Schools and Departments

Home> Schools and Departments

College of Music

2017-09-20

1505889530381033534.png

The College of Music of Inner Mongolia Normal University is the first art school in China's ethnic minority areas since the founding of the People's Republic of China that offers courses taught in both Chinese and Mongolian. With a long history and strong capability, the college is dubbed the "cradle of northern Chinese ethnic musicians". Since its founding in 1954, the college has provided Inner Mongolia and other parts of China with more than 7,000 graduates. In particular, it has cultivated many excellent musical talents for colleges and universities, primary and middle schools, art troupes, enterprises and institutions in Inner Mongolia, thus sowing musical seeds across the grasslands. Through nurturing generation and generation of musical and dance talents, it helps local music and dances reach out to more people while passing on local cultural heritage. 

The college is situated in the 13,000-square-meter Yifu Art Building, where there is a first-class concert hall with Steinway & Sons concert grand pianos, as well as 156 musical instrument practice rooms furnished with a total of 147 pianos for teachers and students. Other facilities include multifunctional music classrooms, multimedia electronic music classrooms, digital piano classrooms, audio-visual studios for music appreciation, electronic music production systems and recording studios, and dance rehearsal halls. All is professionally equipped and lives up to advanced standards for teaching and learning. 

Offering undergraduate, graduate and adult education programs, the school enrolls students from Inner Mongolia and also other parts of the country. Two independent teaching systems, with courses taught in Mongolian and Chinese, respectively, are available.

The college offers a full range of undergraduate programs, including Musicology, Music Performance, Composition and Technical Theory of Composition, Composition and Technical Theory of Composition (Ethnomusicology), and Dance. Major academic, administrative and supporting institutions include the Department of Vocal Music, the Piano Department, the Department of Musical Instruments, the Composition Department, the Department of Ethnomusicology and the Dance Department, the Theoretical Education Division, the Art Practice Division, the Laboratory for Modern Education Technology, the Reference Room, and the Section of Piano Maintenance and Musical Instruments Management.

Graduate programs offer either academic or professional degrees. Academic degree programs are available in two disciplines, Music and Dance, which cover the four sub-disciplines of Musicology, Music Performance, Composition Theory and Teaching, and Ethnomusicology, as well as eight areas of specialization, which are Accordion Performance and Teaching, Vocal Music Performance and Teaching, Piano Performance and Teaching, Composition Theory and Teaching, Ethnomusicology, Music Appreciation and Teaching, Dulcimer Performance and Teaching and Long Tune Singing and Teaching. 

Professional degree programs offer either the M.Ed. degree in Music Education or the MFA degree in Music, with the former covering all areas of specialization of academic graduate programs and the latter covering six areas of specialization - Accordion Performance, Piano Performance, Vocal Music Performance, Composition and Conducting, Khoomei Performance and Morin Khuur Performance. In addition, the college also offers master's programs in Northern Chinese Ethnic Minority Arts (Music) and Curriculum and Teaching Methodology (Music).

The college has a student chorus, a symphony orchestra, a military band, a Chinese orchestra, a Morin khuur ensemble and a dance troupe, which have participated in many major domestic and overseas competitions and performances and helped build the college's image in the musical world.

Over the past more than 60 years of development and accumulation, the IMNU College of Music has grown into a cradle of northern Chinese ethnic musicians, thanks to its highly-capable faculty, advanced teaching facilities, advantageous disciplines and outstanding graduates.