UC Berkeley’s music program is booming, with the fastest-growing major on campus. Thanks to a newly retooled curriculum, students' modern interests are reflected in new songwriting classes, expanded performance ensembles, more digital music creation, and an easier way to double major.
However, this groundswell of interest has created a pressing challenge: how to meet the surging demand for private, one-on-one lessons.
The Department of Music provides complimentary lessons to every music major in a performance ensemble. This semester, the department had to reduce private lessons to 10 weeks per student (down from 12) to accommodate a modest and long-overdue raise for instructors. If it can’t fund a permanent $4 million endowment (or cover $150,000 a year), it will have to make difficult decisions around who it can afford to teach — and who will be asked to pay for private tutors.
“The number of students who desire those lessons has ballooned,” said David Milnes, the department chair and conductor of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. “We want to teach them all. We feel that music is good for everybody at all levels of ability, but we don't have the budget to serve them all, and they may not have the wherewithal to hire private music teachers. We want to raise the money to make this work.”
Read the rest of this story on the Division of Arts & Humanities website.