The Department of Music at Stanford brings together music-making and scholarly research in composition, conducting, performance, music history, ethnomusicology, music theory, cognitive science, intermedia, and computer-based technologies.

Departmental activities serve a broad and diverse constituency on campus and in local communities, with an abundance of courses, concerts, performance opportunities, research projects, workshops, and lectures throughout the year. Ensembles from a variety of world cultures are open to all students: orchestras, jazz and chamber ensembles, taiko, guzheng, steelpan, and several choral groups. Many of the faculty have affiliations with other departments, programs, and interdisciplinary centers, such as Art and Art History, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, German Studies, Islamic Studies, Neuroscience, and Symbolic Systems. Alumni include faculty in universities and conservatories around the world, researchers in the technologies of music and acoustics, members of major orchestras, soloists, chamber musicians, and sound artists, composers and arrangers in contemporary, film, and game music.