DePauw School of Music Announces $10 Million in Scholarship Funds

DePauw School of Music announced today that $10 million in scholarship funds will be invested in undergraduate music students over the next five years.

The scholarships build on the unprecedented success of DePauw's entrepreneurship-focused 21st-Century Musician (21CM) Initiative curriculum, and their visionary 21CMposium, a cutting-edge conference which features events with industry leaders like Yo-Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet, Judd Greenstein of New Amsterdam records, author Sarah Robinson and more.

Hailed by music writer Greg Sandow as one of the "national leaders of classical music change," DePauw has emerged in recent years as a true innovator in music education. The 21CM curriculum - the first required entrepreneurial curriculum in the country - focuses on cultivating a sense of creativity and flexibility in its students, in order to equip them with the skills, tools and experiences necessary to navigate the rapidly-changing career landscape that awaits them post-graduation. At its core, 21CM represents DePauw's commitment to transforming how musicians think about their art, and how they work together with their fellow musicians and the communities around them.

Said recently-appointed Dean Ayden Adler of the scholarship initiative: "We are excited to be building a new way forward at the DePauw School of Music, encouraging our students to think differently and use their talents innovatively, while also transforming the industry at large through our 21CM curriculum. These scholarships will allow us to invest even more in the future, and help cultivate a new generation of musician-leaders."

For more information about DePauw School of Music, visit music.depauw.edu. For more information about 21CM, go to 21cm.org.

The DePauw University School of Music was founded in 1884 as the sixth music school in the United States. Its acclaimed 21st-Century Musician Initiative, known as 21CM, and its uniquely impactful 21CMposium have established the school as a national leader in new approaches to music education and performance. 21CM re-imagines how undergraduate music curricula might connect the high intellectual and performance standards of academic and conservatory training with the open-ended creative energy of the entrepreneur and artist when preparing emerging artists and developing musician-leaders.

Guided by a prestigious Advisory Board, chaired by world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, DePauw's School of Music student body includes approximately 150 undergraduate majors who earn a liberal arts degree (B.A.) or a professional degree (B.M., B.M.E., or B.M.A.). The School of Music is housed in the Green Center for the Performing Arts, a state-of-the-art facility that features technologically "smart" classrooms, a modern recording studio, a music lab with editing and computer facilities, superb ensemble rehearsal spaces, a comprehensive music library, and three remarkable performance halls for music, theater, and dance. In 2015 the School of Music opened a community music space, Music on the Square, as part of the 21st-Century Musician Initiative.