NDSU Department of Music Becomes School of Music

The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education has renamed the NDSU Department of Music the School of Music.

The board renamed the school on Sept. 26. This makes the program one of 49 in the nation that provide broad curriculums and doctorate degrees in conducting and performing, John Miller, director of the division of fine arts, said.

Miller said that the name change doesn’t signify any changes within the program.

“The School of Music designation is not reflective of a change in what we do, but a new name that characterizes what we have been doing for the past several years – offering meaningful musical kinships with all our audiences, local and global,” he said.

Students in the program are responding positively to the name change. Chelsey Schmitz, a sophomore majoring in music education, exhibited this sentiment.

“To students in general, the inauguration means that our department has grown and developed strongly enough to be called a school of music, which is definitely something to be proud of!” she said. “There are only 48 other schools of music in the US, so it is a big deal!”

Miller said that there will be two concerts to celebrate the inauguration.

One concert will be held March 12, 2013, at the Ordway in St. Paul, Minn. For those who don’t want to travel all the way to the Twin Cities, there will be another concert on March 24, 2013, at the Festival Concert Hall.

The NDSU music department began in 1904 with Doc Putnam’s Gold Star Band. The department expanded in 1952 by offering an undergraduate program in music. In 2002, the program expanded again to include doctoral and master’s degrees in conducting and performing. In 2008, the department added master’s degrees in music education.