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Music Composition and Theory at UTSA

Composition/Theory Faculty
New Music Events at UTSA
Theory diagnostic/proficiency exams
Helpful Music Theory Links

Composition at UTSA:

Composition/Theory Faculty

Dr. James Scott Balentine, Professor of Music Theory, Composition, and Jazz Studies
email: james.balentine@utsa.edu

Jenny Beavers, A.B.D., Lecturer in Music Theory

Dr. Stacey Davis, Associate Professor of Music Psychology and Music Theory
email: stacey.davis@utsa.edu

Dr. David Heuser, Professor of Music Theory, Composition and Electronic Music
email: david.heuser@utsa.edu

Dr. Laura Kelly, Lecturer in Music Theory
email: laura.kelly@utsa.edu

Morgan King, Lecturer in Music, Jazz Theory
email: clarence.king@utsa.edu

Dr. Christine Linial, Assistant Professor of Music Theory
email: christine.amos@utsa.edu

James Syler, Lecturer in Composition, Music Theory, Music History
email: james.syler@utsa.edu

Applying to the UTSA Music Composition Program

The UTSA Department of Music offers a Bachelor of Music with a Composition Emphasis. This degree is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. For application materials, use the "admissions" link available on the left or contact the Department of Music office at:

University of Texas at San Antonio
Department of Music
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249-1644

Phone: (210) 458-4354
Fax: (210) 458-4381

Auditions (on the applicant's principal instrument) are required of all music majors for placement into ensembles and private instruction. Contact the Department of Music office or the area in question (piano, voice, strings, winds, percussion) for more information about auditions.

Applicants to the composition program are also required to interview with the composition faculty (Dr. Balentine and/or Dr. Heuser) This interview will allow the faculty to see the applicant's compositions and discuss the degree with them. Applicants should bring:

  • One to three compositions (choose your best ones). Bring scores and recordings, if available.
  • A list of all of your compositions

If you have further questions about the composition program, contact Dr. David Heuser.

Studying Composition at UTSA

Composition Lessons
Composition lessons are one on one with a member of the faculty. Preference for a particular teacher will be honored, subject to the constraints of individual faculty teaching loads. Students are free to change teachers during their course of study, and are indeed encouraged to do so. Composition majors typically receive weekly private lessons, and also meet together a number of times each semester as a group seminar for discussion of issues of mutual interest, presentations by guest composers, and the like.

Typically students begin taking composition lessons their sophomore year, after completing Basic Skills of Music II. This is done to ensure that students have a basic music theory foundation and an adequate musical vocabulary so that student and teacher can communicate effectively in lessons. Advanced students can request that lessons begin during the first year if they wish.

Composition students are expected to compose music in a wide variety of media. The faculty believes that the best training a young composer can have, regardless of his or her ultimate interests, is thorough grounding in the techniques of Western art music (the "classical" tradition). With training such as this as a background, composers can go on to write virtually whatever type of music they wish. Aside from this, the composition faculty do not promote any particular compositional style or ideology. Faculty and students composers alike represent many diverse stylistic outlooks, and students are encouraged to explore these both through composing and listening.

Students electing the Composition emphasis must interview with the Composition Committee for approval to pursue the Composition emphasis at the upper-Department level. Typically this interview takes place after the student's sophomore year.

Performance Opportunities
There are regular opportunities for students to arrange performances of the music they write. There is typically one Composition Area Recital each semester on which all students taking composition lessons are expected to have at least one piece performed. There have also been recitals devoted to electronic, multi-media and video works (usually created at the UTSA Electronic Music Studio). In addition, students are encouraged to have their music performed on MUS 2001 concerts (which are regularly scheduled throughout the year on Tuesday mornings at 11:00AM), recitals given by other students or to put on ad-hoc recitals themselves, either singly or in groups. Click here for information on upcoming (and past) events, including programs.

All composition majors must give a Senior Recital of their music. The Student?s Senior Recital (MUS 4561) shall include a selection of the student?s compositions totaling a minimum of 30 minutes. The student will submit completed musical scores, representing a majority of the proposed recital program, to an examining committee the semester prior to that of the recital. The examining committee shall determine the acceptability of the recital program.

Electronic Music
Two courses allow students to utilize the UTSA Electronic Music Studio: MUS 3123: Introduction to Electronic and Computer Music and MUS 3172: Composition in Electronic Media. (MUS 3123 is a prerequisite for MUS 3172.) Composition majors must also take MUS 3313: Digital Music Production . Students who are particularly interested in learning about and composing with computers and synthesizers can take other courses in music technology offered by the music department. Due to the increased emphasis on technology in society, not to mention the increased job opportunities, all composition students are required to take MUS 3123: Introduction to Electronic and Computer Music. Upper-Department level composition students can substitute MUS 3172: Composition in Electronic Media for extra semesters of MUS 4142: Composition III. Like Composition III, Composition in Electronic Media may be repeated for credit; the course is essentially an electronic and computer music composition lesson.

Courses in Music Theory and Other Subjects
All music majors are required to take four semesters of music theory courses (Basic Skills of Music I-IV), as well as four semester of aural skills courses (Aural Skill I-IV). The additional music theory course required of composition majors (MUS 3133: Analysis of Twentieth-Century Music and MUS 4113: Composition with Contrapuntal Techniques) are upper-Department level courses, taken after all of the other music theory courses have been successfully completed. Students can also opt to take MUS 4163: Topics in Music Theory.

