Boyer College of Music & Dance

Founded 1962

Dr. Robert T. Stroker, Dean
2001 N. 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
215-204-8301
music@temple.edu

www.temple.edu/boyer

Mission
Accreditation
Music Admissions
Financial Aid
Special Programs
Facilities

Mission

The Boyer College of Music and Dance is committed to nurturing and advancing music as a form of human expression, as an art, and as a subject for intellectual inquiry. Recognizing that music possesses unique powers -- to move the spirit, to excite the mind, to reveal the past, to chart the future, to instruct, to heal, and to foster communication -- the college seeks to perpetuate music in its myriad forms through creative and scholarly work, teaching, and service, according to the highest artistic and academic standards.

As an integral part of Temple University, the Boyer College shares the ideals of Russell Conwell upon which Temple was founded: to recognize talent and personal potential wherever they may be found; to provide educational opportunities for meritorious students of limited financial means; and to serve as a constructive presence in the wider Philadelphia community.

In carrying out its mission, the Boyer College seeks both to continue the long tradition of artistry and scholarship that we have inherited and to develop new insights, perspectives, and practices. This dual objective -- to explore both past and future, old and new -- should be broadly reflected in the life of the college: in curricula and instruction; institutional policy; professional activities of faculty; advisement of students; and musical performances.

For the art of music to remain vital, our culture must develop both highly-trained, professional musicians and informed, perceptive listeners. Accordingly, the college recognizes its responsibility to administer professional education to the student seeking a career in music, provide opportunities for the general university student to study and experience music, and share its musical life with the public.

The Boyer College provides a distinctive union of the best conservatory-type training with intense academically-oriented classroom teaching.  Coupled with the performance opportunities of the university and the culturally-rich Philadelphia area, the Boyer College offers students the competitive edge in complete, comprehensive musical preparation.  Many programs throughout the university offer minors.  Students who wish to pursue a minor outside of music should contact the appropriate department.

Return to menu

Accreditation

National Association of Schools of Music, National Association of Schools of Dance, Middle States Association, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Pennsylvania Department of Education, and American Music Therapy Association.

Return to menu

Music Admission

The following requirements for admission to the college are to be considered minimal. Applicants who pass the following examinations may be recommended to the Director of Admissions as eligible for admission to the college. In addition, candidates must meet general requirements set by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

• An audition in the major performing medium must be completed before an applicant can be accepted into the Boyer College of Music and Dance.

• After submitting the completed application, the applicant is responsible for scheduling his/her audition. E-mail music@temple.edu to schedule your audition.  Refer to the Boyer College web site for audition dates.

• The freshman application deadline is March 1. Applications for admission to the spring semester must be received no later than November 1. Call 215-204-6810, e-mail music@temple.edu or visit the Boyer College web site for specific audition dates.

• If the applicant is unable to be present because of distance, applicants should upload a video audition to Decision Desk. Please refer to the Boyer College web site for specific details.

• Prescreening recordings are required for jazz guitar and for the B.M. Composition program.
  
  
• B.S. Music applicants must submit a statement of goals to music@temple.edu, and take a theory test.

Transfer Credits

In addition to the university's statement regarding transfer credit (see Undergraduate Admissions), the Boyer College of Music and Dance will, during New Student Orientation, determine all transferred music credits through placement exams. Where deemed necessary, students may be tested in music theory, music history, and secondary piano. Tests in other music areas may be arranged through individual departments.

Return to menu

Financial Aid

Financial aid is available to full-time undergraduates in the form of music grants, academic scholarships, loans, grants, music grants-in-aid, and work-study programs. Also see Financial Aid in this Bulletin.

Financial aid awards are made after the student has been admitted as a fully-matriculated student. Students are to be enrolled full-time, unless prior permission is granted to do otherwise by the Associate Dean.

Music Grants are awarded based on merit. No separate application is required. The Boyer College has application and audition deadlines for priority music scholarship consideration. Contact the Boyer College at 215-204-6810, or consult the Boyer College web site for current deadlines.

