Department of Fine Arts

Music Program

The new music program at Rogers State University provides an opportunity for students who are also musicians to hone their instrumental and performance skills in a university environment.

The music program includes a jazz band, which performs regularly on the RSU campus and at venues across northeast Oklahoma, and a pep band, which plays at RSU Hillcat basketball games and other sporting events. Both bands are extracurricular programs.

Jazz Band

The jazz band, which consists of 15 to 22 members, features a brass section with four trumpets and four trombones, a saxophone section with alto, tenor and baritone saxophones, and a rhythm section with drums, guitar, bass guitar and piano, a collection of instruments that is typical of jazz bands.

Several jazz ensemble, fundamentals of music, music appreciation, and music history classes are offered each semester.

Jazz band performances are held in the Will Rogers Auditorium on the RSU campus in Claremore, and at area public schools and other community venues in northeast Oklahoma. Membership in the jazz band also is open to area high school students and community residents.

A limited number of music scholarships are available for students interested in participating in the RSU jazz and pep band programs.

Pep Band

A university pep band will be forming this fall, with auditions expected to take place in late August or early September 2007. The pep band will consist of 20 to 50 members, who will play all the typical instruments of the indoor athletic pep band. The band will play at all home games of the new RSU men’s and women’s basketball program, and other sporting events.

About Joseph Cernuto

A trumpet player, Joseph Cernuto previously served as director of bands at West Rowan High School in Mount Ulla, N.C. He also taught at high schools in Florida and served as a teaching assistant at the University of Florida, where he was on the staff of that institution’s 375-member marching band. He has experience as a music educator, band director, jazz musician and musical theatre musician. He received master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Contact Information

Joseph Cernuto
Music Instructor
Rogers State University
Baird Hall, Room 102F
1701 W. Will Rogers Blvd.
Claremore, Oklahoma  74017

918-343-7723
jcernuto@rsu.edu