Academic credit for lessons, scholarships for music majors, and an active recruitment process through the Office of Admissions begins. Department offerings include courses in theory, history, early music, jazz, computer music, and conducting, some of which attract more than 300 students a semester. The number of music majors grew from ten in 1981 to the current level of fifty. The department sponsors over eighty concerts and lectures a year. The Symphony Orchestra has ten professional principals and thirty five professional musicians offer private music lessons for credit.
Classes are available in jazz improvisation and opera performance.