University of North Texas College of Music

University of North Texas College of Music
Winspear Auditorium, Murchison Performing Arts Center, University of North Texas College of Music (photo by Craig D. Blackmon, FAIA, courtesy of Holzman Moss Architecture)
Location
415 Avenue C Denton, TX 76201
Information
Type	Public — State of Texas
Established	1890
Dean	James Copeland Scott
Enrollment	1635 (2009-10)
Campus	Suburban (North of Dallas & Ft. Worth)
Website	http://music.unt.edu Jazz Opera Composition Symphony Orchestra

The University of North Texas College of Music, based in Denton, is a comprehensive music school with the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music,^[1] and the oldest (and first) in the world offering a degree in jazz studies. It is one of thirteen colleges and schools at the University of North Texas and has been among the largest music institutions of higher learning in North America since the 1940s. North Texas has been a member of the National Association of Schools of Music for 72 years.^[2] Since the 1970s, approximately one-third of all North Texas music students have been enrolled at the graduate level.

The University

University enrollment

As of the fall of 2009, the University of North Texas had a certified enrollment of 36,890.^[3] The enrollment data does not include the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth; but does include the UNT Dallas campus.

Science & engineering research

Over the last three decades, the University has expanded its research in science and engineering. In 2006, the National Science Foundation ranked UNT Denton campus 122nd among 417 academic institutions for number of science and engineering doctorates awarded.^[4]

Research in the social sciences, humanities, professional fields, and other disciplines

Based on the number of non-science and engineering PhDs awarded at 2,722 national institutions of higher learning in the country, North Texas was ranked:

• Top 50 for awarding 3,382 non-science and engineering PhDs from 1920 to 1999
• Top 50 for awarding 551 non-science and engineering PhDs from 1995 to 1999
• Top 50 for awarding 1,695 non-science and engineering PhDs to people who also earned their baccalaureate from the same Institution.^[5]

Of the 37 post-baccalaureate institutions in Texas surveyed by the National Science Foundation, UNT ranked third in 2006, behind The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, for non science and engineering doctorates awarded.^[4]

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifies the University of North Texas as a "Research University" with "high research activity."^[6]

Visual Arts & Design

UNT's College of Visual Arts and Design — one of the eleven colleges and schools on the Denton campus — has the 10th largest enrollment of any art and design school accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and has the second largest of any that awards doctorates.^[7]

College of Music divisions

Divisions

Academic and Performance Divisions
Composition Studies	Conducting & Ensembles	Instrumental Studies	Jazz Studies	Keyboard Studies	Music Education	Music History, Theory and Ethnomusicology	Vocal Studies
Departments
	Choral Conducting	Brass				Ethnomusicology	Opera Studies
	Early Music	Percussion				Music History	Vocal Studies
	Orchestral Conducting	Strings				Music Theory
	Wind Conducting	Woodwinds

Centers

Centers for Research and Performance
Center for Chamber Music Studies	Center for Contemporary Studies in Music Education	Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI)	Center for Schenkerian Studies	Texas Center for Music and Medicine	The MoUNTain Music Institute

Ensemble areas & prime groups

Ensemble Areas
Orchestral	Choral	Wind	Composition Studies	Collegium Musicum	Jazz
Major Groups (of over 50 Ensembles)
	A Cappella Choir	Brass Band	NOVA (new music)	Baroque Orchestra	Contemporary Repertory Ensemble
Concert Orchestra	Chamber Choir	Concert Band		Collegium Singers	Jazz Guitar Labs
Symphony Orchestra	Collegium Singers	Green Brigade Marching Band		Baroque Ensemble	Jazz Repertory Ensemble
	Concert Choir	Wind Symphony			Jazz Singers I & II
	Grand Chorus	Symphonic Band			Jazz Strings
	Men's Chorus	Symphonic Band			Jazz Trombone Ensemble "The U-Tubes"
	Recital Choir				Lab Bands (9)

Performance samples

Symphony Orchestra

• New World Symphony, Scherzo, Dvorak (2005)

Anshel Brusilow, conductor

• Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra - Mvt III, Ewazen (1999)

