Nov 16, 2007 11:29 AM

UCLA enters new era in music

UCLA announced Nov. 16 the formation and naming of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and a $30-million endowment gift made possible through the generosity of renowned performer, producer and philanthropist Herb Alpert and his wife, Lani Hall Alpert. The gift from the Herb Alpert Foundation is the largest ever made to the arts in the UC system and the single largest individual gift to music higher education in the Western United States.

Aligning the university's departments of Ethnomusicology, Music and Musicology, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music will be devoted to the performance and study of music of all kinds, including world music, popular music, jazz and classical music.

Students will be able to augment their academic studies in music with courses on the music business, music in the public sector, and music and health, among others. This balanced approach to performance, scholarship and practical knowledge, as well as to the broad sweep of music in today's world, represents a significant departure from the emphasis in many U.S. schools of music on the theory, history and performance of European classical music.

"The importance of the arts at a major research university cannot be overstated," said Chancellor Gene Block. "At UCLA we are deeply committed to excellence and contemporary thought throughout a full range of arts study and practice. With its mission to explore new horizons in music, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music will stand tall, alongside today's most progressive models in science, humanities and the arts, and will be a proud complement to the leading-edge work underway across UCLA."

Organizationally, the Alpert School of Music resides in the School of the Arts and Architecture. Professor of Ethnomusicology Timothy Rice, its inaugural director, reports to Christopher Waterman, dean of UCLA Arts. The departments in the new school of music continue to report directly to their respective deans on matters such as budget and academic personnel.

Alpert first gained fame as the celebrated trumpet player and leader of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, bringing Latin sounds into the pop music limelight in the 1960s. The co-founder of A&M records, he has five No. 1 hits, eight GRAMMY® Awards, as well as 15 Gold and 14 Platinum albums. Alpert was pioneering crossover music long before there was a term for it.

"Music is a powerful force, and sharing music between people and cultures has the power to change the world," the performer said. "The world today is smaller but also more complicated than ever before, and students engaged in the study and performance of music can be ambassadors for a new educational paradigm."

Alpert's history and reputation for blending and "crossing over" are a perfect fit for the new school. "For nearly half a century, our university has supported the instruction, scholarship and performance of music that serves diverse communities, reaches across cultural boundaries and is global in perspective," Dean Waterman said. "The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music will contribute to what we hope will be a transformation of music studies in American higher education through an open and inclusive approach to all music."

Among the faculty are renowned, award-winning musicians, composers and scholars: guitarist Kenny Burrell, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master; baritone Vladimir Chernov; soprano Juliana Gondek; sitar master Shujaat Husain Khan; trumpet soloist Jens Lindemann; musicologist Susan McClary, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow; piano soloist Walter Ponce; musician, composer and scholar Ali Jihad Racy; ethnomusicologist Anthony Seeger; and musicologist Robert Winter, a Guggenheim Fellow.

Alpert's philanthropic involvement with UCLA spans nearly four decades and includes, among other things, establishment of the Herb Alpert Jazz Studies Scholarships and support of the UCLA Arts Music Partnership Program, which brings music education to Los Angeles area K-12 schools.

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