University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance

01 / The story of this place

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The University of Michigan's music program began in 1880 as the independent Ann Arbor School of Music, founded at the urging of Henry Simmons Frieze to give the university a formal home for musical training; it became part of the university in 1929 and later expanded into today's School of Music, Theatre & Dance, covering music, theatre, musical theatre and dance. Its North Campus building on Baits Drive houses concert halls, a opera studio and rehearsal space for roughly a thousand students. Mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett, one of the leading opera singers of her generation and a star of the Metropolitan Opera, joined the faculty as a distinguished university professor of voice in 1996 and taught here for fourteen years, until 2010. The school remains one of the country's leading conservatories, staging a full calendar of public concerts, operas and dance performances each year.

1. Began in 1880 as the independent Ann Arbor School of Music.
2. Joined the University of Michigan in 1929.
3. Opera star Shirley Verrett taught voice here from 1996 to 2010.
4. Stages public concerts, opera and dance performances year-round.