Abstract: With technological forces prevailing in the human society， science and engineering studies get estranged from liberal arts， which may entail the education of mono-disciplinary and one-sided college students. Music aesthetic education， as a branch of humanities and arts， appeals directly to emotions， inspires imagination and creativity， and promotes overall development. With the ideological policy of aesthetic education in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics as the theoretical framework， cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research as the methodology， music and art education of University of Pittsburgh as the case study object， an interpretation and analysis is conducted on its historic and humanistic curriculum system， its internationally oriented and multi-cultural education concepts， and its “presence and experience” teaching mode， with the purpose of finding a new mode of comprehensive education for humanities and arts through cross-cultural exchanges.

Key words: humanities and art; liberal education; art education; music aesthetic education; aesthetics