APPLY TO MESSIAH

Director's welcome

Welcome to the Messiah University Graduate Program in Music

Rachel Cornacchio

We are a community of educators that view music as a means of creating and maintaining relationships by working in collaboration with others towards a common goal.

At Messiah University, we offer programs that are focused on developing a deeper understanding of music, music teaching and learning, and intensifying overall musicianship. Our curricula are designed such that graduates of this program will leave with a heightened understanding of how to transfer ideas about music to those with whom they teach and  collaborate.

Messiah University offers a Master of Music Education (MME) and a Master of Music (M.M.) in conducting. The conducting program offers degree tracks in choral, wind and orchestral conducting. A Certificate of Graduate Studies (CAGS) in conducting is offered for those already with a graduate degree who are interested in refining the conducting gesture and enhancing musicianship.

Our curricula for the degree and certificate programs include coursework in analytical studies, literature, pedagogy, philosophical foundations, and applied conducting. They are hybrid programs where courses are taught online during the regular academic year and as weeklong intensive courses during the summer months. Students in the MME program can finish the degree completely online.  We utilize technology that erases geographical boundaries so that students are able to study music conducting or education while maintaining professional positions.

In coming to Messiah, you will work with faculty who have experience working in public education, and therefore understand the intricacies of the profession. We will guide you, as teaching musicians, towards a greater understanding of your own influence and how that influence can help shape the musicianship of those surrounding you.  

If you desire to increase your musicianship as a teaching musician, enabling you to better collaborate with the musicians surrounding you, all while staying in your current professional situation, I encourage you to consider enrolling in the Graduate Program in Music at Messiah University. 

All the best,

Rachel Cornacchio, Ph.D.
Director of the Graduate Program in Music
rcornacchio@messiah.edu