The 50-unit Bachelor of Arts in Music is a liberal arts degree with music as the major area of study. The structure of the degree program offers students several avenues to pursue individual interests in music as preparation for careers in music or music-related fields. Students may choose the recommended emphases in Classical, Jazz, Electronic Music, or World Music. Students with other music-related career interests may also design and complete an elective emphasis more appropriately focused, with the approval of the School of Music and Dance. Admission into the program is by audition only.

Career options for music majors are very diverse. The analytical, concentration and listening skills, collaborative experiences, and broad historical and cultural knowledge gained through the study of music prepare students to achieve in many professional arenas. Their individual achievements may lead them into specific professional fields of music, including performance, composition, scholarship, teaching, or into another profession that can benefit from the knowledge and skills gained in music study. Graduates of SF State University music programs currently perform as soloists or as members of symphony orchestras, opera, chamber ensembles, choruses, rock groups, jazz combos, and a variety of intercultural consorts. They conduct Broadway musicals, church choirs, community choruses, commercial music, operas, and symphony orchestras. Some work as composers, arrangers and producers in a wide-variety of musical environments, write recording and program notes, serve as music librarians, design and work with music technology, and work as critics and lecturers. Others teach music at every educational level from pre-school through university in independent studios and in public and private schools and colleges. They occupy key positions as music administrators and provide leadership for professional music organizations. School of Music graduates have also gone on to careers outside of music in fields as diverse as medicine, business and law. Whatever their chosen career path, the education our graduates received has provided the educational foundation they needed to provide a life filled with meaning and professional accomplishment. Wherever their careers have taken them, they continue to create, perform, analyze, write about, lobby for, and listen to music both for profit and for pleasure.