Music Composition

In Columbia College Chicago’s Music Composition BMus program, you’ll push your craft to a professional level in advanced coursework and in one-on-one lessons with our faculty of working professionals.

You’ll develop your creative voice as a composer and sharpen your ability to compose and produce for various media and the concert stage. Our emphasis is on modern and contemporary compositional techniques with a special focus on methods used by composers over the past 50 years. You will learn how to produce your compositions with industry-standard technology and equipment.

By your senior year, you will have completed rigorous courses in composition, arrangement and orchestration, and digital music production. You will also have participated in ensembles and taken lessons in your primary performance area.

You’ll have opportunities to interact with graduate students in the Music Composition for the Screen MFA program and collaborate with majors in other programs, such as Cinema and Television, Dance, Game Design, and Musical Theatre. You’ll complete coursework on film scoring, music for video games, and compositions for concert stage.

You’ll also take a series of private lessons in advanced composition and production. You’ll immerse yourself in your craft and create a strong portfolio of professionally produced compositions as you prepare to apply for graduate school or enter the industry as a composer, producer, or arranger.