• Minimum admission range: 75%.
• Competitive admission range based on last year’s admitted students: 75%.
• English at 60%.
• Successful audition.
• Interview with a faculty member.
• Theory and ear training test (equivalent to Royal Conservatory of Music Advanced Rudiments).

Our unique academic partnership with Randolph College for the Performing Arts (RCPA) is designed to allow students to earn both their Bachelor of Music with a concentration in Self-Directed Studies and their Performing Arts diploma in only four years.

Learn more about our college transfer agreement.

Audition Options

Applicants will have the option to participate in a:

• In-person audition and interview at Laurier’s Waterloo campus.
• Pre-recorded video audition and a virtual Zoom interview.

Applicants may choose to bring their own accompanist or use one of Laurier’s professional coach-accompanists at no additional charge for an in-person audition.

If you cannot find a recording of your accompaniment for your pre-recorded video audition, one of our coach-accompanists can provide a recording (free of charge) for your Laurier audition. Your request must be submitted to musicauditions@wlu.ca four weeks prior to your audition.

Audition Repertoire

Your audition repertoire should be planned based on the instructions listed by instrument. Although official Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) certificates and training are not required, we provide suggested levels to ensure your audition will be competitive.

• Pianists: repertoire should be performed at a Grade 9 RCM or higher.
• Singers: repertoire should be performed at a Grade 8 RCM or higher.
• Instrumentalists: repertoire should be performed at a Grade 8 RCM or higher.

Don't hesitate to contact us at musicauditions@wlu.ca for questions regarding repertoire choices.

Audition Dates

Auditions run from January to April. Dates are available to applicants through Laurier’s Audition Portal. Two early virtual audition dates will be available on Dec. 4 and Dec. 11, 2021.

Additional Audition Information

Meet our auditions coordinator, find out how to apply, what happens after your audition, as well as more about our keyboard facilities on our auditions page.

Due to COVID-19, applicants for September 2022 entry will not be required to write a theory and ear training test. You will be asked about your theory background during your interview.

Depending on your previous experience and knowledge, you may be asked to complete a theory test at a later date so that you are fully prepared for university level theory.

Applicants will provide contact information for one reference in the Faculty of Music Online Audition Portal*. The Faculty of Music will contact references individually by email with a questionnaire about the musical abilities of the applicant.

*A link to the Audition Portal will be provided to you after Laurier receives your application.

An optional portfolio of past performances, composed and/or original music may be uploaded to the Audition Portal* through video or audio links. This does not replace your audition.

*A link to the Audition Portal will be provided to you after Laurier receives your application.

In this program, you’ll learn the fundamentals of composing while writing works for various ensembles.

For third and fourth year, you’ll study one-on-one with composition faculty members, exploring a variety of styles and mediums, including electronic and new media.

A weekly composers’ seminar will cover a range of interests pertaining to your work. In your final year, you’ll undertake a major project, which may be a work for a larger ensemble, a work of extended duration or a collaborative work in film, theatre, gaming or opera.

You will submit a portfolio to our Composition faculty at the end of second year, which must be approved to move into third year composition classes.

Highlights

• Our program incorporates cutting-edge technology, allowing you to collaborate creatively with others.
• Student composer concerts are presented five times a year. Your pieces will be performed by your fellow classmates and presented to the public.
• There are annual readings of student works by the Laurier Orchestra and the Penderecki String Quartet, Laurier’s professional Quartet-in-Residence.
• The Composers and Improvisers Association holds student events and shares composing opportunities.

If you wish to pursue a career in teaching music privately or at the elementary or secondary level, our Music Education major includes instruction in designing lessons from curriculum documents, using technology in the classroom, how to assess learning outcomes, classroom management along with the basics of conducting, instrumental and choral techniques and instruction in the methods, materials and philosophy of music education. It also leaves room for you to study a second teaching subject.

