The Hybrid Summer Master of Arts in Music and Music Education (M.A. M&ME) at Teachers College, Columbia University, offers you an intellectually rigorous and creatively engaging education that prepares you for the challenges and rewards of teaching music in the 21st century.

The Hybrid Summer M.A. M&ME has no parallel, offering both in-person summer residencies and an online learning experience. Teachers College, Columbia University is the only Ivy League institution with a postgraduate Music and Music Education program and one of just a few universities that offers a hybrid M.A. in this area of study. With our M.A. M&ME, students get the best of everything: a world-class education, online coursework during the academic year, and two immersive Summer Residencies in New York City—one of the world’s premier cultural hubs.

As part of Teachers College, the music education master’s program gives you the opportunity to develop musical, pedagogical and leadership skills—in tandem. As a cohort-based program, it immerses you in a community of thinkers, practitioners, and scholars. You will share experiences and form bonds that impact your life throughout your time at Teachers College and long after you graduate.

In the music education master’s program you will grow as an educator, as a scholar and as a musician, with skills you can immediately apply to your classroom or studio. This graduate degree provides:

• A comprehensive understanding of music education, including the historical, philosophical, psychological, and sociological foundations of music education.
• Pedagogical flexibility that readies you to teach in a variety of educational settings, including K-12 schools, colleges, private studios, and communities.
• Inclusive and adaptive teaching skills so you can create inclusive learning environments and adapt teaching strategies to meet the needs of all students.
• A greater cultural awareness and global perspective of music's role across cultures, allowing you to teach effectively in diverse, multicultural settings and champion a wide range of musical traditions.
• The ability to incorporate technology in music education — such as MIDI, synthesizers, apps and other digital music tools — as well as strategies to stay up to date with technological advancements.
• Increased research and critical thinking skills that enable you to conduct in-depth research and then integrate these findings into your educational plans.
• Improved performance skills, developed through participatory vocal and instrumental courses that enhance both your teaching abilities and your own musical talent.
• Growth as an educator and a musician, encompassing both your professional knowledge and personal identity, complemented by strategies for reflective practice and self-assessment.
• A supportive community of music educators who can be sources of collaboration and inspiration during the master’s in music education program — and long after you graduate.

The Hybrid Summer M.A. is geared toward music teachers with global perspectives who work in private, public, charter, and international schools, as well as studio and community settings. They seek to earn a valuable credential from a top music education program while continuing to teach. Students are intellectually curious and eager to develop their pedagogical skills to become better teachers, advance their careers, and become agents of change in music education.

The faculty in the Music and Music Education program at Teachers College (TC) recognize the importance and uniqueness of the arts in our society and strive to offer flexible and individualized programs for the preparation of musician-educators.

They are seasoned practitioners, most of whom transitioned to higher education from K-12 classrooms. They are internationally renowned in their areas of expertise and bring an invaluable range of perspectives to the Master of Arts in Music and Music Education (M.A. M&ME) program. Their depth and breadth of experience includes comprehensive musicianship, early childhood music, instrumental pedagogy, vocal and choral performance, assessment, improvisation, jazz, technology, and the full spectrum of public and private school music through graduate school and research practices.

As leaders in the field, M.A. M&ME faculty members are authors of textbooks that graduate music education students across the world read, and their scholarship regularly appears in leading journals.

Learn more about our faculty