Today we are having our second of three auditions for admission into our College of Music and Fine Arts. It’s not a bad way to spend a Saturday, welcoming families from all over the country to audition for spots in dynamic, engaging, and nationally celebrated programs.

It would take me many, many pages of typing to summarize properly the opportunities available to students in the College of Music and Fine arts, so I really hope that you will connect to their website and explore what is there. It’s impressive!

One theatre arts, dance, and music highlight I will share with you is the Montage series. It’s an unbelievable series of sites and sounds featuring Loyola students, faculty, and other local and international talents. It’s kind of overwhelming everything Montage does, but in a good way. It is an expression of the curriculum–an awesome feat in itself.

Our Music Industry program is nothing short of industry-standard. It is a true program of distinction and it sets the bar for the rest of the country. Theory does not just meet practice in this program, it gives it a ginormous bear hug. Explore Music Industry in great detail here.

Our visual arts programs are wonderful in their quality and in the ways they prepare students for careers as artists and graphic designers. The Diboll Art Gallery is directed through the visual arts faculty and assistant professor of visual arts Karoline Schleh. It is my favorite spot on the campus and always offers a rich and thoughtful experience; and it is another way that we bring the world to our courses.

Good thing. After all, what’s more universal than art?

Art and expression are everywhere at Loyola: music, galleries, our sculpture garden. In our College of Music and Fine Arts, creativity extends well past our blackboards and even beyond the years student study here. The experiences here-the experiments in creativity, the challenging of one’s self to a higher level of performance, or even attempting a new task-will surely echo in the decades to come.

Even those who do not choose careers in music performance, music management, theatre, dance, the visual arts, etc. can be excited to know that our CMFA is a great entry to other courses of study. Its graduates make for wonderful business people, lawyers, college administrators, teachers and professors, and doctors (did you know that Music is the second most popular major of those who pursue medical school?).

In sum, CMFA is both a destination in itself and a means to a world of limitness possibility.