Music and Dance scholarships and awards for currently enrolled and graduating undergraduate and graduate students include, but are not limited, to the following:

Bruce Archibald Memorial Fund

Max Aronoff Prize

Arronson Student Aid Fund

Anni Baker Scholarship in Music Therapy

James H. and Ethel L.M. Beach Book Award

Paul Beller Memorial Scholarship

Florence Berggren Voice Scholarship

Irving Berlin Scholarship

Stuart J. Best Memorial Scholarship

Dorothy Albert Bogusz Scholarship

Boyer College Alumni Association Award

Esther Boyer Scholarship Fund

Dr. Elaine Brown Tribute Award

Dr. B. Stimson Carrow Award

Howard Chivian Memorial Award

Dr. Jeffrey M. Cornelius Tribute Fund Award

Rida C. Davis Memorial Scholarship

Douty Foundation Scholarship

Richard M. Duris Scholarship for Excellence in Classical Music

Don Ewart Memorial Scholarship Fund

Else Fink Memorial Scholarship

Elizabeth K. Frescoln Award

Edwin B. Garrigues Scholarships

Olga Gagliardi Getto Award

Millard E. Gladfelter Scholarship

Professor Robert Grooters Memorial Scholarship

Jill D. Hamm Memorial Scholarship

Alan Harler Choral Award Fund

Frances Hutton Memorial Award

Jacobs Music Company Steinway Award

David M. Katz Scholarship

Michael S. Kavalhuna Scholarship

Julian F. King Jazz Studies Award

Helen Kwalwasser Prize

Ruth M. Lafferty Memorial Award

Helen Laird Tribute Award

Dr. Arthur Bennett Lipkin Memorial Fund

Frances G. Lumsden Memorial Scholarship

Klara Meyers Scholarship

Morton C. Meyers Memorial Scholarship

William T. and Carmen T. Middleberg Scholarship

New School Scholarship

Robert Page Graduate Choral Conducting Scholarship

H. E. Pike Memorial Award

Presser Foundation Scholarships

Armand I. and Ann McKernan Robinson Opera Scholarship Fund

Esther M. Schultz Award

Fred Schrader Memorial Scholarship Fund

William M. Singer Memorial

Elizabeth Smith String Scholarship

Glenn Steele Percussion Scholarship

David L. Stone Tribute Scholarship

Dr. Milton J. Sutter, Jr. Memorial Award

Alice Tully Scholarship

Louis and Peter Vennett Scholarship

Sidney and Mindelle Weinberg Voice Scholarship

Gerald Wingenroth Scholarship

Jeffrey Yagoda Memorial Award

Janet M. Yamron Scholarship

E. M. Yarnell Scholarship

Avedis Zildjian Scholarship

Dance Scholarships:

Terese Benzwie Dance in Education Award

Frances Bowden Scholarship

The Katherine Dunham Award for Creative Dance Research

Edrie Ferdun Award

Sarah Hilsendager Award

Rose Vernick Award

Return to menu

Special Programs

Music Technology Component

In addition to coursework leading to Bachelor's degrees in Music, the Boyer College of Music and Dance offers a 36-credit component in Music Technology to qualified music majors. This component, which is distributed over a student's freshman through senior years, normally results in a five-year program.

The music technology component provides a structured sequence of courses for those students who desire to use new technologies to enhance their skills as performers, composers, teachers, and scholars. Courses focus on the creative, performance, and pedagogical aspects of music technology. See Music Technology Component under Programs and Music Education. 

Music Preparatory Division and Community Music Scholars Program of the Boyer College of Music and Dance

Mark Huxsoll, Director
www.temple.edu/boyer/community/music-prep/index.asp
215-204-1512

Temple Music Prep provides lifelong, non-credit learning opportunities in music and dance to the Greater Philadelphia community. As a division of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, Music Prep is uniquely able to combine university expertise with Philadelphia’s outstanding cultural assets, assuring excellence in experience and results.

Programming includes Early Childhood Music Foundations beginning with newborns, Movement and Dance Classes for children through teens, individual instruction in all instruments and voice, and classes specially designed for adults. Music Prep is also an authorized provider of Act 48 credits for Pennsylvania educators.

A major component is the Center for Gifted Young Musicians, which serves those students with exceptional ability and motivation. The Community Music Scholars Program serves students with need from over fifty public schools, allowing access to affordable quality instruction.

