Music Performance Ensembles
Music majors: Scholarships are available for participation in many ensembles. Below you'll find that SBU has a wide variety of both large and small instrumental and vocal ensembles.
Non-music majors: Even as a student majoring in an area outside of the area of music, you can still audition for various ensembles. Scholarships are available for participation in vocal and instrumental ensembles.
Choral and Vocal Studies
- Chorale — The premiere choral ensemble of the university has performed extensively across the state, the country, and the world. This selectively auditioned ensemble also performs regularly for major music education and denominational conventions. The choir specializes in a capella music from the Renaissance through modern periods as well as non-Western European traditions.
- SBU Worship — SBU Worship is a contemporary Christian worship ensemble that tours throughout the entire academic year leading worship, Disciple Now and many mission projects. Comprised of both vocalists and instrumentalists, there are many opportunities for the service to the Lord.
- Masterworks Chorus — SBU Music presents the Masterworks concert each year. The presentation involves the university’s massed choirs, faculty soloists, the SBU orchestra, Springfield Symphony members, instrumentalists from the SBU Symphonic Winds, and area musicians.
- Opera Theatre — Opera Theatre is open to all students by audition. The course is a place in which singers develop performance skills relative to operatic and/or music theatre repertoire and prepare solo and ensemble work for performance. Performances consist of one minor production in the fall,and one major production in the spring. Opera scenes are performed every fall, and full-length shows are performed in the spring, alternating between an operatic show and a music theatre show. Music theatre shows are performed in collaboration with the SBU Theatre program.
- University Singers — This non-auditioned choral ensemble provides intensified study and performance experience with a varied repertoire of choral music and is open to students, faculty, staff, and community singers.
Instrumental Studies
- Brass Ensembles — SBU offers various brass groups in both the fall and spring semesters. Available ensembles include Brass Choir, Brass Quintet, Trumpet Quartet, Trombone Quartet, and Tuba/Euphonium Quartet. (The number and types of ensembles available are dependent upon student interest.) Brass players can gain knowledge of the subtleties of brass instruments. Participation increases awareness of the ensemble concept, confidence in individual abilities, and the development of idiomatic characteristics of brass playing through regular performances, often in conjunction with other ensembles. Participation is open to all interested brass instrumentalists.
- Chamber Orchestra — The Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble comprised of music and non-music majors. Dedicated to the highest level of musical excellence, the ensemble performs a wide-ranging repertoire from Baroque through Contemporary periods in both string and full orchestra settings. Performances include the annual Masterworks concert that features presentations of major choral works for full orchestra, chorus and soloists.
- Clara Fuson String Quartet — The Clara Fuson String Quartet was established to give four gifted string musicians the opportunity to play from the world’s extensive repertoire of string quartet music. The Clara Fuson String Quartet performs at events at SBU and for weddings, concerts and banquets on campus and in the surrounding area. The quartet is named after Clara Fuson, one of the charter members of University Heights Baptist Church in Springfield, a school teacher and a trained violinist who played in the Springfield Symphony for many years.
- Jazz Ensemble — The Jazz Ensemble rehearses two hours per week. Students perform the standard jazz band repertoire as well as contemporary charts written for big-band instrumentation: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano, bass, guitar and drums. Selected students may perform in a jazz combo as well. Improvisation is encouraged, although it is not a requirement for the audition. The ensemble performs one or two concerts per semester, including occasional “Jazz Chapel” programs as a feature of the university’s chapel schedule.
- Marching Band - From it's beginning in Fall of 2023, the SBU marching band has continued the proud history of musical, athletic and academic excellence at SBU by uniting all three areas within its ranks. The marching band performs during football games, the Homecoming parade, and other local events. Students do not need to be music majors to participate, and those who are interested in drum line, horn line, or color guard are invited to try out.
- Pep Band — The Pep Band is an organization of select musicians that performs for SBU football games and men’s and women's basketball games. This popular and enthusiastic group has also traveled with the teams to the MIAA tournament. The ensemble is open by audition to any student at SBU who participates in Wind Symphony.
- Percussion Ensemble — The Percussion Ensemble performs a variety of music for the total percussion section — drums, keyboard, metallic and wooden instruments. Several performances are given throughout the year. The group is open to all percussionists.
- Wind Symphony — The Wind Symphony is comprised of the university’s finest woodwind, brass, and percussion players. Exploring traditional and contemporary works for winds and percussion, the ensemble is known for its consistently high level of performance. Annual tour stops include schools and churches throughout Missouri and surrounding states, including performances in Branson (Down From His Glory) and the Missouri Music Educators Association Convention at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach. An audition is required.
- University Band — The University Band is open to all SBU students with previous high school band experience. Emphasis is on the study and performance of works for concert band. No audition is required for participation in this ensemble which performs concerts on campus.
- Woodwind Ensembles — Within the area of music, a number of woodwind ensembles are active in any given semester; typically, these have included flute quartet, woodwind quintet, clarinet quartet, saxophone quartet, and woodwind trio. The ensembles are coached by SBU faculty members and provide music majors and non-music majors opportunities to explore the rich and varied repertoire that has been written for chamber groups of woodwind instruments.