The Berea College Music Department assumes leadership in the musical arts area for the campus. The Department offers private instruction in several instruments, and a variety of large and small instrumental and vocal ensembles. In addition, the Department offers a clearly defined succession of courses leading to a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music, Music Education—Vocal, and Music Education—Instrumental. 

Graduates receive a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Music or a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Music Education with Vocal or Instrumental Emphasis. Both Music Education programs lead to P-12 teacher certification. A minor in Music is also available. Students often pair their Music major with a minor in Business, Marketing, or social sciences like Psychology.

Berea’s five-story Presser Music Building is one of the finest music facilities of any small college. It includes a 240-seat acoustically superior recital hall with a large tracker organ and superior digital recording equipment, large and small ensemble rehearsal rooms, modern computer and piano laboratories, ensemble libraries and offices, practice rooms (many with grand pianos), teaching studios, multi-media classrooms, seminar rooms, and a student lounge.

Choose to participate in a wide variety of ensembles including the Black Music Ensemble, Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, Treble Singers, Afro-Latin Percussion, Bluegrass Ensemble, Mariachi Ensemble, Contemporary Percussion, Folk Roots Ensemble, Wind and Jazz Ensembles.

Students have performed in many of the world’s great concert venues, including Music Hall in Cincinnati, Constitution Hall in DC, the Beijing Concert Hall, the Vatican in Rome, the Duomoin Sienna, the Dom in Salzburg, the Abby Church in Melk, the Jesuitenkirchein in Lucerne, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Basilica, and the National Cathedral in DC.

The Music program offers more than twenty work positions where students work one-on-one with Berea’s distinguished
music faculty. Students assist faculty in classrooms as well as in the rehearsal hall.

Berea Music and Music Education graduates find employment in a wide variety of occupations and career fields, including:

The Berea College Music Department recognizes that music is an essential component of a liberal arts education.  We are committed to creating an educational environment that combines the academic rigors of the discipline with the artistic standards of performance.

Through music, the Berea College Music Department affirms the college’s mission by:

Berea College | Presser Hall | CPO 2194 | Berea, KY 40404 | 859-985-3466