UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music


The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, is “the first school of music to be established in the University of California system.” First established in 2007 under the purview of the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture and the UCLA Division of Humanities, the UC Board of Regents formally voted in January 2016 to establish the school. Supported in part by a $30 million endowment from the Herb Alpert Foundation.
The interim/founding dean Judith Smith was appointed the school's first dean, effective March 1, 2017. The school is subdivided into the Department of Ethnomusicology, the Department of Music, and the Department of Musicology.

History

With the creation in 1919 of an art gallery and music department, the UCLA leadership committed to offer the study of the arts in a liberal arts research university context. The College of Applied Arts was established in 1939 with the inclusion of an art department. In 1960, the college was renamed the College of Fine Arts, which carried departments of art, dance, music, and theater arts.
In 1988, several big changes occurred in departments throughout the school: Ethnomusicology and Musicology separated from Music, while Design and Art History separated from Art. Art History and Musicology entered the umbrella of the Humanities division of the college while Design and Ethnomusicology remained in Fine Arts.
Then in 1991, the College of Fine Arts was disestablished, giving rise to two separate schools: the School of the Arts and the School of Theater, Film and Television. With the conjoining of architecture to the School of Fine Arts in UCLA's Professional School Restructuring Initiative in 1994, the school was then renamed the School of the Arts and Architecture.
In 2014, a proposal was made for the creation of a School of Music for the college. The new school, called the Herb Alpert School of Music, created in 2016, would join the trio of “independence but complementary arts-centered” schools: the current School of Theater, Film, Television, a redefined School of the Arts and Architecture, and the new School of Music.
In 2017, UCLA announced the Herb Alpert School of Music would establish the Lowell Milken Fund for American Jewish Music to support research and performance of American Jewish music.
The name Herb Alpert School of Music was approved by the Board of Regents after the acceptance of a generous gift of $30 million from the Herb Alpert Foundation in 2007.

Facilities

The entire school is housed in either the Schoenberg Music Building, established in 1955 and 1965, and the Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Center, a pair of buildings completed in 2014.
Schoenberg Music Building
Named in honor of former UCLA faculty member and composer Arnold Schoenberg, this facility houses the Dean's office, administrative offices for the three departments, most faculty offices, as well as two large theaters. Schoenberg Hall, which seats about 520, is the main auditorium of the Schoenberg building. The Jan Popper theater is a 140 seat house intended mainly for small performance groups and lectures, although it has been used for many other types of events.”
Aside from the performance venues, Schoenberg Hall also contains the Henry Mancini Media Lab as well as the World Music Center. The World Music Center acts like a composing studio, a recording studio, and a classroom. The World Music Center includes the Ethnomusicology Archives, the World Musical Instrument Collection, and is home to publications by the Ethnomusicology department. Additionally, the building contains a keyboard lab, a computer lab, six classrooms, 36 practice rooms, an orchestra room, a band room, a choral room, the headquarters office of the UCLA Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance as well as the Music Library.
Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Center
The Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Center, completed in 2014, “includes a high-tech recording studio, spaces for rehearsal and teaching, a café and social space for students, and an Internet-based music production center.” Paid for in part by a $10 million donation by Music Industry Executive and Philanthropist Morris “Mo” Ostin and his late wife, Evelyn Ostin, to his alma mater, the center was designed by LA-based architects Daly Genik Architects under the direction of principal Kevin Daly. The center was honored in 2016 at the 46th Annual Los Angeles Architectural Awards by Los Angeles Business Council.

Ensembles

The Herb Alpert School of Music has that perform classical, contemporary, jazz, popular and world music. Under the direction of performance faculty, students also premiere new works, including those by established composers, students, faculty and alumni.

Chamber Ensembles

Chamber ensembles at UCLA include Brass Ensemble, Camarades, Early Music Ensemble, FLUX Contemporary Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, and Woodwind Chamber Ensemble.

World Music Ensembles

World Music Ensembles include Afro-Cuban Ensemble, Irish Music Ensemble, Klezmer Music Ensemble, Mariachi de Uclatàn, Music of Bali, Music of China, Music of India, and many others.

Sister Institutes

Institute Of Ethnomusicology
Founded in 1960, the Institute of Ethnomusicology was established under the supervision of Dr. Mantle Hood by UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block. Mantle Hood brought to the program a belief that “ethnomusicology includes the musical practice, and "instrument" is interpreted in its literal meaning. Performance, under experienced leadership, is an integral part of the program at U.C.L.A.” The ethnomusicology student is taught practical training in the performance of various types of non-Western music. Since its founding the institute has hosted a large number of internationally-known master musicians and instructors from different world traditions; purchased an impressive collection of world musical instruments; the collection of traditional sound recordings for what is now one of the largest sound archives in the U.S.; supported scientific work in systematic musicology, particularly the development and use of the melograph, an automatic music writer, for musical transcription; and 5) supported the research work of ethnomusicology faculty by creating a publications program for the dissemination of their work.”
Established as a college outreach program by the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Washington D.C., the UCLA Thelonious Monk Institute of Institute of Jazz Performance is a two-year tuition free study program.
The Institute only accepts one ensemble per class annually with students participating in many international and domestic outreach events such as “40th anniversary of the coronation of the King of Thailand.” This program seeks to emulate the example of Thelonious Monk, who taught his own students in his Manhattan apartment throughout the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Notable Alumni