Join us and support Oxy’s Music program within The Oxy Campaign For Good. Your generosity toward the people, programs and places of Music will help position us for larger, visionary investments in the future.
Because of the generosity of Oxy leaders, we recently opened the Choi Family Music Production Center, which houses a recording studio, control room and music production/film scoring computer lab. The department is now poised to take the program to the next level, taking advantage of a growing national reputation that has garnered the praise of Billboard magazine in the past two years. To fully realize our ambitions, we continue to seek partners who share our vision and will help us make it a reality. These partners will understand that a great music program needs great instruments, impressive practice and performing spaces, top-of-the-line technology and equipment, and, most of all, stellar faculty and passionate students.
In order to sustain our program’s recent expansion into areas like songwriting, music production and business while affirming our devotion to our distinct liberal arts ethos through music theory, history and performance, we need to strengthen our capacities. Along with our ongoing efforts to build endowed support for Music in the form of professorships, we must fortify the department by securing more foundational resources to support the people, programs and places during this current expansion phase, which will help position us for larger, visionary investments in the future.
Therefore, as part of The Oxy Campaign For Good, we seek these immediate investments:
Director of the Choi Family Music Production Center
This critical program management role would serve as an audio engineer and instructor in music technology including certification courses in industry standard audio-production software.
Endowed Music Lesson Funds
Taught by renowned local professionals, applied music lessons at the College provide students with valuable opportunities to learn through one-on-one instruction. These first-rate lessons require an additional fee separate from regular tuition; funding is critical to eliminating financial barriers to participation.
Percussion studio and additional practice rooms (Thorne and Booth)
Occidental has relatively few music practice rooms compared to our peer institutions. Further, the acoustics in existing rooms need to be improved. A state-of-the-art percussion studio and quality practice rooms will transform the teaching and learning experience for our instrumentalists and vocalists.
Reclaiming the orchestra pit in Thorne Hall
Created in 1989 during a renovation of Thorne Hall, the stage’s orchestra pit was closed up in the late 1990s. To support our reimagined Instrumental Program, we seek to reopen and restore this central performance space.
Herrick Memorial Chapel and Interfaith Center upgrade (acoustics, lighting, lift)
Completed in 1964, Occidental’s Herrick Memorial Chapel and Interfaith Center is in need of enhancements to its acoustics and lighting to improve its functionality as a key music venue on campus.