Your membership in The College Music Society is an important component of your professional life. CMS helps you develop a broad network of both human and information resources. The Society provides services that you will not find anywhere else, supporting your professional work daily, weekly, and long-term. CMS enhances your work in music as your professional life evolves from student days through retirement. CMS services and activities optimize your valuable time by gathering the professional information you need and presenting it in ways that make it useful for you.
CMS gathers, considers, and disseminates ideas on the philosophy and practice of music. CMS creates forums in which individuals working in the various areas of music can interact and communicate. Recognizing the richness of musical diversity and the challenge of balancing the traditions of the past with the possibilities of the future, members are united by a dedication to the science of learning and the art of teaching and are engaged in a dialogue that will shape the field of music in the years ahead.
The Society’s programs make the critical difference to music in higher education. CMS is a means of effective change and growth, not just in your professional life but also for the entire field of music. Your membership enhances networking possibilities for everyone in the music teaching profession and increases your communications opportunities with others. Your participation makes this critical difference possible.
Join Online: Click here for the online membership application
Join via Mail: Click here for a printable membership brochure. (PDF)
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Through its professional activities, CMS fosters the continuing education and renewal of college and university music faculty, shares the fruits of music research, develops and enhances music instruction, and celebrates the importance of teaching. Members are welcome to participate in all professional activities including:
- Conferences—Nine conferences held each spring throughout the United States; an annual fall conference held in the United States or Canada; a biennial summer international conference held outside North America.
- Professional Development—Institutes, workshops, symposia, and other events providing opportunities to hone teaching skills and consider issues of concern to the music and higher education community.
- Forums and Dialogues—Identification and analysis of professional concerns leading to development of projects, programs, publications, and professional development initiatives. CMS forums are served by advisory councils for Composition, Cultural Inclusion, Ethnomusicology, Music Education, Music in General Studies, Music Theory, Musicology, Performance, and Student initiatives.
CAREER SERVICES
CMS brings focus to the professional lives and interests of its members, from student days through retirement. CMS assists with employment seeking skills, leadership initiatives, thriving in your career, and working as an independent musician or academic citizen.
- Academic Careers—provides mentoring, career resources, and considers issues that impact academic job seekers, faculty of all ranks, professional staff, retirees, and those striving to provide effective mentoring in academia.
- Academic Leadership and Administration—focusing on leadership, developmental, and career issues of administrative work in music.
- Academic Citizenship—consideration of our responsibility as members of the broader higher education community.
- Music Entreprenurship Education—supports entrepreneurship education in music training.
- Careers Outside the Academy—supports the professional lives of musicians in all fields outside academe.
- Employment Opportunities through the Music Vacancy List, the most comprehensive job listings available to musicians in higher education.
ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACH
CMS sponsors engagement and outreach both on-campus and with the community, and represents the concerns of musicians to a variety of constituencies. Members are welcome to participate in all initiatives including:
- Community Engagement—creating more environments and improving communication skills with the general public.
- Higher Education—providing liaison between music associations and higher education organizations, articulating the essential need for and changing roles of music units in higher education, and advocating for artistic and educational integrity of music programs.
- International Initiatives—liaison with music faculty and institutions outside the United States and overseeing opportunities for dialogue and exchange through international conferences.
- Music Business and Industry—liaison with the music business and industry and identifying goals in common between the music business and music in higher education communities.
- The CMS Fund—supporting innovation in engagement and outreach.
BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS
CMS provides publications to support teaching and research, and to facilitate communication with and among faculty and institutions in music in higher education.
- Monographs and Bibliographies in American Music—bibliographic sourceworks designed to facilitate the study and understanding of American music and of music in the Americas.
- Cultural Expressions in Music—perspective on and insight into the breadth of cultural inclusion in a wide variety of musical works.
- Sourcebooks in American Music—dedicated to landmark compositions and creative performances, the series demonstrates the remarkable scope of musical expression in the United States.
- Directory of Music Institutions and Faculty—access to over 40,000 music faculty at 1,800 institutions in the United States and Canada.
COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM
Debuting in the fall of 2012, College Music Symposium will provide valuable information resources for musicans and the public:
- Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activity—refereed scholarly articles
- CMS Forums—opinions, editorials, commentary, and essays
- Reviews–reviews of books, textbooks, periodicals, and instructional materials
- Instructional Technologies and Methodologies–review and discussion of technologies and methods useful for teaching in the classroom and studio
- CMS Reports–in-depth reports concerning important topics, events, or issues
- CMS Conference Archive–abstracts of international, national, and regional conferences
- Events in Music–information concerning events in and outside academe
- International Music Conferences–events sponsored by over 275 organizations
- Lectures, Performances, and Lecture-Recitals–a video archive of refereed music lectures, performances, and lecture-recitals
