Master's Course in Music

The Graduate School of Music reorganized its master's degree programs in 2007. The former classification of specialties, that is three programs consisting of six different areas of study: Composition (Composition, Musicology), Voice, and Instrumental Music (Piano, Strings, Winds, and Percussion), were incorporated into one unified Music program. This single program aims to establish a flexible system for interdisciplinary study and education beyond the boundaries of specialization while it offers opportunities for solid specialized researches. As a result, students can pursue their interests with more flexibility.

Specifically, the master's degree program at the Graduate School of Music covers seven areas of study: Composition, Musicology, Voice, Keyboard Instruments, Strings, Winds, and Percussion. Each of the areas is establishing classes in cooperation with other areas, even with the liberal arts classes and the Graduate School of Fine Arts. Such classes planned and established by more than two different areas of study are called "Project". Projects currently in operation are Composite Arts Project (Opera Project and Art Management Project, implemented in cooperation with the School of Art) and Music Project (Chamber Music Project, Orchestra Project, and Wind Orchestra Project).

There are considerable latent social needs for music. In other words, they are ample opportunities to make a contribution to communities through music. The master's degree program at the Graduate School of Music intends to develop individuals who can discover and at the same time, create social needs for music through their musicianship while refining their abilities as genuine professionals. The program provides the necessary support for this purpose. As it has established the Art Management course recently, its flexible education effectively cultivates the talents and interests of individual students.

Aichi University of the Arts, surrounded by a vast green forest in Nagakute City, to the east of neighboring Nagoya City, is a "university of fine arts in the woods." Its fundamental policy of education is to provide "small-class education" based on thorough personal guidance. The combined number of students across both undergraduate faculties and graduate schools of art and music studying in this rich natural environment is at most around 1000.

If it is assumed that artists work is to put their own soul into their performances and works, the fact that there have been a large number of painters and composers since ancient times who have escaped from the urban hustle and bustle to place themselves amid the tranquility of nature to pursue their creative activities tells me of today that it was inevitable and certain for them. The prevalence of the Internet in the present day has given people an easy access to knowledge and information, yet at the same time may have kept them away from the kind of understanding which comes from the human senses and physicality. I think this, too, is where people find the meaning and value of learning art in an environment richly endowed with nature.

On the other hand, our university values connections with society. In June 2019, Aichi University of the Arts opened a satellite gallery, "SA・KURA," in Sakae, in downtown Nagoya City. It is a wonderful space for not only exhibitions but also mini-concerts. The lively art expression activities by our faculty members and students, such as regular orchestra concerts at Aichi Prefectural Art Theater, public opera performances at the hall of Nagakute Cultural Center, and various art courses, are the very core, the keystone of our dissemination to society.