Department of Fine and Performing Arts
Dr. Judy Guilbeaux-James, Department Chair
Ms. Ashley Terrago, Administrative Assistant
The Department of Fine and Performing Arts offers the Bachelor of Music degree with three concentrations in Performance, Secondary Education, and Music Technology and Business Entrepreneurship, providing professional and pre-professional training for its majors. Additionally, the department offers minors in four disciplines: Dance Studies, Visual Arts, Music, and Theatre Arts. The department also serves as a major cultural center and resource for the University, offering a wide range of activities and courses that promote the aesthetic development of the general population. A continuing series of exhibitions, staged in the beautiful Hayden Fine Arts Gallery, are open to the Southern University and greater Baton Rouge communities.
All majors and minors in the department are required to participate in co-curricular organizations and/or activities of respective programs (e.g., music ensembles, theatrical productions, dance performances, art exhibits), which serve as laboratories for training in their respective disciplines.
Admission Requirement
Applicants to the music program must audition in a major area of performance for admittance to one of the music curricula. In addition, entering freshmen are required to take a placement examination testing aural ability and knowledge of elementary theory. Provisional admittance is granted to applicants whose placement results indicate the need for preparatory study in theory and/or performance. All students are encouraged to have pre-college work in basic theory as well as study in performance areas, i.e., piano, voice and instrumental.
Degree Requirement
Majors are required to attend the weekly performance and recital class, which is part of the applied music and departmental requirement. The performance requirement also includes attendance at a stipulated number of faculty and other artist recitals, performances by departmental ensembles, and other specified performances on and off campus. Majors must fulfill the performance requirement for the duration of enrollment in applied music or for a minimum of eight semesters. Minors must fulfill the same requirements for the duration of enrollment in applied music.
Majors are required to be in continuous enrollment in applied music through completion of the senior recital during the last semester in residence, which is a requirement for majors in the Bachelor of Music with a concentration in education may prepare a senior project in lieu of the senior recital.
Transfer Credit:
Requirements for admission to programs in music are described in the music area section of this catalog. Students who transfer from other divisions of the University and accredited colleges and universities must meet the same eligibility requirements stated above. The College of Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies will determine the acceptability of transfers credits to the respective degree programs and may decline to accept transfer credit for any course when the grade earned is lower than a “C.”
Bachelor of Music-Performance
Bachelor of Music-Performance with Teaching Certificate
Music Minor