Setnor School of Music’s Baker Artists Program to Provide New Opportunities for On- and Off-Campus Learning

A new program in the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music will create more opportunities for students to learn from and connect with music professionals both on and off campus. The Baker Artists Program will allow the school to establish a more robust on-campus residency program and provide support for music majors to take master classes and attend workshops and performances in such major music cities as New York, Boston, Montreal and Toronto.

The Baker Artists Program was made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Dexter F. & Dorothy H. Baker Foundation.

“We are pleased to provide this four-year program as a complement to the four Setnor music portfolio degrees, while also making the visiting artists an artistic dimension for all Syracuse students, faculty, staff and the broader Syracuse community too,” say Dorothy Hess Baker ’49 and Ellen Baker Ghelardi ’73.

The Baker Artists Program’s on-campus residency component will bring leading performers, educational scholars, composers and industry leaders to campus. In addition to providing master classes, lectures and/or performances for Setnor students, visiting artists will present lectures and/or performances open to the public. Off-campus learning opportunities will shrink the distance between Syracuse and major music centers, making them accessible to Setnor students as a regular part of the curriculum.

“The Bakers’ generous gift will help make a Setnor education even more valuable by having our students work with leaders in all fields of music,” says Patrick Jones, director of the Setnor School. “It will also contribute to the cultural life of Central New York by helping us present major guest artists in public performances.”

Music has thrived at Syracuse University since 1877, when SU became one of the first universities in the United States to grant a degree in music that required four years’ study in both music and theory. Today, the Setnor School of Music continues this tradition of innovation by offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs that prepare students for 21st-century music careers.

Part of SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Setnor School consists of 80 faculty and staff and 330 music majors and minors in four departments, a career development center and a community music division serving young and adult musicians from across the region. Setnor students pursue degrees in composition, conducting, performance, music education and the music and entertainment industries that include performances and field experiences in Central New York; internships in London, Los Angeles and New York City; and a semester abroad in Strasbourg, France.