The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, located on the campus of the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, is “the first school of music to be established in the University of California system.” 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
The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sy ...
formally voted in January 2016 to establish the school.
/sup> Supported in part by a $30 million endowment from the Herb Alpert Foundation. /sup>
Opera singer and Professor of Voice, Eileen L. Strempel was appointed as the school's inaugural dean, effective July 8, 2019. The school is subdivided into the Department of Ethnomusicology, the Department of Music, and the Department of Musicology, and also home to an interdepartmental program in Global Jazz Studies and a minor in Music Industry.
History
With the creation in 1919 of an art gallery and music department, the UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
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 “independent 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 2020, UCLA announced the Herb Alpert School of Music would establish the Lowell Milken
Lowell Jay Milken (born November 29, 1948) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and the co-founder and chairman of the Milken Family Foundation. He is also the founder of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, TAP System for T ...
Center for Music of American Jewish Experience to support the research, scholarship and performance of American Jewish music.
The name Herb Alpert School of Music was approved by the Board of Regents
In the United States, a board often governs institutions of higher education, including private universities, state universities, and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual col ...
after the acceptance of a donation of $30 million from the Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...
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. /sup>
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 school's departments, most faculty offices, as well as two large theaters. Schoenberg Hall, which seats about 520, is the main auditorium of the Schoenberg building. Lani Hall is a 133-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 as a composing studio, recording studio, and a classroom. The World Music Center includes the Ethnomusicology Archive, 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, 46 practice rooms, an orchestra room, a band room, a choral room, the headquarters office of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at UCLA 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.” 0/sup> 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 ha
45 active ensembles
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 includ
Chamber Singers
Brass Ensemble
Camarades
Early Music Ensemble
FLUX Contemporary Ensemble
Guitar Ensemble
Percussion Ensemble
an
Woodwind Chamber Ensembles
World music ensembles
World music ensembles include th
Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra
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.” 3/sup> 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.”
Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance
Established as a college outreach program by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz
The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education organization founded in 1986. Before 2019, it was known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, but was then renamed after its longtime board chairman, Herbie Hancock.
The i ...
in Washington D.C., the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at UCLA
Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at UCLA on hancockinstitute.org 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 the 40th anniversary of the coronation of the King of Thailand.
Notable alumni
* Cristian Amigo
Cristian Amigo (born 1963) is an American composer, improviser, guitarist, sound designer, and ethnomusicologist. His compositional and performing output includes blues and soul, music for the theater, chamber and orchestral music, opera, avant-jaz ...
– composer, guitarist, ethnomusicologist
* Brian Asawa
Brian Asawa (October 1, 1966 – April 18, 2016) was a Japanese American opera singer who sang as a countertenor. About Asawa, '' Opera News'' stated: "In his prime, Asawa was an electric performer, his fearless performing style supported by a vo ...
– countertenor
* Angel Blue
Angel Joy Blue (born May 3, 1984), is an American opera soprano and classical crossover (music), crossover artist. She won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for the Metropolitan Opera production of Porgy and Bess in the 63rd Annual Gramm ...
– soprano
* Don Davis – composer
* Akin Euba
Olatunji Akin Euba (28 April 1935 – 14 April 2020), was a Nigerian composer, musicologist, and pianist.
Career
Born on 28 April 1935 in Lagos, Nigeria, Akin Euba studied composition with Arnold Cooke at the Trinity College of Music, London, o ...
– musicologist, composer, pianist
* Martha Gonzales – ethnomusicologist, singer, artist, activist
* Ara Guzelimian – academic, scholar
* Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie (born March 31, 1961) is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers.
B ...
– composer, pianist
* James Horner
James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American composer. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements, and for his frequent use of motifs associated with Celtic music.
Horner's first film score was i ...
– film composer
* Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...
– singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, pianist
* Leonard Stein
Leonard David Stein (December 1, 1916 – June 24, 2004) was a musicologist, pianist, conductor, university teacher, and influential in promoting contemporary music on the American West Coast. He was for years Arnold Schoenberg's assistant, mus ...
– musicologist, pianist, conductor
* Kamasi Washington
Kamasi Washington (born February 18, 1981) is an American jazz saxophonist, usually playing tenor saxophone. Archived July 9, 2015.
Career
Washington was born in 1981 and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of the Academy of ...
– jazz saxophonist, composer
* John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...
– composer, conductor, pianist
* LaMonte Young
La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best kno ...
– composer
* Shahab Paranj
Dr. Shahab Paranj ( Persian شهاب پارنج) (born 1983, Tehran) is an Iranian-born composer and instrumentalist based in Los Angeles. He is considered as one of the pioneers among his generation of composers whose composition style integr ...
