Integrated Musical Arts joins Laurier's program offerings

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The Faculty of Music is happy to announce the addition of Integrated Musical Arts (IMA) as a concentration within Laurier’s renowned Bachelor of Music. IMA has been designed for musicians who want to enter the music profession in production, performance, composition or song-writing.

Integrated Musical Arts focuses on experiential, self-directed project-centred learning and was created with the consideration that musicians must be versatile, and therefore competent in more than one musical discipline, in order to have a successful career.

"Integrated Musical Arts is one of the most innovative programs that I’ve ever seen," says Glenn Buhr; IMA Coordinator and music faculty member. "While teaching music at Laurier over the years, I’ve noticed that we often have a body of talented students who don’t fit the mould of our current offerings. IMA is the solution for those young musicians."

Each student is required to complete three self-directed final projects from a list of 11 options within the disciplines of creation, production and performance. A faculty advisor will aid in this process. Then, in consultation with the faculty advisor, the student will sketch out a plan for electives in support of these projects.

"Laurier's IMA is unique in Canada and designed to prepare young musicians for sustainable lifespan careers," says Glen Carruthers; dean of the Faculty of Music. "We take our responsibility to our students seriously and project-based experiential learning has been shown to be highly effective in ensuring career preparedness. As we update and modernize key elements of our undergraduate curriculum, this new program is an innovative and sector-leading step forward." 

Final projects in IMA could include:

• A 30-minute classroom presentation of original electronic music or sound art.
• A classroom performance of 30 minutes of original arrangements of pre-existing music featuring at least three different ensemble combinations.
• Conducting a 45-minute classroom performance with an ensemble of eight members or more

To learn more about Laurier’s Bachelor of Music visit www.wlu.ca/music. Questions? Email choosemusic@wlu.ca.