Director and Professor, School of Music

Director and Professor, School of Music

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seeks an inspiring, strategic, and collaborative leader to serve as the Director of the School of Music (SOM or the School). Reporting to the Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts (FAA), the Director will bring a deep understanding of artistic excellence and academic distinction and will develop a compelling vision for the School's future that builds on its many strengths.

As part of a major, public, land-grant, research university, the SOM shapes the next generation of performers, creators, scholars, and educators who lead the future of music locally, nationally, and globally. Through academic rigor, innovative artistry, inclusive excellence, and collaboration, the School empowers students to develop their artistic voice, intellectual curiosity, and professional skills. Its distinguished faculty lead by example, inspiring students to explore new frontiers in music's historically and globally rich cultural landscape. The SOM enjoys rich opportunities for collaboration across FAA and the broader campus. As part of a college that includes nationally recognized programs across myriad disciplines, the School is well positioned to advance interdisciplinary initiatives in performance, technology, design, public engagement, and civic life.

The SOM is one of the nation's leading public music schools, with recognized programs in performance, composition, music education, jazz, musicology, music technology, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The School is committed to artistic excellence while embracing the evolving realities of musical practice, production, pedagogy, and cultural engagement. It is now poised for a Director who can lead faculty, staff, and students in building upon its many strengths and delivering a forward-looking, engaged, and entrepreneurial model of music study that expands pathways for creativity, supports diverse musical traditions, and strengthens connections between the academy and contemporary musical life. The Director will guide the School in shaping an environment that prepares students to thrive as artists, educators, creators, scholars, and cultural leaders in a rapidly evolving musical landscape.

A search committee has been formed and the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller has been retained to support this recruitment. Confidential applications, inquiries, and nominations should be directed to the firm as indicated on page 6 of this document.

The College of Fine and Applied Arts is singular in the nation for its diversity, innovation, and breadth. Its mission is dedicated to the advancement, practice, and understanding of the arts, and its central focus is the synergy between research and the preparation of students for professional careers in the creation and interpretation of the environmental, visual, and performing arts. Deeply related to that focus is the commitment to elevate and sustain the study of the arts as both a necessary mode of understanding and a vibrant expression of human experience within the local, national, and international communities.

The college comprises the Schools of Music, Architecture, and Art and Design; Departments of Dance, Landscape Architecture, Theatre, and Urban and Regional Planning; program in Sustainable Design; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; Krannert Art Museum; and Japan House. FAA employs more than 660 faculty members and staff, including more than 150 tenure system faculty members, and more than 1,850 undergraduate and 635 graduate students enroll in FAA's more than 30 majors and 10 minors.

Jacob Pinholster began his term as Dean of the College in September 2024. Prior to joining Illinois, he served as executive dean for enterprise design in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University and founding director of the ASU Media and Immersive eXperience Center, an emerging media technologies and practices facility in the center of downtown Mesa, Arizona. He earned a BFA in Theatre Production and an MFA in Scenic and Lighting Design from the University of Florida.

The School of Music is a center for creativity and collaboration, embracing both tradition and innovation through performance, research, and education. The School opened in 1895 and has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music since 1933. From the beginning of its storied history, the intent of the School was to balance "first-class courses" with performance, a value that persists today.

As of Spring 2026, the School enrolls 406 undergraduate students, 75 master's students, and 150 doctoral students in undergraduate (BMus, BMA, BME, BA, BS) and graduate (MM, DMA, MME, PhD) degree programs across ten areas: Composition, Theory & Music Technology; Conducting; Jazz Performance; Keyboard; Lyric Theatre; Music Education; Musicology; Strings; Voice; and Winds and Percussion. The School also offers three minors: Music, Music Theatre, and a graduate minor in Music and Sound Studies intended for non-music majors. The School enjoys a distinguished reputation across its programs, and it continues to expand its offerings, for instance through the Hip Hop Innovation Center. Part of a broader arts college, the SOM benefits from close relationships with other units, including Dance and Theatre.

The School offers a large selection of ensembles that are open to all students regardless of major. Since 1868, the Marching Illini has entertained millions of fans with traditional and innovative performances that have made them "The Nation's Premier College Marching Band." The SOM upholds the highest ideals of the University's land-grant heritage through its Public Engagement programs, which draw upon the talents of current faculty and students to provide outstanding music experiences for people on campus, in the community, and throughout the state of Illinois. Some ensembles, including Campus Band, University Band, Black Chorus, and Oratorio Society, are open to community members.

Long recognized as a leader among schools of music, the SOM pushes the bounds of scholarly discourse, artistic performance, and pedagogical innovation. Faculty members engage in innovative research and practice, and many maintain active performing, publishing, and composing careers. The faculty comprises 80 members, of whom 47 are tenured or tenure-track. The staff comprises 14 individuals with responsibilities in administration, advancement, operations, instruments, and facilities. The School embraces a culture of shared governance. The Executive Committee, an elected body of the faculty, serves in an advisory capacity to the Director regarding School-wide policies, strategic priorities, and resource planning. The ten Areas, led by Area Chairs, function as disciplinary subsets of the larger School, focusing on curriculum, instructional assignments, student matters, and provide, among other things, input on admissions and awards.

The students, faculty, and staff work across a diverse range of grand and state-of-the-art facilities. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, Smith Memorial Hall houses studios, practice rooms, rehearsal equipment and space, and an 870-seat recital hall. The Krannert Center, one of the nation's premier university performing arts centers, is home to a breadth of resources including rehearsal rooms, costume shops, and four unique performance venues, including Foellinger Great Hall, which the Chicago Symphony has used for commercial recordings. The Music Building houses most of the School's administrative functions, classrooms, and practice rooms, as well as the Auditorium, a recording studio, the Music and Performing Arts Library, the Computer-Assisted Music Instruction Laboratory, and the Experimental Music Studios. The A.A. Harding Band Building houses the band program as well as the Carl Busch Historical Instrument Collection and Sousa Archives and Center for American Music.

The Director is the chief administrative officer of the School of Music and reports to the Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. In collaboration with faculty, staff, students, and college leadership, the Director is responsible for all academic, artistic, and administrative affairs of the School, including vision setting, strategic planning, curricular development, faculty hiring and mentorship (including promotion and tenure), staff management and development, student recruitment and success, budgeting and financial management, fundraising and development, and facilities management. The annual operating budget for the SOM is approximately $8.95 million, and the combined value of the School's endowments is approximately $31 million. The School's dedicated faculty and staff, including an administrative team, support the Director in these efforts.

The Director will arrive on campus at a critical moment requiring creative and strategic leadership as well as respectful and resourceful change management. Faculty, staff, and students are eager to partner with a Director who will engage their energy and institutional knowledge; clarify the School's operational and administrative policies and processes; strengthen its financial position; and identify further opportunities for collaboration within the School, across the University, and with surrounding communities.

More specifically, the Director will address the following interrelated opportunities and challenges:

Articulate a shared vision and a collective sense of purpose for the School

The Director will consult broadly across the School, engaging each of its many constituencies to understand and identify shared values, goals, and needs. As a result, the Director will develop a broad understanding of the School's many strengths and assets, as well as the key opportunities and challenges facing it. With this understanding, the Director will lead the School in crafting a shared vision that guides the School forward collectively and strategically. The faculty, staff, and students each do excellent work, but this work at times occurs in silos; an enterprising Director will find meaningful ways