Core Purpose

To become a center of greatness in the field of music education, research and Creative.

Core Value

Strengthening human resources and developing personalities through creative and research thinking in music education.

Dean’s Message

Welcome to the Faculty of Music – (FMU)

University of the Visual and Performing arts holds a long and cherished history in sustaining aesthetic education and producing competent creative artists in the field of performing arts. The FMU of the University of the Visual and Performing Arts boasts of a long and golden history in tertiary education. Formally, this FMU was known as the Government college of Music founded by the late J.D.A. Perera in 1952.

After the establishment of the Institute of Aesthetic studies, which was affiliated to the University of Kelaniya, on 1st May 1974 the Government College of Music was established as a separate department. Three decades later, on the 1st July 2005, this institute was re- established as an autonomous university which comprised the FMU.

The UVPA is the only university in Sri Lanka established with a purpose to provide undergraduate and postgraduate education exclusively in the subject streams of visual and performing arts and to carry out researches in the same field. FMU offer Bachelor of Performing Arts Hones Degree in Music. It is a four-year degree program. A unique feature of this program is exposing all music students towards learning and understanding both Western and Non-Western musical styles. Students are given the opportunity to choose their major and subsidiary subjects for studies in their chosen genres.

The Faculty of Music is a learning center within the Sri Lankan university system offering a wide range of disciplines in the field of Music. FMU is made up of six departments, namely the Department of North Indian Music, Department of South Indian Music, Department of Western Music, Department of Ethnomusicology, Department of Applied Music & Mass Communication and Department of Musicology. These six departments are operating under the main academic streams of Sri Lankan Music and World Music (North Indian, South Indian, Western and Applied etc.) in addition to major theoretical course components.

Six Departments of Study in this Faculty provide higher education, student guidance and advising on par with international standards. The composition of our academic staff is representative of the diverse skills and expertise in many fields of study. Many of them have obtained their qualifications and training from reputed and recognized universities from around the world.  The Faculty possesses also has an efficient and committed non-academic staff to support the learning process. From its inception to date the Faculty of Music has produced eminent artistes, popular music directors, singers, instrumentalists and scholars. Therefore the graduates we produce will contribute innovatively and creatively to the national development process. The faculty is committed to producing an accomplished citizen who is fully prepared to confront the challenges of the changing world, and who can make innovative contributions to the progress of the Music industry.