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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 Californ ...
, 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 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 ...
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 c ...
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 SingersBrass EnsembleCamaradesEarly Music EnsembleFLUX Contemporary EnsembleGuitar EnsemblePercussion Ensemble
an
Woodwind Chamber Ensembles


World music ensembles

World music ensembles include th
Afro-Latin Jazz OrchestraKlezmer Music EnsembleMariachi de UclatànMusic of BaliMusic of ChinaMusic 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 in ...
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-ja ...
– 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 voice ...
– countertenor * Angel Blue – soprano * Don Davis – composer * Akin Euba – 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. ...
– 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 in ...
– film composer *
Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and vari ...
– singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, pianist * Leonard Stein – 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 w ...
– 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 – composer


Notable faculty

* Boris Allakhverdyan - clarinetist * Justo Almario - flutist, saxophonist, bandleader * Terence Blanchard - trumpeter, composer * Denis Bouriakov - 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 - pianist * Vladimir Chernov - baritone * Richard Danielpour - 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 hel ...
- jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer * Johana Harris - pianist * Roy Harris - composer *
Tamir Hendelman Tamir Hendelman (b. 1971) is an Israeli-American jazz pianist. Hendelman has performed with the Jeff Hamilton Trio, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Harry Allen, Teddy Edwards, Warren Vaché, Houston Person, Jeff Clayton, Nick Brign ...
- 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, ...
- jazz drummer * Henri Lazarof - composer *
Jens Lindemann Jens Lindemann (born 1966) is a German-born Canadian trumpet soloist of Polish Jewish heritage now based in Los Angeles. He is the first classical brass soloist to be awarded the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour. He played ...
- 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 Barbara Morrison (September 10, 1949 – March 16, 2022) was an American jazz singer. Biography Born in Ypsilanti, Michigan on September 10, 1949, and raised in Romulus, Michigan, Barbara Morrison recorded her first appearance for radio in Detr ...
- 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 D ...
- jazz saxophonist and composer * Leonard Stein – 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

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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 medicina ...
Music schools in California 2007 establishments in California