NEW YORK, June 30, 2025 – Renowned international music conservatory Manhattan School of Music (MSM), which over the course of its more than 100-year history has consistently pioneered new pathways for music education and the conservatory model, announced today the launch of a new online Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Performing Arts Degree Completion Program.
The program, which will allow performing arts professionals to transform their work experience into academic credit towards a BFA, has an application deadline of September 1 for the first incoming class. Courses will begin in January 2026.
“MSM is proud to create a viable path towards an undergraduate degree for working, performing artists,” says Joyce Griggs, MSM Executive Vice President and Provost. “The BFA Online is for those who aspire to complete their undergraduate degree while remaining active in their professional careers. The program’s Prior Learning Assessment [PLA] process directly translates professional experience into earned college credit, and this is the only online performing arts degree completion program that is open to all performing artists in the United States. Successful applicants to the program will have a pathway to a fast-tracked online BFA, one that is fully flexible and will allow them to earn a degree without pausing their careers.”
The program has garnered enthusiastic testimonials from several high-profile performing artists, among them former American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Misty Copeland and Tony Award-winning musical theatre, opera performer, and television and movie actor Kelli O’Hara.
“As a dancer, I know the sacrifices we make for our art,” says Ms. Copeland, “often starting professional careers before completing a degree. This program is a game-changer, giving artists the chance to earn their BFA while honoring the work they’ve already put in.” Ms. O’Hara agrees, observing that many artists sacrifice one or the other of work or education over the course of their career paths. “What MSM is offering will change that,” she says. “Finally, artists won’t have to sacrifice either source of pride when their work in the field earns them credit towards their degree.”
Candidates for the program must build and complete a two-phase Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) portfolio as part of the admission process. Phase One is used for prescreening; then, if approved, candidates proceed to Phase Two to complete the full portfolio. From there, an allotment of earned credits will be determined and applied towards earning the degree.
“This is a rigorous, conservatory-level curriculum taught by a top-flight cohort of faculty who themselves are working artists and performing arts leaders,” says Provost Griggs. “The program will provide career-relevant training for performing artists to both expand their artistry and equip them with the skills, credentials, and industry connections needed to open up new professional and personal avenues.”
Founded in 1918, MSM is one of the world’s preeminent conservatories, serving more than 1,000 on-campus college students from more than 50 countries across the globe and dedicated to shaping generations of performing artists through innovative education, distinguished faculty, and global artistic collaboration.
“We are absolutely delighted to be launching this program after years of preparation and planning,” says MSM President James Gandre. “Students will be joining an institution with a legacy of innovation and artistic excellence, and a strong reputation for providing a supportive, inclusive learning environment. We look forward to welcoming the program’s first class in January.”
Manhattan School of Music is no stranger to online learning; the School’s Orto Center houses its renowned Distance Learning Program, the first of its kind at a major international conservatory, one that continues to allow MSM to maintain a leadership role in the use of technology to connect students, educators, and distinguished artists around the globe. The newly announced online BFA in Performing Arts will take its place as the most recent expression of MSM’s expertise in this arena.
Successful applicants to the new program must have a minimum of five years’ professional experience, and the program is open to artists with or without prior college experience. Students in the former camp, who paused their initial college studies to pursue professional opportunities, will at last be able to complete – in some cases after many years – their bachelor’s degree.
“This is a wonderful resource for those in the Performing Arts who went straight to work and now want to add more knowledge, study, and a BFA to their lives,” says multiple Tony and Emmy Award-winner Bebe Neuwirth, another of the luminaries who have weighed in on the program. Ted Chapin, former President of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, says: “The concept of this program is a brilliant step toward allowing artists a wide spectrum of possibilities for the future. Congratulations to MSM for conceiving and carrying out this needed program.”
Full details, including application information, can be found here.
For further information, please contact Jeff Breithaupt, Vice President for Marketing, Communications, and Alumni Affairs,
at jbreithaupt@msmnyc.edu or (917) 493-4702.
ABOUT MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Founded as a community music school by Janet Daniels Schenck in 1918, today Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is recognized for its more than 1,025 superbly talented undergraduate and graduate students who come from 54 countries and nearly all 50 states; its innovative curricula and world-renowned artist-teacher faculty that includes musicians from the New York Philharmonic, the Met Orchestra, and the top ranks of the jazz and Broadway communities; and a distinguished community of accomplished, award-winning alumni working at the highest levels of the musical, educational, cultural, and professional worlds.
The School is dedicated to the personal, artistic, and intellectual development of aspiring musicians, from its Precollege students through those pursuing doctoral studies. Offering classical, jazz, and musical theatre training, MSM grants a range of undergraduate and graduate degrees. True to MSM’s origins as a music school for children, the Precollege Division is a professionally oriented Saturday music program dedicated to the musical and personal growth of talented young musicians ages 8 to 18. The School also serves some 2,000 New York City schoolchildren through its Arts-in-Education Program, and another 2,000 students through its critically acclaimed Distance Learning Program.
MSM LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Manhattan School of Music acknowledges that we gather on the traditional land of the Lenape and Wappinger past and present, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. This calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit as well.
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