Our department has a thriving sound design program, which provides a great opportunity for a M.F.A. minor. IU Theatre + Dance annually produces a robust season of plays, musicals, and dance concerts every year, as well as numerous student productions. With so many opportunities, graduate students can gain valuable sound design and audio engineering experience while they pursue study in their majors.
Our students have the experience of working with directors, music directors, and choreographers with solid professional careers, who will push you to perform. Classroom work will provide solid training in acoustics, audio system design, recording and microphone techniques, sound design fundamentals, and in-depth study of the relationship of music and sound effects to drama. Working as the sound designer on one of our stages will allow you to apply the design and engineering skills learned in the classroom.
Outside of our department, The Media School can help you develop skills in audio for television, video games, and film. If your approach to sound design has a more compositional focus, the Jacobs School of Music is one of the best music schools in the country—there are hundreds of musicians available right across the street to record or perform onstage. The Jacobs School of Music also offers courses in electronic music, music composition and music history so students can develop their musicianship as well.