The Department of Music at UC Riverside offers undergraduate majors leading to the B.A. in Music and the B.A. in Music and Culture, as well as an M.A./Ph.D. in Music with a specialization in three areas: musicology, ethnomusicology, and digital composition.

The Department features a distinctive and supportive environment for study in music. It emphasizes close interaction between its students and faculty and provides for a continuously expanding range of musical and intellectual pursuits. Faculty interests range from traditional Western art music (offering foundational study in traditional musicology, theory, and composition) and ethnomusicology (music ethnography) to cultural studies, gender/sexuality, critical theory, free improvisation, digital and electronic music composition, popular music and the culture industry (including television and film as well as computer gaming), area studies, and many others. The entire faculty shares a belief in the importance of musical performance, an activity in which many are regularly engaged, and students receive individual attention in both research and creative projects.