Ming-Jen Suen, solost

Hyunseok Chang, conductor

• Concerto for Trumpet, (rehearsal) Tomasi (2002)

Anshel Brusilow, conductor

• Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 (Andante - Allegro), Prokofiev

Tzu-Yi Liu, piano, winner, 2010 UNT Concerto Competition

Ludwig Carrasco, conductor

• Cordillera, Eli Fieldsteel

Winner of the 2010 Composition Competition at UNT (World premiere)

Ludwig Carrasco, conductor

• Requiem

Movement II

David Itkin, conducting

North Texas Wind Symphony

• Concerto for Percussion, Bruce Yurko (2008) (excerpt only)

Eugene Corporon, conductor

(from DVD Percussion Palooza (GIA Music)

Works for Wind Symphony by Percy Grainger

• Molly on the Shore
• Handel in the Strand
• Themes from Green Bushes
• Lincolnshire Posy

1. Lisbon
2. Horkstow Grange
3. Rufford Park Poachers
4. The Brisk Young Sailor
5. Lord Melbourne
6. The Lost Lady Found

One O'Clock Lab Band

• (see One O'Clock Lab Band)

Percussion

• Drum Line performance at Global Rhythms, Fall 2008

Four Pieces for Piano, Opus 4, Movement IV (1908), Sergey Prokofiev

• University of North Texas Snareline — 2009 Lonestar Classic Drumline Competition

Paris Rutherford, director (retired 2009)

• My Funny Valenine (alumni, rehearsal, unengineered)

Miscellaneous

• Student Performance Samples from the College of Music (audio only)

