Aim High Aim High Reach Wide Enlighten All SSU Music

Music Department


The department is housed in the Green Music Center and Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall.

Audition Days

Once you have applied to the university you can schedule an Audition to become a Music Major on one of the Department of Music Audition Days.

  • November 9, 2013
  • January 18, 2014 
  • March 29, 2014 
  • April 12, 2014

Read all about it on our Apply - Become an SSU Music Major page.

Close to San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean, SSU’s NASM-accredited music program is housed in the 105,435-square-foot Green Music Center.

SSU offers generous scholarships and performance opportunities in instrumental, choral, jazz, and music theatre. Scholarship Auditions will be March 10th, 2013. 

Sonoma State has been named one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country by Thebestcolleges.org. Ranking number 34 out of 50, SSU outranked prestigious universities as the University of San Diego and UC Santa Cruz in terms of campus setting.

One of the most requested campuses in the CSU system and regularly named a “Best Regional University” by U.S. News & World Report. SSU has also been named one of the “most wired” campuses in the nation by Forbes magazine. It is the only California university invited to be a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, the prestigious group of 25 universities and colleges across the nation committed to providing superior liberal arts and sciences education to their students.

FacebookYouTube - SSUJazzSubscribe to our Newsletter

Music News


Jazz director Doug Leibinger (center rear) with the Belgorod, Russa, State University Jazz Ensemble.

Hands Across The Water Winners of 1st International Jazz Improvisation Competition To Be Announced
Thursday, April 25
7:30 p.m. Weill Hall

The next SSU Jazz concert will reveal the winners of the first SSU/Belgorod (Russia) International Jazz Improvisation Competition. The contest is part of a global educational initiative led by Boris Mochalin and Professor I. B. Ignatova from the Belgorod State University of Arts and Culture. Mochalin arranged for SSU professors Doug Leibinger, Brian Wilson and John Stanley to visit Belgorod last fall where they conducted several jazz and concert bands.
Nineteen contestants participated – six from Belgorod and thirteen from SSU – submitting their entries to a private online site for an international panel of six judges. One American and one Russian winner will be chosen, with the Russian winner performing live via Skype.
Also performing on the concert will be K Flat and the Jazz Moles, the Quicksilver Jazz Messenger Service and the SSU Jazz Orchestra led by Doug Leibinger. Tickets $10-$15.

Body and Soul — Music student Alison Poteracke produces a work of fiction. Full story here.

SSU Wind Band Conducting and Music Education Symposium
June 24-28, 2013
Join us to further develop your skills in the art of conucting and music education pedagogy. Find out more

All NEWS

Featured Events


Noam Lemish and George Marsh to perform July 21

Jazz Alum Joins Faculty Member On CDTickets are on sale for a CD release-concert by composer, pianist and music alumni Noam Lemish with jazz drummer George Marsh. Lemish, who is based in Toronto, launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the completion of Nightfall, their second CD together. The July 21 concert starts at 2 p.m. in Warren Auditorium. Full story here.

Purchase Tickets.

Coming soon: our 2013-14 performance schedule! Many performances are free of charge.

Single ticket prices are $15 general; $12 faculty, alumni and staff; $10 seniors and students. All events are free to SSU students with ID.