacred Music program, which provides a thorough training in Christian sacred music, both academic and applied, for those planning to pursue jobs and careers in Church music.
Rigorous Training
Learning with Professionals
Music students take regular lessons in their voice or instrument and perform in ensembles each semester, with performing groups ranging from Jazz, to Orchestra, to small chamber ensembles, to Opera and Musical scenes, to Choir. An additional concert attendance component exposes students to an array of professional music-making, both on and off campus.
All Music majors, whether vocal or instrumental, will also participate in Dr. Richardson’s Schola Cantorum Gregorian chant choir when taking their Music History I and II courses, which is a fantastic opportunity to learn to read and perform Gregorian chant according to the restoration efforts of the Monks of Solesmes.
Big City Benefits
Accelerate Your Career in Houston
Within a 3-mile radius of the UST campus, at least a dozen parishes – and more than 40 in the Houston area – regularly seek out student musicians for employment. Many UST Music majors are employed part-time as singers or instrumentalists in:
- Traditional Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, and Protestant church choirs
- Jewish temple choirs
- Places of worship that feature orchestral music and contemporary bands
These early career opportunities not only improve your musical and performance skills, but provide real-world performance experience and build relationships with potential employers. Aspiring musicians of all ages not attending UST can receive top-tier music instruction in our Music Preparatory School (hyperlink) private lessons and summer camps.
UST Music grads have been accepted into prestigious graduate music programs, including Yale, Rice, San Francisco Conservatory, Westminster Choir College, and many more top schools.