NC State is known for its engineering, computer science and STEM programs, but under a layer of science and math lies a burgeoning music program that, 100 years after its creation, is larger than ever.

When Tom Koch, associate head of the Department of Performing Arts and Technology, joined the department 20 years ago, there were only around seven full-time faculty members. Today, Koch said the department has grown enough to expand beyond Price Music Center into Broughton Hall.

Up until two years ago, the department was simply the music department. Stuart Benkert, head of the Department of Performing Arts and Technology, said the modern department is the result of merging NC State’s music and dance programs into one.

“Putting music and dance together allows at least the opportunity for some really great collaborations,” Benkert said.

Koch said before the merge, faculty were less specialized than they are today.

2024 marked the first full year of the department’s new music technology major. Benkert said the major is designed to teach students how to make equipment and programs for musicians to use in creating music, which sets NC State apart from other universities offering music programs.

“It has to be a school like NC State to pull something like that off,” Benkert said. “This is a school for making and doing. And so, other institutions, we’re not trying to compete with them. We’re trying to offer something that’s uniquely ours and I think [we’ve] captured that.”

Koch said the major’s creation came after previous chancellors rejected attempts at a music major. When a music major was finally approved, Koch said the music department had the freedom to design it however they wanted.

Justin Mathew, associate teaching professor of music technology, said the major has an incoming class of roughly 15 freshmen and three transfer students with more on the way.

“I think the coincidence of our first-year students coming in [on] the 100th anniversary is very pleasing,” Mathew said. “It kind of kicks off the next 100 years we’re going to go down this route.”

Koch said the major came from the idea of marrying arts into the University’s STEM focus.

“[There] is this idea of fulfilling the mission of the University — it has a STEM mission,” Koch said. “And the arts, I think, have a responsibility to be a part of that mission in some capacity. And our technology major will do that, but we can also fulfill that by being partners with other programs.”

Mathew said mixing STEM with liberal arts is important for the discipline due to the tools students gain.

“It’s kind of like the notion that you have, you learn how to use a hammer to hit a nail, and now you know how to build a bunch of different things,” Mathew said. “I think the performing arts and liberal arts would have you question, ‘well, can I use the hammer for something else.’”

Alongside the music technology major, Koch said one goal he has for the department is to create a dance technology major, though a more prominent goal is to partner more often with other colleges and departments.

One way Benkert said the department plans to do this is through a potential new program.

“In the future is a music and dance and performing arts program that reaches out to the other colleges [and is] available to the other colleges to collaborate in their research or their projects, whatever that might look like,” Benkert said.

For Emmie Cumby, a third-year studying business administration, the music program already has a STEM influence. Since she arrived at NC State, the marching band has grown by nearly 60 people, and more people are trying out for ensembles.

“People want to be in it,” Cumby said. “And it seems to keep growing. People tell their friends about it and then they want to join. It’s getting big.”

While Cumby said she hopes the department adds new ensembles, students are supplementing this through student-run groups.

Cumby said the lack of students in the music technology major means that many students involved in ensembles are from STEM, which gives a unique perspective to the arts.

“I know the theater did a show called ‘Ada and the Engine’ last semester that focused on a girl who created the binary code,” Cumby said. “So that was kind of cool, because it shows the STEM side of our school, but then you get to perform it artistically.”

Cumby said she sees many students working on how to merge their STEM and arts focuses.

“We do things to try and figure out how we can merge those skill sets together, and I think that’s why we get the draw that we do,” Cumby said.

Cumby said that ultimately, the arts department convinced her to choose NC State over other universities.

“I was between a couple of universities, but I knew that this group was something that I wanted to be a part of and that I felt like I would belong here,” Cumby said.