University of Central Arkansas

The UCA Department of Music is an artistic community of over 220 music majors who participate in over 25 different student ensembles that include the spirited Bear Marching Band, the electrifying Conway Symphony Orchestra, the award-winning Concert Choir, and a host of other large and small ensembles. Our music ensembles have traveled to Spain, Japan, England, Italy, China, and Austria, and the UCA Wind Ensemble recently performed at Carnegie Hall. UCA boasts a faculty of 50 artists, music academicians, and staff who have studied at the most prestigious universities and conservatories in the world. With a specialist for every aspect of the music curriculum, the Department of Music makes it possible for students to reach their highest potential.

Recently, UCA has played host to the National Symphony Orchestra, has commissioned an original opera, The Scarlet Letter, and has brought in world-class artists such as the Brentano String Quartet, Pancho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band, clarinetist Eddie Daniels, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Karel Husa, the Washington Sax Quartet, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Big Band, tubist Sam Pilafian, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

The Department of Music plays an integral role in the local community of Conway. With our Community School of Music, which enrolls over 250 students every year, our partnerships with the Conway ArtsFest and Conway Symphony Orchestra, and our countless faculty performances in the Central Arkansas region, one could say that we are the “Center of the Arts” for Arkansas.