School of Music

Academic Department

Music at SFSU offers 10 specialties: from violin to video game scoring, vibraphone to voice. Perform, create and innovate in the city by the bay and foster your artistic and professional growth.

Why Study Music at SFSU?

From violin to video game scoring, vibraphone to voice or any one of our many other areas of study, you can perform, create and innovate in the city by the bay. We will help foster your artistic and professional growth.   

We have been an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music since 1963. We offer 24 scholarships and awards to our students.  

Specialization

We offer a diverse range programs, or specialties, for you to choose from: 

Choral Performance • Composition (including Game Scoring and Film Scoring) • Electronic Music • Ethnomusicology • Instrumental Performance • Jazz Performance • Music Education • Music History • Piano Performance • Vocal Performance

 

Music instructor conducts an ensemble of string musicians during a rehearsal.

Engaged Faculty

Get one-to-one attention from our faculty advisers, who are renowned in the performing arts.

 

 

Instructor holding a folder speaks to students during a classroom presentation.

Exceptional Careers

Our programs offer development of music educators and performers who will perpetuate the finest musical traditions in highly diverse musical communities.

Our Programs

Related Organizations

  • Morrison Chamber Music Center

    Since the 1950s, the Morrison Chamber Music Center has offered free concerts and topflight educational programs to develop new audiences and provide future generations of performers with mentorship by the world’s greatest practitioners.

In a sepia-tone headshot, Kent Nagano wraps his fist around a conductor’s baton

From Our Community

There are so many professors whom I remember vividly today, who challenged and really pushed me very hard during my time. ... For this extraordinary education, which helped me realize my talents, I’d like to thank San Francisco State University with all my heart for having allowed me to share ideas of arts with a larger public.
Kent Nagano (M.A., ’76)
Grammy Award-winning conductor

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Anthony Joerel Garcia and Sarah Star sing while holding microphones and standing behind easels and in front of an electric guitarist and a red curtain

Jazz and Tacos: SFSU event provides students with musical nourishment

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