The Yale School of Music (YSM) is an American private music school, founded in 1894 and located in New Haven, Connecticut. YSM is one of twelve professional schools at Yale University, offering three graduate degrees (MM, MMA and DMA), a joint BA/MMus program with Yale College, a Certificate in Performance, and an Artist Diploma. The School occupies several buildings at Yale campus, including Woolsey Hall (1901), used for Yale Symphony Orchestra performances and organ recitals.
In 1843, Irene Battell Larned, an accomplished musician from Norfolk, Connecticut, moved to New Haven with her husband, a professor in Yale College. Once she heard that a prominent German musician Gustave Jacob Stoeckel became a resident, Irene persuaded her brother to fund an endowment for the first professional musical program at Yale University under Stoeckel's direction. Joseph Battell agreed and donated $5,000 for the support of a "teacher of the science of music to such students as may avail themselves of the opportunity." The Yale Corporation approved the appointment of Gustave J. Stoeckel as an instructor of church music, singing, as well as a director of the Chapel Choir at Yale in 1855. Continued support by the Battell family resulted in an endowment for a professorship of music.
YSM was formally established in November of 1894 when Yale Corporation decided to separate rapidly growing music program from the College. A pianist Samuel Simons Sanford, appointed as a professor of applied music, and a composer Horatio William Parker (named Battell Professor of the Theory of Music) succeeded Stoeckel. Parker was appointed the first dean of the School in 1904.
In November of 2005, an anonymous donation of $100 mln endowed full scholarships for all students accepted to the Yale School of Music. Later the generous donor was revealed as Stephen Adams (b. 1937), an American entrepreneur, private equity investor, philanthropist, and Yale alumnus.
Deans of the Yale School of Music
Horatio William Parker 1904–1919
David Stanley Smith 1919–40
Bruce Simonds 1941–1954
Luther Noss 1954–70
Philip Nelson 1970–80
Frank Tirro 1980–89
Ezra Laderman 1989–95
Robert Blocker – since 1995
YSM Professors
Aaron Jay Kernis, Martin Bresnick, David Lang, Christopher Theofanidis, composition
Boris Berman, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, piano
Masaaki Suzuki, Simon Carrington, choral conducting
Annie Kavafian, Robert Mealy, violin
Aldo Parisot, cello
Donald Palma, double bass
Allan Dean, trumpet
David Shifrin, clarinet
Stephen Taylor (2), oboe
Ransom Wilson, flute
Thomas Murray, organ
Robert van Sice, percussion
Past YSM Faculty
John Adams, Jacob Druckman, Ezra Laderman, Krzysztof Penderecki (1973–79), Paul Hindemith (1940–53), Mel Powell (1957–69), Toru Takemitsu* (1975), Joseph Schwantner, Morton Subotnick, Lukas Foss*, Betsy Jolas*, Ingram Marshall*, composition
Donald Martino (1959–69) , Charles Seeger* (49–50), music theory
Erick Friedman, Sidney Harth, Oscar Shumsky, violin
Martin Beaver, artist-in-residence
Keith Wilson (1946–87), clarinet
Nancy Allen (2), harp
Emanuel Ax*, piano
Rosalyn Tureck*, keyboard
* marks visiting professors