BA - The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

The Bachelor of Arts in Musicology welcomes students from diverse musical backgrounds and allows them to shape programs of study that reflect their individual interests and goals. In groundbreaking, unique courses that cover virtually every period, style, and genre, students learn to research, analyze, and understand many different musics: ancient and recent, classical and popular, Western and global, within culture and through a critical lens.

The major culminates in a year-long capstone project in which each student conceives and executes individual research on a specialized topic, ultimately presented as a substantial written essay or in an alternate format, such as a lecture-recital or video/audio presentation. Graduating seniors organize a public conference presenting their capstone work each spring. The major also includes a performance requirement, which can be fulfilled in a number of ways and does not require formal musical training.

Conference on Trauma and Disability in the Arts Brings Artists and Scholars Together
Have you ever heard the color green? How about tasted Miles Davis’s “Birth of the Cool”?  The phenomenon of experiencing something through unrelated senses is called synesthesia. Jenny Olivia Johnson,
2025-26 Season Brings Exciting Programming to Los Angeles and Beyond
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s 2025–26 season offers something for everyone, with over 200 public concerts, recitals and panel discussions at UCLA and throughout the community. True to
Thomas Hodgson Launches Music and Data Journal with UC Press
University of California Press is launching Music and Data, an annual, thematic, online-only journal, in 2026 under the co-editorship of Thomas Hodgson, University of California, Los Angeles, and Rujing Stacy Huang,

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