About the School of Music

The School of Music at Illinois Wesleyan offers an intensive program of study based on a tradition of excellence and, at the same time, forward-looking and flexible curricula geared to the needs of the individual.

All students at Illinois Wesleyan have opportunities to perform in the Collegiate Choir, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Civic Orchestra, University Choir, Symphonic Winds, Titan Band, Chamber Singers, and brass, woodwind, string, and percussion chamber ensembles.

The School of Music has been fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music since 1930.  The School is housed in Presser Hall, constructed in 1929, and the adjoining Alice Millar Center for the Fine Arts, completed in 1973.  A full-time faculty of eighteen and part-time faculty of thirty serve approximately 200 music majors and several hundred IWU students who participate in music activities during their college careers.  The School of Music will sponsor 90+ programs during the 2006-07 school year, including the Symposium of Contemporary Music, which has in recent years featured renowned composers such as Arvo Part, John Corigliano, Libby Larsen, Mario Lavista, and Louis Andriessen.  This past year's guest was the New York New Music Ensemble.

School of Music ensembles perform on annual tours, both nationally and internationally.  In 2000, the Collegiate Choir toured Italy and represented the United States at an International Festival of Contemporary Choral Music.  In 2004, the Collegiate Choir toured Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia.  In recent years, the Jazz Ensemble has toured Japan, England, and Scotland and will tour Italy in May 2007.  Both of these ensembles, in addition to the Wind Ensemble, tour separately throughout the United States each year.

School of Music alumni have pursued advanced degrees at institutions such as the University of Cincinnati, Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard, the University of Southern California, and the University of Michigan.  Alumni also are members of professional orchestras and theatre/ opera companies around the world.  Among Illinois Wesleyan School of Music alumni are Dawn Upshaw, a two-time Grammy Award-winning soprano and a member of New York's Metropolitan Opera company, Todd French, founder of StringWorks and ISIS and cellist for Los Angeles Opera, baritone Roger Roloff who has performed Wagnerian roles in Europe, and mezzo-soprano Susan Quittmeyer-Morris who also has sung at the Metropolitan Opera.

Hours

During the school year, the School of Music is open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Presser Hall is open from 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.

Summer hours are from 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Contact Us Phone: (309) 556-3061 Mailing Address: PO Box 2900 Bloomington, IL 61702-2900 Shipping Address: Dock at 303 E. Emerson 61701 e-mail the School of Music