– composer
Notable faculty
* Boris Allakhverdyan
Boris Allakhverdyan is an Armenian-American clarinet player. He currently performs as principal clarinet at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and serves on the faculties of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and California State University, Fuller ...
- clarinetist
* Justo Almario
Justo Pastor Almario Gómez (born 18 February 1949) is a Colombian-born, Los Angeles-based flutist, saxophonist and Latin jazz group leader. "Justo Almario: saxophonist, originally from Colombia, who has performed with Freddy Hubbard, Poncho Sanche ...
- flutist, saxophonist, bandleader
* Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard (born March 13, 1962) is an American trumpeter and composer. He started his career in 1982 as a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, then The Jazz Messengers. He has composed more than forty film scores and performed ...
- trumpeter, composer
* Denis Bouriakov
Denis Viktorovich Bouriakov (russian: Денис Викторович Буряков; born 25 October 1981, in Simferopol, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR) is a flautist. He is currently principal flutist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
...
- flutist
* Roger Bourland - composer
* Bruce Broughton
Bruce Harold Broughton (born March 8, 1945) is an American orchestral composer of television, film, and video game scores and concert works. He has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career and has contributed man ...
- composer
* Kenny Burrell
Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist known for his work on numerous top jazz labels: Prestige, Blue Note, Verve, CTI, Muse, and Concord. His collaborations with Jimmy Smith were notable, and produced the 1965 ...
- jazz guitarist, composer
* Mark Carlson- composer
* Gloria Cheng
Gloria Cheng is an American pianist who won a Grammy Award for her 2008 Piano Music of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky, and Witold Lutosławski, and a nomination for The Edge of Light: Messiaen/Saariaho. Her film, "Montage: Great Film Composers an ...
- pianist
* Vladimir Chernov
Vladimir Nikolaïevitch Chernov (born 22 September 1953) is a Russian baritone, particularly associated with the Russian and Italian opera repertories.
Early life
Vladimir Chernov was born in a small village near the town of Krasnodar in southe ...
- baritone
* Richard Danielpour
Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer.
Early life
Danielpour was born in New York City of Persian Jewish descent and grew up in New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. He studied at Oberlin College and the New En ...
- composer
* Aubrey Foard Aubrey Foard is an American tubist residing in Baltimore, Maryland.
Professional career
Foard has been the Principal Tubist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since September, 2018. He is also a Lecturer of Tuba and Euphonium at UCLA, where he ...
- tubist
* Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...
- jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer
* Johana Harris
Johana Harris (31 December 1912 – 5 June 1995) was a Canadian pianist, composer, and music educator. She had highly successful career as a concert pianist, making numerous recordings and appearing as a soloist with almost every major American sy ...
- pianist
* Roy Harris
Roy Ellsworth Harris (February 12, 1898 – October 1, 1979) was an American composer. He wrote music on American subjects, and is best known for his Symphony No. 3.
Life
Harris was born in Chandler, Oklahoma on February 12, 1898. His ancestry ...
- composer
* Tamir Hendelman - jazz pianist
* Billy Higgins
Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.
Biography
Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, be ...
- jazz drummer
* Henri Lazarof
Henri Lazarof (Bulgarian: Хенри Лазаров) (April 12, 1932 – December 29, 2013) was a Bulgarian-American composer.
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, his formal musical training began in Israel under Paul Ben-Haim. After a short stint in Rome, ...
- composer
* Jens Lindemann - trumpeter
* David Leaf
David Leaf (born April 20, 1952) is a Peabody and WGAW award-winning writer, director, and producer, known for his associations with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys since the late 1970s.
Leaf's 1978 biography ''The Beach Boys and the California ...
- musicologist, writer, producer, director
* Steve Loza - ethnomusicologist
* Barbara Morrison - jazz singer
* Arturo O'Farrill
Arturo O'Farrill (born June 22, 1960) is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, - jazz pianist, composer,bandleader
* David Raksin
David Raksin (August 4, 1912 – August 9, 2004) was an American composer who was noted for his work in film and television. With more than 100 film scores and 300 television scores to his credit, he became known as the "Grandfather of Film Music ...
- composer
* Paul Reale- composer
* Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
- composer
* Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...
- jazz saxophonist and composer
* Leonard Stein
Leonard David Stein (December 1, 1916 – June 24, 2004) was a musicologist, pianist, conductor, university teacher, and influential in promoting contemporary music on the American West Coast. He was for years Arnold Schoenberg's assistant, mus ...
– musicologist, pianist, conductor
* Gerald Wilson
Gerald Stanley Wilson (September 4, 1918 – September 8, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. In addition to being a ...
- jazz trumpeter
References
{{Authority control
Herb
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
Music schools in California
2007 establishments in California