Moores School of Music

Last updated
Moores School of Music
Moores School of Music logo.gif
TypePublic
Established1940
DirectorBrian Kai Chin
Academic staff
80
Students600
Location,
Affiliations University of Houston
CotA
Website music.uh.edu

The Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music is the music school of the University of Houston. The Moores School offers the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music performance, conducting, theory and composition, music history and literature, pedagogy, and music education and also offers a Certificate of Music Performance. It is a component of the University of Houston's Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. The Moores School is a fully accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). [1] Its namesakes are UH alumni John Moores (a businessman and philanthropist) and his former wife Rebecca. As of 2023–2024, the Director of the Moores School is Brian Kai Chin. [2]

Contents

History

The Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music Moores School of Music.jpg
The Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music

The University of Houston was founded in 1927, and the music department was formed in 1940. In 1969 the department was officially designated as the University of Houston School of Music. In 1972 [3] the School of Music moved into the Fine Arts Building, a facility it shared with the School of Art. A multimillion-dollar gift in 1991 by UH alumni John and Rebecca Moores led to renaming of the school in their honor (media references to the "Moores School of Music" appear as early as fall 1995) and to the construction of the present facility, which began operation in 1997.

Bruce Spencer King, Earl Moore, Robert Briggs, Milton Katims, David Tomatz, David Ashley White, Andrew Davis, Courtney Crappell, and Brian Kai Chin have been artistic directors of the school.

Overview

Enrollment in the Moores School stands at nearly 600 music majors, who are instructed by a faculty of 80. Since 1997 the school has been located at the Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music Building on the University of Houston campus. A large and varied schedule of concerts and recitals featuring students, faculty, and guest performers serves the concertgoing public of Houston throughout the year.

Ensembles at the Moores School include the Wind Ensemble (recipient of multiple Grammy nominations), the Moores School Symphony Orchestra, the Concert Chorale, AURA (a contemporary music ensemble), the Jazz Orchestra, the Mariachi Pumas, [4] the Spirit of Houston Cougar Marching Band, the Symphonic Winds, the Concert Band, the Cougar Brass, the Choral Artists, the Chamber Singers, the Concert Women's Chorus, the Houston Symphony Chorus, the University Men's Chorus, the University Women's Chorus, the Moores School Percussion Ensemble, and Collegium Musicum (early music). The Edythe Bates Old Moores Opera Center presents productions consistently lauded as being of professional quality. As a component of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, the Moores School also collaborates for some events, programs, and productions with the School of Art, the Creative Writing Program, the School of Theatre and Dance, and the Blaffer Gallery, the art museum of the University of Houston.

The Houston Opera Studio has provided dozens of world-class opera singers [5] with early professional training and experience. From its inception in 1977 until 1992, the Studio was a partnership between the University of Houston School of Music and Houston Grand Opera; it is now administered solely by HGO. [6]

The Moores School of Music Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Blake Wilkins, has also performed at three Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. These showcase concerts were the result of winning three PAS "Call for Tapes" contests. The Moores School Percussion Ensemble is the second ensemble in history to achieve three PAS Showcase concerts. The group has recorded three commercially released compact discs: Surge, released in 2005; Not Here, But There, released in 2009; and the most recent, Everywhere Entangled, which was released in January 2012.

Data indicate that some 80 percent of Moores School graduates stay in the Houston area following graduation, so that a large proportion of the community's professional musical performers and educators are University of Houston alumni. Nevertheless, Moores School graduates in significant numbers can be found on concert stages, on college faculties, and in other leading professional musical roles worldwide.[ citation needed ]

Extracurricular programs and activities

The Moores School hosts a number of musical activities outside the scope of its basic program of university instruction. These include the following:

In addition, the Moores School of Music is home to chapters of four collegiate music fraternities and one honor society:

Facilities

Moores Opera House Moores Opera House.jpg
Moores Opera House

Located in the Arts District of the University of Houston campus, the centerpiece of the $24 million Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music Building is the 800-seat Moores Opera House, which has a ceiling mural by Frank Stella, light fixtures by Isaac Maxwell, and a green room displaying paintings by Ary Stillman. The building has 50 teaching studios and 60 practice rooms, a library, listening and composition facilities, a recording studio, four rehearsal halls for large ensembles, and a lounge. Some facilities in the "old" Fine Arts Building, such as the Dudley Recital Hall and the Organ Hall, are still used by the Moores School.

