A Brief Historical Timeline of the UK School of Music

1865 UK was founded as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky.

1881 Music courses first offered.

1918 Department of music formed.

1918 University Orchestra formed – housed in White Hall.

1927 Winslow Street Church enlarged to house Departments of Art and Music.

1937 Department of Music receives National Association of Schools of Music accreditation.

1939 Department of Music reorganized with full-time faculty in applied music.

1948 First graduate degrees in Music conferred.

1950 Fine Arts Building dedicated. Includes Music, Theatre and Visual Arts Department as well as the new Guignol Theater.

1970 First DMA conferred (Helen Fullbright).

1971 Ph.D. in Musicology approved.

1972 Department of Music becomes School of Music.

1978 First Ph.D. conferred (Kristine Forney).

1979 UK Center for the Arts dedicated with Robert Shaw conducting the Verdi Requiem.

1980 Doctoral programs in music reorganized to include D.M.A. in Performance and Composition, and Ph.D. in Musicology, Theory and Music Education.

1986 Center for the Arts is renamed Otis A. Singletary Center for the Arts.

1991 UK Friends of Music established to provide public support for the School of Music.

1996 UK Opera Theatre program is established.

1998 The John Jacob Niles Center for American Music is established.

2000 The Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center opens.

2003 Dr. Ben Arnold becomes Director of the School of Music.

2004 First Annual Scholarship Benefit Concert held, featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

2005 Second Annual Scholarship Benefit Concert held, featuring Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. First Moonlight Serenade black tie fundraiser held at Pin Oak Stud.

2006 UK Symphony Orchestra performs sold-out concert with Arlo Guthrie. Orchestra CD release, Music of the Horse, in partnership with Keeneland. Third Annual Scholarship Benefit Concert held, featuring the Mahler Second Symphony ("Ressurection"). Second Moonlight Serenade black tie fundraiser held at R.J. Corman's aircraft hangar in Nicholasville.