If you would like a career that combines a love of music and helping people, consider the B.S. in Music Therapy program at Southern.
Music therapists are trained musicians and healthcare professionals working in a growing field: nationwide, music therapy is practiced in 42,000 facilities including hospitals, nursing homes, and schools with clients across the human lifespan and with wide-ranging social, emotional, and physical needs and challenges. According to the American Music Therapy Association, music therapy can promote wellness, manage stress, alleviate pain, express feelings, enhance memory, improve communication, promote physical rehabilitation, and more.
The B.S. in Music Therapy offers students comprehensive training in music therapy at an affordable price, with a well-defined path to achieving a degree and finding employment. Students develop skills in voice, piano, guitar, and a major instrument, participate in large and small ensembles and take coursework in music theory, history, technology, and psychology. Important aspects of the program are practicum experiences, where students observe practicing music therapists working with a variety of client populations, and the culminating clinical internship, a six-month experience in which students work under the supervision of a practicing music therapist.
This program is the only program of its kind at any college in Connecticut.
Learning Outcomes
- Upon graduation, music majors will demonstrate comprehension of the relationships between music and various and disparate traditions, social trends, histories and styles of music, art, and other disciplines.
- Music majors will demonstrate competencies in theoretical and aural skills through sight-singing performance, generating and analyzing harmony, creating and notating self-generated musical ideas, and the graphic dictation of sounds.
- Music majors will demonstrate the ability to extemporaneously compose musical ideas through improvisational performance.
- Students will demonstrate artistry and creative expression in their principal area of applied music-making.
- Members of performing ensembles will demonstrate cooperative learning and creative expression through performance.
- In addition to the outcomes outlined above, students in the B.S. Music Therapy program will meet the Professional Competencies as outlined by the American Music Therapy Association in Clinical Foundations, Music, and Music Therapy.
Accreditation
SCSU is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. The B.S. Music Therapy program is approved by the American Music Therapy Association.
Careers
This program prepares students for a career in music therapy with the completion of a bachelor’s degree. Upon completing their coursework, students sit for the Board Certification exam in Music Therapy (MTBC). In most states, including Connecticut, only someone holding the MT-BC credential can practice music therapy, so therapists are often in demand for their services. Music therapists can also work in jobs such as Expressive Arts Therapist, Creative Art, Creative Therapist, Activities Therapist, and Rehabilitation Therapist.
Typical Job Titles
- Music Therapist
- Music and Memory Specialist
- Mental Health Counselor
Scholarships
Music Therapy majors are eligible for scholarships up to $6000 / year from the Stutzman Family Foundation. Students applying for the bachelor's degree in music at Southern will be considered for a Stutzman Family Foundation Scholarship based on their musical audition and review of their application materials.