The other courses required of composition majors (MUS 3252: Advanced Studies in Music: Music Since 1950 topic, and MUS 3143: Orchestration) are also upper-Department level courses. Music Since 1950 a music history course which deals with the recent past and current trends in art music throughout the world. Study in instrumentation and orchestration is a basic part of any composer's education. All of these courses are designed to give students tools to become better composers, theorists and musicians.

Facilities

The UTSA Electronic Music Studio
Located in ARTS 1.02.06. For detailed information click on the link above.

Student Computing Lab
The student computing lab is located in room Arts 3.01.30B.

Recital Halls
The 500-seat Recital Hall is available for student use. The hall includes a recording booth so that student performances can be taped.

There is also a 300-seat theater in the Buena Vista Street Building at the UTSA Downtown campus.

The John Peace Library
The UTSA Library Multimedia Center is located on the second level of the John Peace Library Building (JPL 2.01.08) at the 1604 Campus. It houses a variety of non-print materials and formats. Included in collection are video recordings, compact discs, audio recordings, interactive compact discs, CD-ROMs, slides, software, curriculum materials, and educational and psychological tests. The Multimedia Center also serves as the Music Library with listening facilities and a large collection of musical recordings. Musical scores and books can be found in the general collection of the JPL.

Recording Studio
The downtown recording studio is operated by Mark Rubinstein.

Opportunities

Guest Composers and Performers
The Department of Music has composers and performers who specialize in new music occasionally come to UTSA as guests to speak to students. In recent years these have included composers Samuel Adler, Robert Xavier Rodriquez, Libby Larsen, Phillip Glass, Jason Robert Brown, Sir Malcolm Arnold, David Ashley White, Joseph Klein, Robert T. Smith, Hye Kyong Lee, Timothy Kramer, William James Ross, Robert Nelson, Jake Romig, S. Beth May and Michael Horvit; composer/flutist Robert Dick; composer/bass clarinetist Michael Lowenstern, composer/guitarist Alan Hirsh, composer/pianist Roger Steptoe, pianist and conductor James Lowe, pianist Richard Smith, pianist Jeffrey Jacob, clarinetist Robert Walzel, pianist Evelyn Luest, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Michigan Chamber players with Keiko Abe, and the SAVAE Vocal Arts Ensemble.

New Music Concerts
Each year the Department of Music puts on several concerts of 20th-century and new music as part of its New Music Festival/New Music series (see programs for 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2003-2004, 2005.) In addition, there is usually one Composition Area Recital each semester. Faculty and student recitals and ensembles at the Department of Music give numerous concerts throughout the year, many of which include or feature works from the recent past. In 2005 UTSA hosted the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI) Region VI Conference and in 2006 San Antonio hosted the SCI National Conference, which included many concerts at UTSA. For an up to date list of new music concerts for the current semester, as well as links to concert from last semester, click here.

The Reed Holmes Memorial Award for Composition
Each year an outstanding UTSA Department of Music Composition Student is awarded the Reed Holmes Memorial Award for Composition. Dr. Reed Holmes (1952-1996), was a professor of composition and theory at UTSA, and the founder of the UTSA Electronic Music Studio. Below is a list of winners:

  • 2008 - Gerardo Garcia
  • 2007 - Brent Ferguson
  • 2006 - Nathan Campbell
  • 2005 - Nathan Campbell
  • 2004 - Jesus Gachupin
  • 2003 - Jack W. Stamps
  • 2002 - Jake Owen
  • 2001 - Arturo Garcia
  • 2000 - co-winners: Patrick Morgan and Jake Owen
  • 1999 - no award
  • 1998 (the first year the award was given) - Ryan Yard

The City of San Antonio
The musical life of San Antonio includes the adventurously programmed San Antonio Symphony.

Another important new music performing group is the SOLI Chamber Ensemble, whose repertoire ranges from standard classic works of the 20th-century to newly commissioned pieces. The Olmos Ensemble, another chamber group, regularly features newer works on their concerts, as does the Cactus Pear Music Festival and Camerata San Antonio. Additionally, the Composers Alliance of San Antonio (CASA), a group made up of San Antonio Composers, gives regular concerts of their music.

Additionally there are a number of other groups, festivals and institutions putting on concerts throughout the year, many of which include new works (and many featuring UTSA faculty as performers). These events are often publicized to the students by the composition faculty.

Other Opportunities for Composition Students
State, regional, national and international composition contests are routinely publicized on the bulletin boards outside of Dr. Balentine's and Dr. Heuser's offices. Upcoming events of interest and notices of importance are also posted here, so these boards should be checked regularly by composition students.

Music Theory Links

These sites can provide additional information and drill for topics covered in Aural Skills and Basic Skills of Music courses, especially subjects covered in the first year of theory. The music theory faculty does not necessarily endorse everything on these sites, and students should be aware that there will be disagreements between UTSA courses and the information on these sites, or the way that information is presented, or even what is emphasized. What is taught in the classroom at UTSA takes precedence in our courses. For composition and new music links, see this page.

Email any problems, questions or requests about this page to david.heuser@utsa.edu

The University of Texas at San Antonio Department of Music
One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, Texas 78249
210.458.4354
Questions & Comments
©2003-2004 University of Texas at San Antonio