About Us | School of Music

The University of Maryland School of Music is dedicated to offering undergraduate and graduate musicians conservatory-caliber training, while emphasizing the importance of the combined scholar, performer, educator, and arts advocate in the 21st century. These musicians, in turn, contribute vitally to the enrichment of the present culture, the preservation of our artistic heritage, and to the stimulation of new creative expression for the future.

Over the past decade, The School of Music’s focus on innovation and collaboration has earned national attention. A distinguished faculty including members of the National Symphony Orchestra delivers a curriculum that allows students to approach large-ensemble performance with the leadership and communications skills practiced in the art of chamber music. The New Lights Initiative calls upon students and faculty to explore unconventional performance practice, technology and other artistic disciplines, and incorporate them into programming to generate greater engagement between the audience, musicians and music. As an advocate for the study, performance, and creation of new music, the School of Music often features the works of composition students on its stages, and has produced and premiered three, fully-staged new operas.

The UMD School of Music is located in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, just nine miles from the heart of Washington D.C. and 30 miles from downtown Baltimore, MD. This location, in the culturally vibrant D.C. - Baltimore corridor, provides unsurpassed educational and professional opportunities for music students. Close proximity to professional orchestras, opera companies, and research and cultural centers add significant value to the UMD experience.

A leading contributor to the cultural life of the campus and surrounding region, the School of Music fosters a thriving and diverse community of more than 500 student musicians from within the state of Maryland, across the country, and around the world. The School also serves more than 3,000 non-majors each year, providing essential coursework that satisfies University CORE Liberal Arts & Sciences Studies requirements.