Noted faculty and alumni

List of University of Houston people

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School</span> Specialized high school in New York City

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, often referred to simply as LaGuardia or "LaG", is a public high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, near Lincoln Center in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated at 100 Amsterdam Avenue between West 64th and 65th Streets, the school is operated by the New York City Department of Education, and resulted from the merger of the High School of Music & Art and the School of Performing Arts. The school has a dual mission of arts and academics, preparing students for a career in the arts or conservatory study as well as a pursuit of higher education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Houston</span> State university in Houston, Texas, US

The University of Houston is a public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in the first decades of the 20th century. In 1934, HJC was restructured as a four-year degree-granting institution and renamed University of Houston. In 1977, it became the founding member of the University of Houston System. Today, Houston is the fourth-largest university in Texas, awarding 11,156 degrees in 2023. As of 2024, it has a worldwide alumni base of 331,672.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phi Sigma Kappa</span> North American collegiate fraternity

Phi Sigma Kappa (ΦΣΚ), colloquially known as Phi Sig or PSK, is a men's social and academic fraternity with approximately 74 active chapters and provisional chapters in North America. Most of its first two dozen chapters were granted to schools in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania; therefore its early development was strongly Eastern in character, eventually operating chapters at six of the eight Ivy League schools as well as more egalitarian state schools. It later expanded to the South and West. The fraternity has initiated more than 180,000 members since 1873.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tau Beta Sigma</span> Co-educational service sorority

Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority, is a co-educational recogniztion and service sorority for collegiate band members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kappa Kappa Psi</span> US honor fraternity for band members

Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity is an honorary fraternity for college and university band members in the United States. It was founded on November 27, 1919, on Thanksgiving Day, at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, now known as Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

T. Edward (Ted) Vives originated the FSU Seminole War Chant in 1985, a trombonist and composer, is the musical director of the Los Alamos Community Winds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mu Phi Epsilon</span> International co-ed fraternity founded 1903

Mu Phi Epsilon (ΜΦΕ) is a co-ed international professional music fraternity. It was established as a music sorority in 1903 at the Metropolitan College of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio. has over 75,000 members in 227 collegiate chapters and 113 alumni chapters in the US and abroad.

Brian A. Britt is assistant director of the school of music, assistant professor of music, and director of The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band at the University of Oklahoma. Britt is only the fifth person to hold the position since the first full-time director of The Pride was hired in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tau Kappa Epsilon</span> North American collegiate fraternity

Tau Kappa Epsilon (ΤΚΕ), commonly known as ΤΚΕ or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, making the Fraternity an international organization. Since its founding in 1899, Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity has never had an exclusionary or discriminatory clause to prevent individuals from joining and has instead admitted members based on their "personal worth and character". As of spring 2024, there are 209 active ΤΚΕ chapters and colonies with over 301,000-lifetime members.

Charles C. Knox was an American composer and music educator. He is particularly noted for his music for brass instruments and chamber music, among his over 100 compositions to date.

The Conservatory of Music (COM) is one of eleven schools and colleges at University of the Pacific. It is located on the school’s main campus in Stockton, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack R. Anderson</span> Former Director of the University of Pittsburgh Varsity Marching Band

Jack R. Anderson was Director of Bands at the University of Pittsburgh from 1995 to 2013, having served as assistant director since 1986. His responsibilities included directing Pitt's Varsity Marching Band, leading the Pep Band, and conducting the Symphonic Band. As a music educator in Pennsylvania for 37 years, including serving as Director of the award winning Keystone Oaks High School Marching Band, he has served as a guest conductor and adjudicator for PMEA throughout Western Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Intercollegiate Band</span> American intercollegiate concert band

The National Intercollegiate Band (NIB) is a concert band, sponsored by honorary band fraternity and sorority Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma, that performs every two years at the national convention of the two organizations. Organized in 1947, the NIB is the oldest national intercollegiate band in the United States, and is open to all collegiate band members regardless of membership in Kappa Kappa Psi or Tau Beta Sigma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SIUC School of Music</span>

The Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Music is the music school of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. It is housed in Altgeld Hall, the Old Baptist Foundation Building, and Shryock Auditorium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Missouri School of Music</span> School of Music within the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri

The School of Music is an academic division of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Its focus is the study of music, awarding baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees as part of the College of Arts and Science. The institution's programs encompass composition, performance, conducting, music education, music history, musical theatre and musicology. Established in 1917 as the Department of Music, the school continues to play a prominent role in the cultural life of Missouri and is located in the Sinquefield Music Center, on the university's flagship campus in Downtown Columbia. The Fine Arts Building also houses classrooms, studios, and a recital hall. Its major performance venues are Jesse Hall, the Missouri Theatre, and Whitmore Recital Hall. The Missouri Tigers marching band, Marching Mizzou, performs at Faurot Field for Southeastern Conference football games. The school's ensembles have performed worldwide and can be heard weekly on the university's own KMUC 90.5 FM Classical, Mid-Missouri's classical music radio station. Alumni include singers Sheryl Crow and Neal Boyd, Canadian Brass founder Gene Watts, and jazz artist Mike Metheny.

References

  1. NASM Accredited Institutional Members - University of Houston Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 2012-06-10.
  2. KATHRINE G. MCGOVERN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS WELCOMES NEW DIRECTOR OF THE MOORES SCHOOL OF MUSIC by Stephanie Williams. University of Houston, Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  3. Fine Arts Building (Houston). Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  4. New mariachi ensemble debuts at UH by Autumn Rendall. The Cougar, 10 Oct 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  5. Houston Grand Opera. See pp. 11–34 for a complete list of Opera Studio alumni.
  6. "UH will end its support of Opera Studio" by Charles Ward. Houston Chronicle, 18 February 1992

29°43′31″N95°20′38″W / 29.725156°N 95.344017°W / 29.725156; -95.344017