Yale University School Of Music

The Yale School of Music (YSM) is an American private music school, founded in 1894 and located in New Haven, Connecticut. YSM is one of twelve professional schools at Yale University, offering three graduate degrees (MM, MMA and DMA), a joint BA/MMus program with Yale College, a Certificate in Performance, and an Artist Diploma. The School occupies several buildings at Yale campus, including Woolsey Hall (1901), used for Yale Symphony Orchestra performances and organ recitals. In 1843, Irene Battell Larned, an accomplished musician from Norfolk, Connecticut, moved to New Haven with her husband, a professor in Yale College. Once she heard that a prominent German musician Gustave Jacob Stoeckel became a resident, Irene persuaded her brother to fund an endowment for the first professional musical program at Yale University under Stoeckel's direction. Joseph Battell agreed and donated $5,000 for the support of a "teacher of the science of music to such students as may avail themselves of the opportunity." The Yale Corporation approved the appointment of Gustave J. Stoeckel as an instructor of church music, singing, as well as a director of the Chapel Choir at Yale in 1855. Continued support by the Battell family resulted in an endowment for a professorship of music. YSM was formally established in November of 1894 when Yale Corporation decided to separate rapidly growing music program from the College. A pianist Samuel Simons Sanford, appointed as a professor of applied music, and a composer Horatio William Parker (named Battell Professor of the Theory of Music) succeeded Stoeckel. Parker was appointed the first dean of the School in 1904. In November of 2005, an anonymous donation of $100 mln endowed full scholarships for all students accepted to the Yale School of Music. Later the generous donor was revealed as Stephen Adams (b. 1937), an American entrepreneur, private equity investor, philanthropist, and Yale alumnus. Deans of the Yale School of Music Horatio William Parker 1904–1919 David Stanley Smith 1919–40 Bruce Simonds 1941–1954 Luther Noss 1954–70 Philip Nelson 1970–80 Frank Tirro 1980–89 Ezra Laderman 1989–95 Robert Blocker – since 1995 YSM Professors Aaron Jay Kernis, Martin Bresnick, David Lang, Christopher Theofanidis, composition Boris Berman, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, piano Masaaki Suzuki, Simon Carrington, choral conducting Annie Kavafian, Robert Mealy, violin Aldo Parisot, cello Donald Palma, double bass Allan Dean, trumpet David Shifrin, clarinet Stephen Taylor (2), oboe Ransom Wilson, flute Thomas Murray, organ Robert van Sice, percussion Past YSM Faculty John Adams, Jacob Druckman, Ezra Laderman, Krzysztof Penderecki (1973–79), Paul Hindemith (1940–53), Mel Powell (1957–69), Toru Takemitsu* (1975), Joseph Schwantner, Morton Subotnick, Lukas Foss*, Betsy Jolas*, Ingram Marshall*, composition Donald Martino (1959–69) , Charles Seeger* (49–50), music theory Erick Friedman, Sidney Harth, Oscar Shumsky, violin Martin Beaver, artist-in-residence Keith Wilson (1946–87), clarinet Nancy Allen (2), harp Emanuel Ax*, piano Rosalyn Tureck*, keyboard * marks visiting professors