Diversity, Unity and Hands-On Learning: Located in Stockton, CA, the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music is the first music school established on the West Coast. Living up to the vision its founders set in 1878, it has built an exceptional record of educating outstanding musicians. The school prides itself on diversity and unity. The Conservatory’s performing and professional opportunities and curriculum prepare students for a diverse and everchanging culture and world. Students and faculty are unified by the power of music to instill healing, fellowship, family, cultural awareness and recognition of their common bonds. It’s a very different experience from larger programs, which may have hundreds of majors in each area, primarily because of the intimate classes afforded by a smaller student body and hands-on attention from instructors. The entire university has 3,900 undergraduate students, of which 269 are enrolled in the Conservatory of Music.
Keith Hatschek, Program Director for Music Management and Music Industry Studies at University of The Pacific.
Music Industries Studies (MIS) Program: Keith Hatschek, Program Director for Music Management and Music Industry Studies, says, “The one-on-one relationship with their professors and coaches is one of the key ingredients for our students’ success when they graduate. We only have 54 music business majors, and the unique environment we’ve created allows them to collaborate with performers and instrumentalists in other disciplines.” Pacific first added a music business major in 1982, but the current program–launched in 2015–eliminated the instrumental audition requirement. The Bachelor of Science in Music Industry Studies is the first degree of its kind in the region. With guidance from a host of alumni and industry execs that know what skills and capabilities they are seeking, the Conservatory has developed a cutting edge program that merges practice with theory, along with intensive, hands on training and internships to give students the knowledge and resilience to succeed in the fast paced environment of the industry.
Student-Run Label and Other Media Projects: “What we heard from the industry is that students need to learn how to do the tasks their company does at a scale appropriate for students,” Hatschek says. “To that end, we launched a student-run record label (Pac Ave Records) where students spend their entire second year scouting and signing talent, working with producers and engineers, and learning about distribution and copyrights. All recordings are done in our state of the art on-campus studio. One of the current artists on the label is a junior MIS major, Issadora Ava.” Students in the BS-MIS degree are also involved in conceiving and executing music and media projects such as recordings, videos, websites, tour packages, etc.; developing skills in media production and online media promotion, especially with social media; developing and completing a self-designed Senior Project which may be an app, company, product or service; choosing classes outside the major, or pursuing a minor in various subjects such as Business, Computer Science, Communication, MediaX, etc.