Music Education courses are taught by distinguished and experienced music specialists and in-school educators. You’ll have opportunities to gain in-school experience through volunteering in local schools organized by Laurier’s Student Association of Music Educators (SAME). SAME members participate in the Ontario Music Educators’ Association annual conference plus additional educational and social events. You’ll receive weekly lessons, masterclasses and ensemble work in this major.

Highlights

• Laurier’s Faculty of Education guarantees admission to their Bachelor of Education to a limited number of top-ranking music students upon graduation. Criteria includes maintaining a minimum B average and meeting their general admission requirements.
• Music Education graduates have been welcomed in education certification and graduate programs in many universities across Canada and internationally.
• You will have the opportunity to take teachable subjects housed in Laurier’s Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science or the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics.

This concentration is designed for musicians who want to enter the music profession in production, performance, and composition or songwriting after graduation.

Integrated Musical Arts (IMA) focuses on experiential, project-centred learning. It was created with the understanding that musicians must be versatile, and therefore competent in more than one musical discipline, in order to have a successful career in music.

In this concentration, each student is required to complete three self-directed final projects in musical disciplines of Creation, Production and Performance. With the help of the coordinator of the IMA program, each student chooses their three projects at the beginning of their third year of study, and, in consultation with the coordinator, the student sketches out a plan for a course of study to support the final projects.

Highlights

• IMA offers a flexible curriculum based on the students’ own interests and musical strengths.
• Students are encouraged to create partnerships that will carry forward into the professional world after graduation.
• Students present final projects in their final year of study, which provides them with a professional level portfolio in three musical disciplines.
• Students integrate practical skills in music production, performance and creation.

Music History, Theory, and Critical Analysis emphasizes academic study, while allowing continued performance opportunities through weekly lessons, masterclasses and ensemble work.

The program gives you flexibility in choosing from a range of music history and theory electives, allowing you to customize your studies around particular academic interests.

You will examine music across all periods of history, with opportunities to study popular music and music of other cultures. Our program emphasizes listening to and writing about music and delves more deeply into musical analytical and compositional procedures.

In year four, you may have the option of working one-on-one with a faculty member on a research project of your choosing.

This major serves as excellent preparation for graduate work in musicology, music theory, library science, or other allied disciplines for which a strong foundation of academic courses, research and analysis skills are important.

Highlights

• Opportunities to become a research assistant or peer tutor are available.
• Alumni have completed, or are currently in the process of completing, advanced degrees at many distinguished universities, including Florida State, Indiana, Michigan, McGill and others.
• Flexibility in Music History, Theory, and Critical Analysis allows options to customizing your music degree while allowing you freedom to take electives in areas outside of music.

Our performance major is for gifted students in piano, voice, organ, orchestral instruments, guitar and historical instruments, who intend to become professional performers and/or teachers of performance.

In the Performance major you can take advantage of 90-minute weekly lessons on top of participation in a Laurier ensemble, concerto competitions, student recitals, student composers’ concerts and chamber music recitals. In fourth year, you will present a 60-minute graduation recital highlighting your repertoire from the year.

If you demonstrate during your audition that you have the potential to succeed as a performer, you may be placed automatically in this major in first year.

Highlights

• Masterclass guest artists give you the chance to perform for the best of the best in the industry, including the likes of Dame Evelyn Glennie, Janina Fialkowska, Anton Kuerti, Adrianne Pieczonka, Karlheinz Essl, János Starker, Jeanne Lamon, André Laplante, Emerson String Quartet and many others.

This program is designed to give you a well-rounded musical education with the freedom to choose electives in a variety of subjects, both in music and outside of music.

In Self-Directed Studies, you’ll study your instrument or voice in weekly one-hour lessons and participate in at least one instrumental or vocal ensemble annually.

Courses will come from the areas of Culture and Society, Performance and Production and Style and Structure.

Starting in second year and with the assistance of the academic advisor and faculty mentor, students will map a purposeful pathway through their degree by selecting upper-level courses across the areas of Culture and Society, Performance and Production and Style and Structure with greater depth of study in the area of their choosing.