Music of Minnesota - Education

Education

Minnesotan law provides that public elementary and middle schools offer at least three and require at least two courses in the following four arts areas: dance, music, theater and visual arts. Public high schools must offer at least three and require at least one of the following five arts areas: dance, media arts, music, theater or visual arts. Students may take music at the elementary and middle school ages, and many choose to take the subject as an elective in high school, where schools often organize marching bands, choruses and other performance opportunities. The Perpich Center for Arts Education is a school of choice which draws students from across the state, and has an extensive modern and classical music education program.

The MacPhail Center for Music employs instructors from all over the world, who teach classes on 35 different instruments, the Suzuki method, and art therapy, to more than 7,200 students each year at 45 locations.

Higher education in music is an important part of the programs at several of Minnesota's universities, including the University of Minnesota, which offers the Bachelors of Music degree in music education, therapy or performance, and graduate degrees in education, conducting and musicology. The School of Music also offers masters and doctorate degrees. The Duluth campus offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre. McNally Smith College of Music, a college of contemporary music based in Saint Paul, offers Bachelors of Music in music performance, recording technology, and music business, and Associates Degrees and diploma programs in recording technology as well as the nation's first diploma in hip hop.