Temple Music Prep is a member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

Key Program Components:

• Individual lessons from an outstanding faculty in orchestral instruments, piano, guitar, voice, composition and jazz techniques are offered for children and adults.

Suzuki instruction in violin, cello, guitar, and piano is also offered for young children. In the "talent education method" of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, children learn to play music with the same enjoyment and fluency with which they learn language.

• Early Childhood Music Foundations is an innovative program in early childhood music education that has a national reputation for excellence.  In a carefully planned sequence of music learning, the program uses the natural human inclination for chanting, singing and movement as the first steps in the musical understanding of melody and rhythm.   

• Movement and Dance classes take children through a sequential, age-specific dance program. Offerings include: Creative Movement (3 & 4 yrs.), Music and Movement (5 through 7 yrs.), Modern Dance (8 yrs. through teens in three levels) and Ballet Technique (pre-teens & teens).

• Basic Musicianship classes are offered in three progressive levels. The goal of these classes is to develop musicianship by integrating aural, written, vocal, and tactile skills. By using movable "Do" solfege, students learn to make the connection between musical notation and sound. Level three is also offered as an advanced standing music theory course, earning a high school senior college credit at the Boyer College of Music and Dance.

• Adult classes are designed to provide opportunities for personal growth and professional development. Offerings include: classes in learning to play piano, learning to play guitar, learning to sing, Speaking with Confidence, or in Suzuki piano teacher training; lectures to prepare music listeners for their next concert or opera; as well as individual study in instruments and voice. Pennsylvania educators are eligible to receive Act 48 credit for most of these offerings.

• The Center for Gifted Young Musicians is the component of Music Prep that focuses on the training of exceptionally-gifted students who have the ability and willingness to make a serious commitment to music. By audition only.

Instrumental Division (for strings)
The Center's instrumental program provides a comprehensive package of music instruction and performance for young musicians who have demonstrated the greatest potential for musical achievement. Emphasis in this program is placed on the development of superior musical skills through large and small ensemble performance. The faculty is made up of the finest artist/teachers in the region, including members of The Philadelphia Orchestra and professors from Temple's own Boyer College of Music and Dance.

Young Artists Harp Ensemble

The Young Artists Harp Ensemble offers pedal and lever harp students ages 10 through high school the opportunity to participate in a group ensemble experience with a conductor as well as in student-led chamber music settings. Participants are also eligible to attend monthly studio master classes by Philadelphia Orchestra principal harpist, Elizabeth Hainen at the Boyer College of Music and Dance. Students may also have the opportunity to collaborate with other Temple Music Prep ensemble groups.

The Festival of Young Musicians
The Festival of Young Musicians has long been the centerpiece of the Center for Gifted Young Musicians. Held annually in late April/early May, it consists of a series of concerts throughout the region that feature all the performers in the Center.

• The Community Music Scholars Program: Upper Division provides weekly individual instruction, music theory and ensemble experience at a nominal fee for young instrumentalists. These Philadelphia school students with need are nominated by their school music teachers and accepted by audition.
  
  
• The Philadelphia String Project at Temple University is aligned with the National String Project Consortium (NSPC) a coalition of String Project sites at universities across the United States that exchange ideas and learn from each other but operate completely independently. The NSPC is dedicated to increasing the number of children playing stringed instruments, addressing the critical shortage of string teachers in the US and supporting public school string programs.  Participating students receive twice weekly instruction taught by a Master Teacher and supported by Temple University undergraduate music education and performance string interns.

The Boyer College of Music Preparatory and Extension Division is located at Temple University's Center City Campus, 1515 Market Street, in the heart of metropolitan Philadelphia at the hub of the Regional Transit System.

For further information concerning curricula and fees, write to: Temple Music Preparatory Division, 1515 Market Street, Suite 501, Philadelphia, PA 19102, or e-mail: musicprep@temple.edu or phone: 215-204-1512. You can also visit the web site at: www.temple.edu/boyer/community/music-prep/index.asp.

