Step into the Bixler Art and Music Center and you’ll know that you’ve entered a unique place. You’re likely to hear Bach, Bruch or the beat of Colby’s African Drumming Ensemble coming from practice rooms, experience the arresting colors of student computer compositions, find the chorale polishing its program for an upcoming tour abroad or hear an a cappella group practicing a Lady Gaga song. Peek into faculty offices and you’ll see students at work with professors—tossing back and forth ideas for a senior thesis on Chopin, tackling a particularly tough choral harmonization, or preparing a concerto for
an upcoming performance with the orchestra. At Colby you’ll take challenging courses that teach you to see music as a rigorous academic discipline and an object of aesthetic delight. You will not only learn to think about music—and the world—in new ways, you will also build the sorts of abstract reasoning, writing, and oral skills that have allowed our graduates go on to careers in performance, arts management, journalism, teaching, library science, law, medicine, and a variety of other professions. If you are looking for passionate engagement with music as part of your college experience, we invite you to explore Colby's music department.
