Composition Studio

Back to Academic Programs

The composition department at Lamont is a dynamic and welcoming community centered on helping each student hone their compositional voice and technical skillset where you can grow, connect, and be inspired. Our studios are vibrant and collaborative, where composers challenge and support one another in pursuit of artistic excellence. Guided by Professors Sean Friar, Leanna Kirchoff, and Nathan Hall, students engage in individually tailored private lessons, composition seminars, and masterclasses with renowned guest composers. In Lamont’s composition studio, students celebrate each other’s successes and push one another to reach new artistic heights.

Portfolio Requirements

Composition Portfolios

Studying Composition at Lamont

At the Lamont School of Music, the composition studio centers on discovering and developing your unique musical voice. Whether you're passionate about writing for orchestra, creating immersive electro-acoustic soundscapes, crafting chamber or improvisational music, or blending genres entirely your own, our studio gives you the tools and support to shape your identity as a composer.

Your week centers around a private composition lesson tailored to your goals, plus a weekly composition seminar where you’ll connect with peers, learn from professional guest composers, and prepare for performances of your works. At Lamont, you’ll take a variety of elective courses—like music business, various musicology courses, and electronic music production—that let you chart a personalized path catered to your individual interests. Your schedule will also include participation in various ensembles of your choice—from Orchestra and Jazz to Bluegrass, Steel Drums, or North Indian Classical—building your musical fluency and diversifying the influences on your own work.

Lamont offers exceptional opportunities to get your compositions performed. You’ll compose for professional guest ensembles like NOW Ensemble or the Philip Glass Ensemble, collaborate with singers and instrumentalists on new works, and hear your music brought to life in frequent concerts and recordings—from the quarterly Lamont Composers Concert Series to innovative ensembles like the Modern Music Ensemble. At Lamont, your creative voice isn’t just developed—it’s performed, recorded, and celebrated. If you’re looking for a place to grow as a musician, artist, and individual, the Lamont composition studio offers a vibrant and supportive home.

12-18 composition students at Lamont

3 different opportunities per quarter to have your compositions performed

300+ performance opportunities per year

Faculty

Our world-class and stylistically diverse faculty bring expertise across the classical music spectrum, including orchestral and chamber music, opera, electronics, performance art, and more. Prof. Sean Friar, Chair of the Composition Department and winner of the Rome Prize, has received commissions from top ensembles like the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic Scharoun Ensemble for works ranging from orchestral and string pieces to a junk car percussion concerto and music for laptop orchestra. Award-winning composer Prof. Leanna Kirchoff, whose work has been performed at Carnegie Hall and featured in prominent festivals, brings decades of creative experience to the composition studio. Composer and artist Prof. Nathan Hall, a Fulbright Fellow to Iceland, has had his genre-blurring works performed and exhibited in 14 countries by groups such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Gay/Lesbian Chorus of San Francisco.

Sean Friar

Assistant Professor, Composition

Learn More

Leanna Kirchoff

Adjunct Faculty, Composition

Learn More

Nathan Hall

Adjunct Faculty, Composition

Learn More

Degree Programs

Portfolio Requirements

Undergraduate (BM, BA, and minor)
Undergraduate (BM and BA-Applied Music)*
- Submit a portfolio of 2-3 compositions, represented by scores and/or recordings. Applicants should submit works that best represent their artistic interests and creative abilities. It is recommended that your application include at least one notated score; if some or all of your work is for electronics, improvisation, or other media for which notated scores are not standard, you may submit only audio or video recordings, as appropriate.
- Recordings of notated works are optional but strongly encouraged. Live recordings or MIDI/electronic mockups are acceptable.
- If you also compose in other genres (jazz, songwriting, folk, etc.) and would like to include examples of this in your application, you may submit them as supplemental materials (scores and/or recordings) in addition to your main portfolio of works.
- Submit a résumé that includes:
  - Music education (e.g., teachers, degree programs, coursework, festivals)
  - Other musical activities (e.g., performances of your works, performance activity, teaching, research)
  - List of compositions (include instrumentation/medium, duration, year composed)
Undergraduate (Minor)
- Submit a portfolio of at least one composition.
- Recordings are optional but encouraged.
*Note: Classical composition applicants are encouraged, but not required, to provide evidence of proficiency on a musical instrument by uploading a video through the online application system.
Graduate (MM)
Graduate (MM)*
- Submit a portfolio of 2-3 compositions, represented by scores and/or recordings. Applicants should submit works that best represent their artistic interests and creative abilities. It is recommended that your application include at least one notated score; if some or all of your work is for electronics, improvisation, or other media for which notated scores are not standard, you may submit only audio or video recordings, as appropriate.
- Recordings of notated works are optional but strongly encouraged. Live recordings or MIDI/electronic mockups are acceptable.
- If you also compose in other genres (jazz, songwriting, folk, etc.) and would like to include examples of this in your application, you may submit them as supplemental materials (scores and/or recordings) in addition to your main portfolio of works.
- Submit a résumé that includes:
  - Music education (e.g., teachers, degree programs, coursework, festivals)
  - Other musical activities (e.g., performances of your works, performance activity, teaching, research)
  - List of compositions (include instrumentation/medium, duration, year composed)
*Note: Classical composition applicants are encouraged, but not required, to provide evidence of proficiency on a musical instrument by uploading a video through the online application system.

Graduate Applicants interested in a Music Theory GTA
If you would like to be considered for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) in Music Theory, please also include the following materials:
- An analytic essay or research paper that engages a music-theoretic issue. If applicants do not have a research paper from their undergraduate years, they may substitute significant counterpoint exercises, analytic graphs or tonal compositions, along with a narrative paragraph describing the work.
- Syllabi from your undergraduate theory courses. (If syllabi are unavailable, applicants may substitute this with a list of music theory and analysis courses they have taken with descriptions of the content covered in each.)
- Ask your recommenders to comment on your teaching abilities, or potential.
- Note that we may ask candidates for GTA positions to take a keyboard and sight-reading test via Skype.

View Jazz Composition Requirements

Interviews

Applicants who advance in the application process will then have an interview, either in person or over Zoom.

If you are selected to move forward in the application process, you will be interviewed by the composition faculty. The 20-minute interview will focus on the Composition faculty getting to learn about you, your compositional interests and musical background. For example, we may ask you about the works submitted in your portfolio, other composers or compositions that have influenced or inspired you, and what you would like to accomplish as a Composition major. We will also save a few minutes at the end for you to ask us any questions. This interview can happen either on Zoom or in person on a live audition day.

Click here to view the current year’s audition/interview dates.

Life After Lamont

Lamont students have worked with some of the most prestigious music organizations in the world. Alumni have performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolf Trap, Vancouver Symphony, Broadway, the West End, and San Francisco Opera. Lamont composers have premiered works at Carnegie Hall and the Monterey Jazz Festival, and conductors have led orchestras from Brazil to Hungary. Graduates of our Musicology and music theory programs hold posts at prestigious institutions nationwide. And our recording and production students have launched careers in Hollywood, editing soundtracks for films like Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

As part of their curriculum, Lamont composers take a variety of composition seminars with our composition faculty. Students learn a variety of advanced techniques in an encouraging atmosphere to help them develop their own artistic voice.
Lamont composition students