Dear alumni and friends

The Arts & Sciences magazine you’re holding is a change of pace: an issue devoted almost entirely to music.

You may, like me, go back to the days of vinyl and 45 RPM singles. Our students today can — and do — take music with them wherever they go. You’ll see those white earbuds on students walking around Grounds, studying in the library or working out in the Aquatic & Fitness Center.

Aside from its usefulness as a companion to daily life, what is the role of music in the liberal arts setting? The McIntire Department of Music plays a dual role, serving both aspiring professional musicians (look in the ’Hoos News section at the back of the magazine for a sample of successful examples) and students who are bound for other careers but still want to follow their passion for music.

For majors and nonmajors alike, that passion can take many forms — studying music history, criticism or theory, for example, or performing in a vocal or instrumental ensemble. From the earliest music to electronic music, from African drumming and dancing to American roots music, classical to jazz, our students can learn about and perform it all. For students whose passion leads them to graduate education, the department offers a Ph.D. program in either critical and comparative studies or composition.

It’s not just students who take music classes or perform who benefit, of course. The arts calendar is full of opportunities for members of the University and the broader Charlottesville-Albemarle communities to indulge their own passion for music, be it chamber music from a faculty ensemble, jazz with the Free Bridge Quintet, a football halftime with the Cavalier Marching Band or the sold-out holiday concert by the University Singers and the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra.

The music isn’t over with the printed version; please take time to go online at AandS.Virginia.edu/go/music to find links to audio files and other stories about music at the University.

And be sure to check out the conceptual drawing of the South Lawn Project on Page 3. We are all excited about the sketches we have seen, and I look forward to sharing more with you on the pages of this magazine soon.

Edward L. Ayers
Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History
Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences