The Department of Music at Santa Clara University provides an intellectual and stimulating artistic environment fostering individual expression and creativity through the study of music and musical performance.
About Our Program
The Department of Music offers a degree program leading to the bachelor of arts in music as well as a minor in music. A minor in musical theatre is available in conjunction with the Department of Theatre and Dance. The Department of Music's curriculum is designed to provide students of diverse backgrounds with the skills necessary to comprehend, perform, and appreciate music's role in human history and its power to enhance the lives of all people. Because individual study and performance is essential to the expression and acquisition of music as a language and art form, private instruction and membership in all departmental music ensembles is available to all Santa Clara students.
Student Spotlights
A'Zhae Turay
A'Zhae Turay, an engineering and music double major, was a winner of the Concerto Aria competition. A'Zhae also won the Descalzi Award this year.
0605: A'Zhae Turay Senior FeatureRebecca An
Rebecca An was a winner of the Concerto-Aria and a Goldwater Scholar this year. A biochemistry major, Rebecca wants to redesign how cancer drugs find their targets.
0512: Goldwater Scholars
Ensembles
Faculty & Staff
Christina Zanfagna
Music Professor Christina Zanfagna and Film/Communication Professor Michael Whalen are collaborating on a documentary entitled BLACKITALIAN -- a journey into the cultural contact zone of Blacks and Italians. Moving between the United States and Italy, the film explores the collision and synthesis of Black and Italian cultures through music, film, and foodways. This is a story about how social outsiders move to the inside and create new forms of culture and belonging, challenging us to confront our differences and understand our entwined histories.
Read More
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Professor Teresa McCollough celebrates 35 years at Santa Clara University and reflects on the path she has forged as a professional pianist, teacher, and advocate of new music.
News & Events
His return to campus for the Sinatra Series marks a full-circle moment of performing and teaching at the place where he began his classical music journey.
Our Stories
From orchestra and choir to jazz and wind ensemble, Santa Clara’s Music Department gives students across every major a place to keep creating, performing and building community through music.
Santa Clara University has many hidden gems, and Music @ Noon is one of them.
Life After SCU
His return to campus for the Sinatra Series marks a full-circle moment of performing and teaching at the place where he began his classical music journey.
Riley Carpenter ’25 found a well-rounded education at Santa Clara, designing cutting-edge superconducting thin-film dark matter sensors while pursuing his passions in the humanities and arts.
Today, the Guggenheim fellow and professor at the Peabody Institute performs alongside live instrumentalists, using technology to manipulate sounds in real time to create a vibrant sonic universe.
From concrete formwork construction to a music doctorate scholar, Isaac Raven ’15 has put his SCU degrees to work!
