About the Department of Music
The Sound of the Human Spirit
Music has accompanied human societies throughout history—as a form of artistic expression, communication, collective identity, knowledge, creativity, and enjoyment. It also plays an important role in education, well-being, and therapeutic practice.
The Department of Music at Bar-Ilan University is one of Israel’s longest-established academic music departments. It combines the study of music across historical periods, cultural traditions, and contemporary practices with innovative work in composition, music technology, music cognition, education, performance, and music therapy.
The department is an academic home for musicians, graduates of high-school music programs and conservatories, former members of military ensembles, educators, creators, researchers, and students who wish to deepen their understanding of music within a rigorous university environment.
Our programs provide students with broad musical knowledge, analytical and critical skills, practical experience, and opportunities to develop individual academic and artistic paths. Graduates of the department work in research, composition, performance, education, music therapy, technology, cultural institutions, and the wider creative industries.
Personalized Study and Areas of Specialization
The Department of Music offers a broad and diverse curriculum. Courses address the history and theory of Western music, ethnomusicology, popular music, music for film and media, musical analysis, composition, music cognition, music education, and the relationships between music, society, culture, and technology.
Practical courses in score reading, conducting, composition, performance, choirs, chamber ensembles, popular-music ensembles, and digital music production enable students to connect academic study with artistic practice.
Together, these areas cultivate informed listening, musical literacy, creative and analytical thinking, and the ability to engage critically with music as an artistic, cultural, technological, and social phenomenon.
Our faculty includes internationally active researchers, composers, performers, educators, technologists, and music therapists. Faculty members have received major Israeli and international awards and distinctions, including the EMET Prize, ACUM awards, the Prime Minister’s Prize for Composers, and other prestigious recognitions.
The multidisciplinary character of the department enables us to offer a range of undergraduate study options, including:
- Music and technology
- Community music
- Music studies combined with a teaching certificate
- A joint program in music and electrical engineering
- Combined studies in music and additional departments or faculties
Graduate students may pursue master’s and doctoral research in areas including:
- Musicology
- Ethnomusicology
- Music therapy
- Composition
- Music education
- Music cognition
- Music, technology, and visual media
Students are encouraged to create connections between fields and methods. Musicological research may intersect with digital tools; composition may develop through computational systems and sound analysis; music therapy may engage with psychology and neuroscience; and performance may become a site for artistic, historical, and empirical inquiry.
A Community of Musicians, Researchers, and Creators
Joining the Department of Music means becoming part of a diverse academic and artistic community. Some of our students develop careers as performers and composers. Others become researchers, educators, therapists, producers, cultural leaders, or developers of new musical technologies.
The department encourages collaboration between students and faculty and fosters connections with other disciplines across the university. Through concerts, conferences, workshops, research projects, technological development, and community initiatives, our students and scholars contribute actively to musical and cultural life in Israel and beyond.
Learn more about the department’s projects, concerts, research, and activities on our Facebook page.