Music Library

UNT Music Library Virtual Tour

Former deans & current dean

1890–1891	Eliza Jane McKissack (née Aykroyd) (aka Mrs. Alexander Cogle McKissack) (1828–1900) served as Director of what then was called Conservatory of Music,[8] part of what then was the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute, which was established as a private institution in 1890. Classes were first held Tuesday, September 16, 1890.
1891-1892	Miss Mary Francis Long,[9] from Geneva, Illinois, was a 1891 graduate of Chicago Musical College where, during her senior year, she won the William M. Hoyt Prize (the Diamond Medal for the best student in harmony in the graduating class)[10]
1894–?	Sarah ("Sallie") Frances Thornley[11] (née Cummings) (b. 1854 Mason County, Kentucky; d. 11 July 1921 Dallas, Texas; buried at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Denton, Texas) – was originally from Maysville, Kentucky.[12][13] Around 1883 (ending January 1884), Thornley had been a music teacher at Georgetown Female Seminary in Georgetown, Kentucky.[14] In January 1884, Thornley enrolled at the College of Music of Cincinnati.[15] In Maysville, Thornley taught music and was the organist at M. E. Church, South.[16] In the spring of 1885, Thornley had served as head of music at a college in Sherman, Texas.[17] Around 1887, Thornley had been a music teacher at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky.[18]
1894–?	Miss Edith Miller[19]
1896–1897	Miss Celia Goldsmith
1902–1912	Margaret Manora Boylan (b. 1867, Hubbard, Iowa; d 1963, Carthage, Missouri) served as Director of Music and Reading. Before beginning a career of teaching on the faculties of several colleges throughout the country, she had attended summer school at Ginn summer school in Chicago, New England Conservatory ("NEC"),[20] and Teachers College, Columbia University.[21] And, she was a published composer. At the NEC, she had studied three semesters from 1901 to 1902. At NEC, she studied piano with Edward Danforth Hale (1859–1945) and voice with William L. Whitney (1861–1949) and Alena G. Emerson. She took both piano and voice for all three semesters. In addition she took two semesters of Harmony with Harry Newton Redman (1869–1958) and two semesters of Music in Public School with Samuel Winkley Cole (1848–1926). She did not earn a diploma from NEC. At Teachers College, she received a Departmental Certificate in Music Education on November 25, 1915. She also took a couple of classes.
1914–1915	Harry Milton Snow (b. 19 Sept 1879, Big Lake, Minnesota; d. 23 Apr. 1954, Los Angeles) studied music at the New England Conservatory[22] from the first semester of 1905 (Fall 1904) through the second semester of 1909 and then for two more semesters in 1912 (when he studied only cello with Virginia Stickney; later known as Mrs. Frances Williams Snow; 1886–1972). Harry Snow graduated June 22, 1909, with a diploma in voice as a teacher. His voice teachers were Arthur Dwight Babcock (1875–1970) and Charles Adams White (1856–1928). He also studied piano for seven semesters with Alfred Pietro Angelo Devoto (born 1875). In addition he studied solfège, Italian, drama, music history, music theory, analysis, English, harmony, French, German, school music, and vocal teaching (called Normal Department).
1917–1938	Lillian M. Parrill (1881–1973) served as Director of what then was a Music Department. North Texas announced her appointment as a new faculty member July 15, 1915. In addition to heading the department, she conducted the chorus, which, in 1929, had 103 members.[23] The next year, 1930, under her direction, the chorus expanded to 150.[24] Initially from Vincennes, Indiana, Parrill had studied voice with Oscar Saenger (1868–1929) of New York City and Charles Washburn at Ward–Belmont College, in Nashville. She was a graduate of the American Institute of Normal Methods (Northwestern University), Evanston, Illinois, and had served as supervisor of music in Elwood, Indiana.[25] In July 1941, in Denton, she married Fred O. Grissom[26] (1876–1978). She resigned as Associate Professor in September 1941[27] and henceforth lived in Kinmundy, Illinois, with her husband. She died June 10, 1973, in Kinmundy, Illinois.[28] The 1917 Yucca (student yearbook) lists Mary Anderson as being on the music faculty with Parrill.
1938–1947	Wilfred Conwell Bain, EdD (1908–1997) built the School of Music into one of the largest in the country. By 1940, North Texas was the largest state supported teachers college in the world.[29] Bain was appointed in 1938 as head of what then was a "deanless" school of music. In 1945, when what then was North Texas State Teachers College became North Texas State College — a name change that reflected broader offerings — an administrative reorganization gave the School of Music its own dean, which was filled by Bain. He founded and directed the School's A Cappella Choir and the Opera Workshop. The A Capella Choir, one of dozens of the School's performing groups, performed over 500 concerts in five states between 1940 and 1945. In 1945, the choir performed several tours for civilian and Army groups in Texas in camps to promote bond sales and entertain sick and wounded service personnel.[30]
1947–1958	Walter Hutchinson Hodgson, PhD (1904–1988), conductor of the school's Symphony Orchestra and founding conductor of the Madrigal Singers, and a sacred music scholar, approved (as acting Dean) in 1947 Gene Hall's proposal for a bachelors degree in "Dance Band," the first jazz studies degree offered in the world. In 1958, Dr. Hodgson accepted an offer to become Dean of the Michigan State University School of Music.
1958–1974	Kenneth Neil Cuthbert, EdD (1917–1984), who, in addition to serving as dean, was a choral and instrumental conductor. Cuthbert earned a Bachelor of Music in 1940 and a Master of Music in 1942 from the University of Wisconsin. He also earned a Master of Arts in 1946 and a Doctor of Education in 1947 from Teachers College, Columbia University. From 1951 to 1958, Cuthbert had served on the faculty at East Carolina University and from 1948 to 1951 he had served as Dean of the School of Music at Illinois Wesleyan University. Also prior to his North Texas tenure, he had served as Vice President of the National Association of Schools of Music for three years.[31]
1974–1987	Marceau Chevalier Myers, EdD (1929–1987), a scholar of American orchestral composers with a strong affinity for Charles Ives, oversaw a surge in enrollment that made the School the nation's second largest within a major university. Myers also spearheaded the planning and completion of the a new Music Complex that had been initiated under Dean Cuthbert. Under Myers' leadership, the school gained greater international acclaim from an expanded touring initiative by several music ensembles – tours that included Western Europe, the Russia, South America, the and the Far East.
1987–1988	Stephen Thomas Farish, Jr., DMA (1936–1995), (Interim Dean) was a singer (baritone) and professor of voice. He earned his DMA from the University of Illinois in 1962 and, that same year, joined the UNT faculty.
1988–1991	Robert Lewis Blocker, DMA (UNT MM 70 DMA 72) (born 1946) is the current Dean of the Yale School of Music (a graduate school)
1991–1992	Stephen Thomas Farish, Jr., DMA (1936–1995) (Interim Dean)
1992–1996	David Lewis Shrader, DMA (born 1939), a percussionist and composer, served as Dean for 7 years. In 1996, the UNT Chancellor asked Shrader to serve as Interim Director of Development for the University. The former Director had died. Shrader obliged, serving for one year. Dr. Will May stepped-in as Interim Dean for one year.
1996–1997	William "Will" Vernon May, Jr., PhD (UNT MME 75) (Interim Dean)
1997–1999	David Lewis Shrader, DMA, oversaw the opening of the Murchison Performing Arts Center in February 1999 – a 40-year institutional objective.
1999–2000	William "Will" Vernon May, Jr., PhD (UNT MME '75) (Interim Dean)
2000–2001	Thomas Clark, DMA (born 1949), a composer and trombonist, and now UNT Professor Emeritus, served once as Interim Dean of the College of Music.
2001–Present	James Copeland Scott, DMA (born 1943) is a flutist, pianist, and music theory scholar who has researched structural relationship between Schoenberg and Brahms.
Notes:	Frank Douglas Mainous (1918–2007), a composer, music theory scholar, and director of military bands during World War II, served as interim dean at least twice. He was married to concert pianist and faculty member Jean Mainous, née Harris.[32] He earned a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1941.

