Sharpen Your Craft; Engage Your Faith
The Music, Theatre & Dance Department emphasizes active learning in every program. As a Music or Theatre major, you won’t just sit and study methods and theories—you’ll put them into action.
Through ensemble rehearsals, concerts, theatrical productions, student recitals, and fully staged musicals and operas, you’ll take your learning from the desk to the stage. You’ll also gain a technical background in music theory, acting methods, and dance techniques to take your gifts and skills to the next level and pursue careers in the industry.
Take your gifts and skills to the next level and pursue your calling as a Christian artist. Need more information? Fill out the form below.
Professor Tracy Manning, Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, shares what it’s like to study Music, Theatre, & Dance at Taylor.
Auditions are required for admission into the Music, Theatre, & Dance department. To sign up for an audition, speak with a professor, or to ask questions about music auditions and scholarships, please contact Andrea Baker, the Music program assistant, at andrea_baker@taylor.edu.
Scholarship ApplicationOur programs offer both merit- and need-based awards that are designed to enhance the University’s financial aid package. To be considered for music scholarships, students interested in Music majors or minors must complete their auditions by March 15.
Music Facilities & Equipment
The Smith-Hermanson Music Center houses an electronic music studio, a music technology lab, teaching studios, rehearsal rooms, and practice rooms. The attached 218-seat Butz-Carruth Recital Hall boasts a Bösendorfer grand and a Steinway piano. The Recital Hall is designed to provide the best acoustics for performance recording. The electronic studio and technology lab are equipped with music composition and editing software.
Other facility equipment includes:
Private Lessons & Ensembles
We offer ensembles and private lessons in all instrumental and choral areas.
Center for Musical Development
Interested in learning to teach music? The Center for Musical Development provides musical instruction to students from the surrounding community. This program gives Taylor students practical experience in teaching music to young learners. Children ages eight to 16 can receive piano lessons from Taylor students and professional instructors at a reasonable cost, with no prior musical training required. Contact Dr. Becky Baker for more information at becky.baker@taylor.edu or 317-432-2029.
The Women's Chorus is a choral ensemble open by audition to all women at Taylor. This choir uses contemporary and sacred choral arrangements, spirituals, and praise and worship songs to minister. Pursuing vocal excellence, the chorus performs in churches, University functions, schools, and community venues.
The Taylor Chorale is open to all Taylor students by audition. Their repertoire consists of music drawn from the spectrum of sacred choral works. The ensemble’s mission is to express the highest divine and human values through choral arts. Performances include domestic and international tours, as well as concerts for conferences and conventions.
The Taylor Sounds is a selected group of musicians dedicated to a high standard of chamber choral performance. The group seeks to learn a breadth of music by notable composers, while expressing the highest divine and human values through the choral chamber music art. Performance tours include domestic and overseas venues as well as conferences, conventions, and banquets.
Lyric Theatre is open to all students by audition. Performances include a combination of fully-staged productions and semi-staged “scenes” productions. The primary goal of the ensemble is to create live performances demonstrating dramatic confidence, vocal ease, and aesthetic sensibility.
The Wind Ensemble is open to all wind and percussion players by audition. Performing classic and contemporary wind, sacred, pops, and pep band literature, the Wind Ensemble presents one full concert program each semester as well as annual tours.
The Jazz Ensemble is open to all wind and percussion players by audition. They perform contemporary stage band literature as well as jazz classics. The ensemble performs a concert on campus each semester and tours in local schools and regional jazz festivals.
The Jazz Combo is a selected ensemble open by audition. The Jazz Combo explores improvisatory styling and performs a concert each semester. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced level instruction is given.
The Symphony Orchestra is open to all string, wind, and percussion players by audition. Each semester, the Symphony Orchestra performs a full concert of selected masterworks from each of the major historical periods written for full orchestra.
Theatre & Dance Facilities
Practice and perform in Mitchell Theater, a space uniquely designed for flexibility in full-length production set design. Theatre majors also have access to a black box theatre in Rupp Communication Arts Center, which they can use for small productions or theatrical exercises, and two specially equipped dance instruction spaces.
Taylor Playback Theatre Company
Playback Theatre is an interactive form of improvisational theatre in which audience members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot. Created in 1975, Playback Theatre is now used in over 70 countries around the world to help build bridges across differences and to honor the human condition. Taylor’s Playback Company has performed on campus, in refugee camps in Greece, in Scotland at the Edinburg Fringe Festival and all-around Grant County.
