The Music Department at Sinclair Community College is a National Association of Schools of Music accredited institution, one of the few two-year schools to have the NASM accreditation in the United States.
“Usually, NASM is a qualification that is pursued by four year institutions. So, we are lucky to have that level of quality of the program at Sinclair,” according to Kevin Mulhall, adjunct professor of music.
The music department offers a variety of majors, including-vocalist, instrumentalist, piano, guitar and traditional band instruments (flute and trumpet).
“We want to offer our students very high quality instruction at the relatively low prices of tuition at Sinclair,” Mulhall said. “Its weekly lessons with highly educated instructors and students have the opportunity to participate in performing ensembles.”
A musician and guitar player himself, Mulhall said he sees two kinds of students in the music room—students that are pursing music as a career and students who plan to use music as an outlet or consider it their “fun class.”
“We offer all levels of instructions, you don’t have to be a certain level of proficiency, we teach from the ground up,” he said.
The music department also offers class instruction for guitar, piano and voice. Class instructions are for students that don’t want one-on-on instruction from a professor, but prefer to be in a classroom setting. Mulhall said he believes that in class instruction takes the pressure off one-on-one instruction.
As the quarter draws closer to graduation, the music department is preparing the graduates for their graduating recital.
“The graduation recital is like a capstone experience for all of the students. So, all students that are going to graduate, after their sixth quarter of applied music lessons, in whatever instrument their majoring in, have to give a 20 minute recital in Blair Hall,” Mulhall said.
The graduation recital is a way for the student to showcase their skills and what they have learned. For some students, it will be their first time preforming as a soloist. Mulhall said that the recital is an important occasion for most students and they take it very seriously.
The graduation recital is May 25 and June 6, both recitals begin at 7:30 p.m. All are welcomed to come.
“Music to me is an unsolvable mystery and challenge. I’m always finding something new and magical about music. It’s a depth that you never reach the bottom of and that is something in life that is worth pursuing,” Mulhall said.