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As the holiday season approaches, I’m filled with immense pride and optimism reflecting our shared journey at the College of Music. In a world too often shadowed by conflicts and divisions, I’m heartened by our college’s daily transcendence of sorrow and seeming helplessness through the solace and power of music—most recently and beautifully conveyed in our annual Holiday Festival featuring the diverse experiences, ethnicities, cultures and spiritualities of our talented students and faculty, and our greater campus community. 

Additionally, as an update to my previous Dean’s Downbeat—in which I introduced our efforts to more effectively advance students pursuing music as a vocation as well as students interested in music as an active avocation—I’m thrilled to announce that a new mission-driven Bachelor of Arts in Music emphasis has been approved by our hardworking curriculum committee! In our earnest commitment to identify and implement new non-traditional degree options that are more inclusive of our increasingly broadly-based student applicants, the College of Music’s Bachelor of Arts in Music: Music Production degree will be offered beginning fall 2025, paving the way for additional interdisciplinary degree emphases to come. 

In other words, we’re gaining momentum and we have a great deal to look forward to in 2024! Meanwhile, we’re celebrating the extraordinary accomplishments of all our winter 2023 graduates and wishing you—our students, staff, faculty, alumni and community of supporters—joyful, harmonious holidays and a rejuvenating winter break. 

See you next year, 

John S. Davis
Dean, College of Music