Production Casebooks
Students with diverse interests—such as in writing, media, history, and arts education—can gain valuable dramaturgical experience by working directly with Artistic Director Tracy Manning to create production casebooks. Presenting research, analysis, and reflections, casebooks provide supplementary materials that offer valuable insight to performers and stagehands throughout rehearsals and invite audiences into the world of the play. Check out some casebooks made for previous Taylor productions:
Grad Programs
Some of our Music, Theatre & Dance graduates have gone on to complete their master’s degrees at the following colleges:
Career Opportunities
No matter which Music, Theatre & Dance major you pursue, you will have a wide range of career opportunities, from music composer to performer to teacher to stage manager. The Music, Theatre & Dance department has a 96% career placement rate, and our faculty and Calling and Career Office work hard to connect students to employment and internship opportunities throughout their time at Taylor.
Department Co-Chair and Professor of Music—Lyric Theatre & Voice
Department Co-Chair and Associate Professor of Music, Choral Ensembles
Professor of Music—Woodwinds & Orchestra
Music, Theatre, & Dance Program Assistant
Adjunct Instructor of Dance
Adjunt Instructor of Dance
Director of Chapel Music, Staff Accompanist, and Adjunct Instructor of Music
Adjunct Instructor of Harp
Professor of Music, Coordinator of Piano Studies
Theatre & Film Program Assistant
Associate Professor of Music
Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, Managing & Artistic Director of Theatre
Adjunct Instructor of Voice
Professor of Music Composition, Songwriting, and Music Technology
Adjunct Instructor of Jazz
Taylor Theatre Presents Disney’s Newsies the Musical
Based on the newsboy strike of 1899, Disney’s Newsies is breaking onto the Taylor Theatre stage to close out the 2023-2024 season.
Taylor Theatre Presents All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Taylor Theatre presents Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten on February 23-24 and March 1 at 7:30 pm, and February 25th and March 3rd at 2 pm in Mitchell Theatre.
Lyric Theatre Presents The Spitfire Grill
Taylor University’s Lyric Theatre is presenting Fred Alley and James Valcq’s musical The Spitfire Grill this weekend in the Butz-Carruth Recital Hall. Performances will be at 7:30 pm on February 2 and 3, and 2 pm on February 4.
Dance Program to Present Faculty Dance Concert
“Autumn Dances” will be held on November 17 and 18 at 7:30 in Mitchell Theatre. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door or online.
Five Taylor Students Win at Singing Competition
The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Indiana District Auditions is an annual singing competition that attracts students from universities across Indiana.
Taylor Theatre Presents Chekhov's The Seagull
Taylor University Theatre will bring the work of turn-of-the-20th-century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov to Upland, Indiana, with a performance of The Seagull, translated by Tom Stoppard.
Summer Research Projects Grow Depth of Knowledge
Most classes may have been out for the summer, but faculty-mentored research projects in music, biology, biochemistry, engineering, and more were in full swing across campus.
Center for Musical Development Offers Piano Lessons for Young Learners
Taylor University's Center for Musical Development (CMD) will offer piano lessons for local students ages 6 to 16 for the fall semester. No prior musical training is required.
Taylor Theatre Presents Disney’s Newsies the Musical
Based on the newsboy strike of 1899, Disney’s Newsies is breaking onto the Taylor Theatre stage to close out the 2023-2024 season.
Taylor Theatre Presents All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Taylor Theatre presents Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten on February 23-24 and March 1 at 7:30 pm, and February 25th and March 3rd at 2 pm in Mitchell Theatre.
Lyric Theatre Presents The Spitfire Grill
Taylor University’s Lyric Theatre is presenting Fred Alley and James Valcq’s musical The Spitfire Grill this weekend in the Butz-Carruth Recital Hall. Performances will be at 7:30 pm on February 2 and 3, and 2 pm on February 4.
Dance Program to Present Faculty Dance Concert
“Autumn Dances” will be held on November 17 and 18 at 7:30 in Mitchell Theatre. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door or online.
Five Taylor Students Win at Singing Competition
The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Indiana District Auditions is an annual singing competition that attracts students from universities across Indiana.
Taylor Theatre Presents Chekhov's The Seagull
Taylor University Theatre will bring the work of turn-of-the-20th-century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov to Upland, Indiana, with a performance of The Seagull, translated by Tom Stoppard.
Summer Research Projects Grow Depth of Knowledge
Most classes may have been out for the summer, but faculty-mentored research projects in music, biology, biochemistry, engineering, and more were in full swing across campus.
Center for Musical Development Offers Piano Lessons for Young Learners
Taylor University's Center for Musical Development (CMD) will offer piano lessons for local students ages 6 to 16 for the fall semester. No prior musical training is required.