Return to menu

Facilities

Presser Hall, opened in 1967, is the center of musical activity at Temple University. This building houses practice rooms, classrooms, ensemble rehearsal rooms, teaching studios, faculty offices, a 16-station computer classroom, student and faculty lounges, a large listening and viewing library, and the Presser Learning Center. Presser Hall's performance facilities include Klein Recital Hall and Arronson Rehearsal Hall.  Presser Hall houses the Music Studies Department, the Music Education Department, the wind, brass, and Percussion programs of the Instrumental Department, the Choral Activities Department, the Department of Voice and Opera, and the programs in Music Therapy and Jazz Studies.

The nationally recognized Presser Center for Research and Creativity in Music, located on the first floor of Presser Hall, houses over 6,000 books, recordings, periodicals, videotapes, audio tapes, classroom instruments, and other materials used in the preparation of music teachers and music therapists. Included in the computer classroom is the hardware and software necessary for future teachers and therapists to become knowledgeable about the role of computers in music and administration.

The Presser Hall Listening Library houses a collection of more than 10,000 recordings and tapes, 6,000 compact discs, hundreds of video tapes and DVDs, reference books, and scores. Music listening and viewing assignments for courses in music history, theory, composition, jazz, education, and literature can be completed with this collection, which spans music history and performance from the earliest times to the present. A larger collection of music books and scores is found in Paley Library.

The Boyer College's Rock Hall was extensively renovated for music and dedicated in 1994 in recognition of the generous support of Dr. Milton Rock and the late Mrs. Shirley Rock. Located at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue on Temple University's Main Campus, Rock Hall houses the Office of the Dean, the string and chamber music programs of the New School Institute, the programs in Music Composition, the Keyboard Department, the Early Music Program, the Alice Tully Library, three state-of-the-art computer/electronic laboratories for music and dance, practice rooms, classrooms, and a 325-seat chamber music recital hall.

The Experimental MIDI studio in Rock Hall features a variety of voice modules controlled by a computer workstation, a multi-channel mixer, and digital and analog recording facilities. Students are encouraged to design their own libraries of timbres for use in composition. The computer synthesis studio uses several computer workstations with expanded disk memory, digital and analog recording equipment, and a broad range of software for music synthesis. Most hardware and software titles in the Boyer College Computer Labs are identical to those in the new TECH Center's dedicated Music Lab, enabling students to work on projects in multiple venues.

The Boyer College added a 3-story addition to Presser Hall in 2009 which contains 21 additional practice rooms, three large classrooms, teaching studios, administrative offices, the Center for Arts and Quality of Life, and a recording studio.

The Boyer College's Department of Dance has its administrative, faculty, institute, and student offices housed in 1700 North Broad Street. Dance classes are held in three large dance studios in Pearson Hall where there are additional support spaces as well as two small teaching studios for smaller groups. Dance classes and performances are held in Conwell Dance Theater in Conwell Hall, a 125-seat black box theater.

As of the 2011-2012 academic year, the College presents its largest ensembles in performance in the Temple Performing Arts Center.  This iconic building – formerly the Baptist Temple of Philadelphia – was specifically converted into a performing arts complex capable of housing a full symphony orchestra and choir.  Boyer’s symphony orchestra, choirs, wind symphony, percussion ensemble and other large ensembles all perform in this venue.  In addition, the Temple Performing Arts Center is also available to the College for recording sessions, rehearsals, faculty concerts and other significant events.

Also utilized by the Boyer College is the third floor of Mitten Hall where the Temple Opera Theater's rehearsal, administrative and faculty offices are housed along with the Opera Listening and Study Library, and the scene, costume, and prop shops.  Tomlinson Theater, located across the street from Presser Hall, is used for on-campus large ensemble performances and for the twice yearly staged opera productions. A 55-seat smart classroom for music and dance instruction is housed in the Tuttleman Learning Center.

In July of 2012, the Boyer College of Music and Dance became part of Temple University's Center for the Arts, a comprehensive administrative restructuring of all of the Arts programs on Temple's campus.  The combined programs now include the Boyer College of Music and Dance, Tyler School of Art, and the Division of Theater, Film and Media Arts.  With the oversight of all these areas by the Vice Provost for the Arts and Dean of the Center, Dr. Robert Stroker, the possibilities for collaborations among all of the arts programs on Temple's campus have significantly increased.

Return to menu