Related links

• University of North Texas College of Music website
• Brief History of the UNT School of Music

Selected history

• 1890 — when the University of North Texas was founded – music was a part of the curriculum. What then was a teachers college offered a "Conservatory Music Course" as part of the initial "Nine Full Courses." The complete course in music, lasting forty-four weeks, required private lessons that had to be paid for, in addition to regular school tuition. Tuition for these classes was $200 for the complete course, while regular tuition for a forty-week school year was only $48. The founding president, Joshua Crittenden Chilton (1853–1896), taught the first classes in the history of music and the theory of sound. John M. Moore, a Dallas Methodist bishop and teacher of mathematics and engineering courses, taught the classes in voice culture and harmony. Mrs. Eliza Jane McKissack was also a teacher of music and may have served as the director of the music conservatory.^[33]
• 1941 — The National Association of Schools of Music approved graduate studies in music at North Texas^[34]
• 1950 — The School of Music began offering its first degrees leading to a Doctor of Philosophy in the areas of musicology, composition, and theory.
• 1995 — The School of Music restructured itself as a "college of music," reflecting nearly 60 years of size and breadth of many disciplines in the music arts. The school leadership had long contemplated restructuring as a conservatory, but felt that a well-functioning college model, tailored specifically for North Texas, gave the entire university latitude to exploit the best of several models that included academic research, performance, composition, training music educators and music school administrators, and other areas – and it preserved a streamline of cross-discipline of all areas within the College of Music and within the University. The College of Music has enjoyed close collaboration with other Colleges within the University (e.g., English faculty and students collaborating with composers, physics faculty and students collaborating with several divisions in areas that included musical acoustics, electronic music). Despite the high caliber of student musicianship and seriousness of all the programs, the College of Music is accessible in many areas to non-music majors.

References

1. ^ HEADS Data – Special Report, 2010-11, National Association of Schools of Music Note: For more than 20 years, North Texas Music enrollment has tracked closely to that of Indiana. Institutions that include Berklee, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music are not among the 627 NASM members. One non-NASM music school has a student enrollment larger than North Texas – Berklee.

