Music is embraced throughout every culture, and everywhere music helps to construct identity. Technology provides musicians and scholars unprecedented access to global audiences and to each other. Communities gather around music to mourn collective hardships and celebrate shared moments. And parents understand the cognitive benefits their children gain when engaging in musical experiences. Yet a convergence of existential threats call into question the very future of music in higher education.
An industry-wide pivot toward a failing gig economy
The unprecedented disruption brought on by a global pandemic
An enrollment crisis attributable to crippling student debt, rising costs, and a shrinking student population
Institutional structures built on racist hierarchies that center on Euro-centric culture
CMS is leading nothing short of an epistemic shift in the ways in which we prepare musicians for the challenges and opportunities of living, learning, and teaching in a hybrid-world and how we define what music and musicians count within music in higher education.