College of Music of Cincinnati

The College of Music of Cincinnati was created by a stock company and the managers of the Music Hall Association; the latter being connected a performance space that is home to the Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival Chorus, and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. It main sponsor was Reuben R. Springer who contributed $306,750 ($ in 2022 money). The college's objective was to "cultivate a taste for music [and] to organize a school of instruction and practice". George Ward Nichols, the college's primary founder, became its president. Famed conductor and violinist Theodore Thomas was the college's first musical director. He recruited the college's 31 faculty members. 25 studios were destroyed including 25 pianos, three organs, a harp, and several cellos. In 1950, television equipment was added, turning the radio program into a Radio and Television Arts Department that taught more than sixty courses. The public television station WCET started on the college campus in July 1954. The college merged with the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in May 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. The new college was on the Cincinnati Conservatory campus. The College of Music's campus officially closed on July 31, 1955. The Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music merged with the University of Cincinnati in 1962. == Campus ==

The College of Music was located in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, across from Washington Park. Initially, classes were held in Dexter Hall on the top floor of Music Hall. In 1902, the college's buildings, with forty classrooms, were valued at $200,000. Odeon and Lyceum were destroyed in the September 1902 fire. The rebuilt Odeon Hall was finished in November 1903. Its auditorium only seated 700 but featured fireproof construction, including the largest pored concrete balcony at the time. Mrs. Frederick Alms funded a second dormitory in 1921. In addition, an administrative building was added in 1927, facing Central Parkway. Other buildings included Dexter Hall, which housed the television and radio department and a public television station. The College of Music's only surviving building is its former administration building at 1228 Central Parkway. It is now owned by the Pipe Fitters Union Local #392. == Academics ==

The College of Music of Cincinnati had both an academic department and a general school of music. The college offered a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music. In 1925, some of its departments were boys choir, double base, dramatic art and expression, harmony and counterpoint, modern languages, opera, organ, pianoforte, voice, viola, violin, violincello, theory and composition, and public school music. == Student life ==

The College of Music had several fraternities. The first was Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a social fraternity for men with a special interest in music, which opened a chapter in 1903. Phi Beta, a professional fraternity for the creative and performing arts, had a chapter starting in 1933. There were also student groups like the Three Arts Club. == Notable people ==

Alumni • Max Bendix – concert violinist and conductor • Clarence Adler – pianist • Bill Berry – trumpeter and jazz musician • Ernest L. Blumenschein – artist and founding member of the Taos Society of Artists • Walter Connolly – character actor • Hiram Powers Dilworth – pianist and poet • Bertha Foster – dean of music and founding regent of the University of Miami • Nahan Franko – violinist, conductor, and concert promoter • Burnet Tuthill – musicologist and conductor Faculty and staff • Max Bendix (professor of violin) – concert violinist and conductor • Hugh Ned Brown (administration) – fundraiser • Leandro Campanari (professor of violin, 1890 to 1896) – Italian violinist, conductor, and composer • Pietro Floridia (faculty) – Italian composer of classical music • Albino Gorno (director of the piano department, dean of the college) – pianist and dean for more than forty years • Theodore Thomas (musical director) – violinist, conductor, and orchestrator • Frank Van der Stucken (faculty) – composer and conductor • Arthur Batelle Whiting (head of the organ department) – composer and pianist == See also ==