The School of Music at the University of Illinois was established in March 1895 with an innagural class of 11 students and the establishment of the first music curriculum. Although Glee Clubs, Mandolin Clubs, and Military Bands had been formed on campus prior to 1895, pianist Charlott Patchin was the first faculty member hired to teach courses in music. After a campaign led by Captain Thomas J. Smith, a member of the Board of Trustees, the University Committee on Instruction voted to establish a degree in music with additional courses in musical instruction on June 9, 1897. By 1899, courses of instruction included piano, organ, voice, violin, elements of music, harmony, counterpoint, fugue and composition, conducting, ensemble playing, and the history of music.
According to Ann Silverberg, "just as the earliest university music instructors were women, and music instruction was offered in an attempt to attract women students, most music students in the early years were women." As one editorial from the Daily Illini noted in 1894, "It is now the intention to gradually establish a school of music, thereby giving the young ladies of the University equal advantages with the young men." With the addition of both male and female faculty members, the School of Music quickly diversified its student body. However, many of the large ensembles including the University Band relegated participation to male students for much of the first half of the century.
In 1921, Smith Hall, which was named for Tina Weedon Smith (the wife of Captain Thomas Smith), was officially completed. At the beginning of the following year, the curriculum of Music Education was added in cooperation with the College of Education. When the College of Fine and Applied Arts was organized on March 12, 1931, the School of Music was included in the new college. In 1933, the School had officially become a member of the National Association of Schools of Music. In 1948, the School began an outreach, "Extension," program and the following year it established the Illinois Summer Youth Music program, which has been in operation since 1949.
The School of Music expanded its degree program to graduate degrees in 1940, starting with the Master of Music in edcucation and, in 1953, the Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology. Both graduate and undergraduate curricula expanded until in 1974 the School of Music offered courses in the fields of theory, history, and applied music. Degrees offered include the Bachelor of Arts, Master of Music, Master of Science in Music Education, Doctor of Education in Music Education, Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology, and Doctor of Musical Arts in several performance fields including conducting and accompaniment. Always on the forfront of technological innovations, the School established the Experimental Music Studios in 1958, eventually supporting the Computer Music Project (CMP) and the Computer Assisted Music Instruction Laboratory (CAMIL) in the early 1990s.
Designed by architect Max Abramovitz, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts opened in April 1969. Not only did the complex offer new performance venues for music students, but it was also designed across the street from the new School of Music building, which was officially completed in 1972. Musical groups associated with the School--such as the University Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestras, Wind Ensemble, and Contemporary Chamber Players--expanded rapidly during this period, becoming open to qualified students from any college and any background. After the 1960s, the school also added the following ensembles and programs: jazz (officially added to the curriculum in 1967, and becoming a major in 2002), the University Russian Folk Orchestra (1974), University Gamelan (2006), and Lyric Theater (2007). In 2014, the School introduced a new Computer Science + Music dgree, which built on the Schools developments in both technology and musical innovation.
Over its storied past, the School of Music was led by several directors including: Walter Howe Jones (1895-1900), Frederick Locke Lawrence (1900-1907), Charles Henry Mills (1907-1913), John Lawrence Erb (1914-1920), Frederic Benjamin Stiven (1921-1946), John M. Kuypers (1947-1950), Duane A. Branigan (1950-1970), Thomas Fredrickson (1970-1974), Robert E. Bays (1974-1986), Austin McDowell (1986-1988), Don V. Moses (1988-1997), James C. Scott (1997-2001), Fred Stoltzfus (2001-2002), Karl Kramer (2002-2012), Edward Rath (2012), Jeffrey Magee (2012-2019), Jeffrey Sposato (2019-2023), and, most recently, Linda Moorhouse (2024-2026).
Sources:Board of Trustees Transactions: 16th Report, March 8, 1892, 205; 18th Report, March 12, 1895, 73, 77; June 11, 1895, 95-96, 102; 19th Report, June 9, 1897, 124-125.
Catalogs and Registers, 1897-98, 135-137.
Board of Trustees Transactions, 36th Report, March 12, 1931, 186-187.
Catalogs and Registers, 1940-41, 167
Undergraduate Study Catalog, 1953-54, 130; 1973-75, 259.
Albert Dale Harrison, "A History of the University of Illinois School of Music, 1940-1970," DME Dissertation, University of Illinois, 1986.
Ann Silverberg, A Sympathy with Sounds: A Brief History of the University of Illinois School of Music to Celebrate Its Centennial (Urbana: University of Illinois Press and the School of Music, 1995).
"University Music" Daily Illini (September 20, 1894), 13.
Jeffrey Magee and Gayle Magee, "Where We Hope to Be: The School of Music Since 1995," Sonorities (2022) 11-21.
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