The Department of Music of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters at Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP-USP) opens thirty student vacancies per year for full time, four-year undergraduate courses in Music. These courses include the Bachelor of Musical Education, the Bachelor of Music (no specific instrument), the Bachelor of Applied Music (piano, acoustic guitar, 10-string guitar, percussion, flute or cello) and the Bachelor of Song and Lyrical Arts).

Audition requirements include a proficiency test in selected instrument performance, solfège and sight-reading.

The work ethic of the Music Department aims to integrate the three principal areas of professional performance in music - composition, interpretation and performance, and musicology - with the three main fields of university activity - teaching, research and extramural activities.

The Music Department’s Musical Ensembles are also well integrated with these teaching, research and extramural activities. These are the Ensemble Mentemanuque (composed of faculty, students and invited guests), the students’ Percussion Group - GRUPURI, the Experimental Ensemble (students’ vocal and instrumental ensemble), the Cello Group - FRATRES (consisting of the cello course), the USP Philharmonic Students’ Orchestra (composed of scholarship holders) and the Coral da Filô (a faculty community choir).

The Music Department also sponsors music festivals, encounters, seminars, conferences and symposia in Musicology and Music Education, together with recitals, master classes, workshops and concerts with the USP Philharmonic Orchestra and the department’s Musical Ensembles and national and international guests. These are often held in partnership with the Deans’ Offices of the University of São Paulo, the Dom Pedro II Foundation and the municipal offices of Ribeirão Preto and São Carlos.

The Music Department includes various laboratories that undertake the department’s research and artistic activities. These are the Laboratory of Theory and Musical Analysis (LATEAM); the Group Piano Laboratory (LabPG); the Laboratory of Piano and Piano Pedagogy (PianoLab); the Laboratory of Trans-disciplinary Studies in Music, Society and Education (EsTraMuSE); the Plucked Strings Laboratory (LaCorDe); the Laboratory of Research in Composition, Interpretation, Performance and Musical Education (LAPECIPEM); the Laboratory of Performance and Voice Science (LAPECC); the Laboratory of Cello-Phronesis (CelloLab), the Percussion and Rhythm Laboratory (LAPER); the Flute Laboratory (LaFlauta) and the Laboratory of Performance Science (LCP). These laboratories gave constitute the Research Nucleus in Performance Sciences in Music (NAP-CIPEM).

The Music Department publishes the Revista da Tulha, an online publication in music research, whose mission is to disseminate academic works like articles, essays, interviews, reviews and music scores dedicated to musical poetics (composition and performance), musical praxis (university education and extramural activities) and musical theory (in musicology and ethnomusicology) employing a transdisciplinary approach. The Revista da Tulha focuses on a target public of researchers, professional musicians, students and amateurs.