   	North Texas	Indiana
   2006-07	1,649	1,638
   2007-08	1,659	1,633
   2008-09	1,608	1,554
   2009-10	1,635	1,557
   2010-11	1,596	1,578

2. ^ James Lloyd Rogers (1926-2006), The Story of North Texas, University of North Texas Press (c2002)
3. ^ Certified Comparison of Enrollments of Fall 2007 and Fall 2009, Texas Higher Education Data
4. ^ ^{a b} National Science Foundation/Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2006
5. ^ Lori Thurgood, Mary J. Golladay, and Susan T. Hill, US Doctorates in the 20th Century: Special Report, National Science Foundation, June 2006
6. ^ Classifications, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2004.
7. ^ HEADS Data – Special Report, 2010-11, National Association of Schools of Art and Design

   	College of Visual Art Design	Size Rank	Size Rank with Doctorates
   2006-07	2443	7	1
   2007-08	2206	10	2
   2008-09	2265	10	2
   2009-10	2290	10	2
   2010-11	2324	10	2

8. ^ James Lloyd Rogers (1926-2006), The Story of North Texas, University of North Texas Press (c2002)
9. ^ Kaleidoscope of Society: Denton, The Dallas Morning News, Vol. III, No. 224, pg. 3, col. 4, June 28, 1892
10. ^ Musical College Commencement, Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1891
11. ^ Happy Prosperous Denton, Fort Worth Gazette, pg. 8, col 2 (North Texas Normal College), April 08, 1895
12. ^ Personal, The Evening Bulletin, Maysville, Kentucky, col. 4, August 15, 1894
13. ^ Obituary: Mrs. Sallie Thornley, The Dallas Morning News, July 13, 1921
14. ^ Personals, Daily Evening Bulletin (Maysville, Kentucky), pg. 3, col. 2, Jan. 23, 1884
15. ^ Personals, Daily Evening Bulletin (Maysville, Kentucky), pg. 3, col. 2, Jan. 23, 1884
16. ^ Brooks-Adamson, Daily Evening Bulletin (Maysville, Kentucky), pg. 3, col. 2, March 26, 1885
17. ^ Personals, Daily Evening Bulletin (Maysville, Kentucky), pg. 4, col. 3, June 25, 1885
18. ^ Personal, Daily Evening Bulletin (Maysville, Kentucky), col. 2, pg. 2, May 15, 1893
19. ^ D. M. Anderson Directory Co.'s Business Directory and Handy Guide of Denton, pg. 14 (1894)
20. ^ Carthage Woman's Song Broadcast on Radio, The Joplin Globe, pg. 10A, col. 5, Feb. 12, 1954
21. ^ Dramatic Reader to Appear Saturday, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 4, 1925
22. ^ History of the family of Benjamin Snow: who is a descendant of Richard Snow of Woburn, Massachusetts, Press of the Gates Legal Pub. Co., Cleveland, Ohio (1907)
23. ^ Musical Organizations Active a Teachers College; Chorus to Start Work Soon on Christmas Program, The Denton Record-Chronicle, Oct. 18, 1929
24. ^ The Story behind the Song Will be Luncheon Subject, The Dallas Morning News, Feb. 26, 1930
25. ^ New State Normal Teachers – Four Additional Members of Faculty Chosen for North Texas Institution at Denton, The Dallas Morning News, pg 8, July 16, 1915
26. ^ The Denton Record-Chronicle, 1, 5, 1, July 18, 1941
27. ^ Denton Teachers: Eleven Added to Staff for Long Session, The Dallas Morning News, Sept 14, 1941
28. ^ Area Deaths, Lillian Parrill Grissom, The Denton Record-Chronicle, pg. 2, col. 3, June 15, 1973
29. ^ W.N. Masters, Pioneer of Teachers College Faculty, Gives Personalty Sketch of Each of Presidents Serving Institution, The Denton Record-Chronicle, pg. 10, April 16, 1940
30. ^ NTSC School of Music One of the Nation's Largest, The Denton Record-Chronicle, pg. 3, Sect 5, Sept 10, 1945
31. ^ Dr. Cuthbert Named Dean of NTSC Music School, The Dallas Morning News, June 27, 1958
32. ^ Obituary: Frank Douglas Mainous, [[The Denton Record-Chronicle, April 17, 2007
33. ^ Jerry C. Drake, The Handbook of Texas Online
34. ^ Bain Re-Elected Officer in NASM, The Dallas Morning News, Jan 5, 1943

Coordinates: 33°12′39″N 97°09′02″W / 33.210731°N 97.150501°W / 33.210731; -97.150501