圣地亚哥加州大学音乐系提供了一个独特的环境，在此环境中，作曲家，表演者，即兴演奏者，计算机音乐研究人员和音乐学者都采用最重要的思想和最新技术，以突破当代音乐的界限。社区重叠的关注点揭示了一个充满传统但不断扩大的地形，令人兴奋的合作气氛和相互尊重的竞争气氛。该系享誉世界的教职员工致力于推动和激发独特的UC圣地亚哥音乐社区。教师和学生经常在音乐会上，在唱片上以及在国家和国际场所一起表演。节日，座谈会和杰出的参观者营造了一个充满活力和动感的环境，可以开展协作，并研究我们这个时代背景下的新音乐领域和音乐。<br>
Drawing on a wide range of academic fields, including critical and cultural theory, ethnomusicology, music cognition, new media studies, sound studies, and ecocriticism, among others, the IS program combines an exploration of contemporary music making with an examination of ideas and concepts that are relevant to its nature, creation, production, and reception. Exposure to a range of disciplines and interdisciplinary methods prepares students to pursue innovative scholarship and creative work.<br><br>The integrative studies program embraces multiple ways of knowing and encourages cross-fertilization and hybridity between diverse disciplines and musical forms. Faculty and students in integrative studies produce work that moves fluidly between scholarship, performance, improvisation, sound installation, composition, instrument building, and more. The program teaches students to situate knowledge and practices from local to global communities, and to produce compelling scholarly writing and creative work that recognizes the responsibilities and opportunities associated with living in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world.