• 1890 — when the University of North Texas was founded – music was a part of the curriculum. What then was a teachers college offered a "Conservatory Music Course" as part of the initial "Nine Full Courses." The complete course in music, lasting forty-four weeks, required private lessons that had to be paid for, in addition to regular school tuition. Tuition for these classes was $200 for the complete course, while regular tuition for a forty-week school year was only $48. The founding president, Joshua Crittenden Chilton (1853–1896), taught the first classes in the history of music and the theory of sound. John M. Moore, a Dallas Methodist bishop and teacher of mathematics and engineering courses, taught the classes in voice culture and harmony.
Mrs. Eliza Jane McKissack was also a teacher of music and may have served as the director of the music conservatory. • 1950 — The School of Music began offering its first degrees leading to a
Doctor of Philosophy in the areas of
musicology,
composition, and
theory. • 1960 — The oldest existing part of the current Music Building opens, along with Voertman Concert Hall. • 1968 — The
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved degrees leading to a
Doctor of Musical Arts reflecting nearly 60 years of size and breadth of many disciplines in the music arts. The school leadership had long contemplated restructuring as a
conservatory, but felt that a well-functioning college model, tailored specifically for North Texas, gave the entire university latitude to exploit the best of several models that included academic research, performance, composition, training music educators and music school administrators, and other areas – and it preserved a streamline of cross-discipline of all areas within the College of Music and within the university. The College of Music has enjoyed close collaboration with other Colleges within the University (
e.g., English faculty and students collaborating with composers, physics faculty and students collaborating with several divisions in areas that included musical acoustics, electronic music). Despite the high caliber of student musicianship and seriousness of all the programs, the College of Music is accessible in many areas to non-music majors. == See also ==