Celebrating a Legacy of Musical Excellence at UT Dallas

UT Dallas > Bass School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology > About the Bass School > Music Legacy

Key Dates in Music History

1971

Dr. Bryce Jordan Appointed as First UT Dallas President +

Dr. Bryce Jordan becomes the first president of UT Dallas. Jordan, who earned a doctorate in musicology at the University of North Carolina, served as the president of The University of Texas at Austin. He set out to develop what he called the “soft side” of the University – its arts and humanities and social sciences.

1975

Robert Xavier Rodriguez Joins Faculty +

Robert Xavier Rodriguez joins UT Dallas. Rodriguez, who is now the Endowed Chair in Art and Aesthetic Studies, is not only a Professor of Music but an accomplished composer who has been writing music since the age of six. Rodriguez’s compositions are widely performed, and he has written compositions across genres, including opera, orchestral pieces, concertos, ballet, vocal and choral pieces, and more. He is an internationally acclaimed performer and composer, and his honors include the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco, the Prix Lili Boulanger, a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from ASCAP and the Rockefeller Foundation, five NEA grants and the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

1977

UTD’s First Holiday Sing Tradition Begins +

The first annual Messiah Sing (later named Holiday Sing) started by professors Gavin Hambly, Joan Chandler, and Victor Worsfold, became one of UTD’s most enduring traditions.

1995

Launch of the “Sounds of Class” Music Festival +

UT Dallas partners with the city of Richardson to implement the annual family-friendly music festival Sounds of Class.

2004

UTD Alma Mater Song Premiers +

The UTD Alma Mater song debuts at the May commencement. Dr. Robert Xavier Rodriguez, A&H Chair in Art and Aesthetic Studies, and Texans Bill Dunn and Neely Reynolds wrote the song.

2009

Russell Cleveland Professorship in Guitar Established +

The Russell Cleveland Endowed Professorship for Guitar Studies is created.

2010

Arts & Humanities Hosts 75 Events in the Season +

The A&H 2010-2011 season offered 75 events: plays, concerts, dance performances, art exhibitions and lectures—throughout the year.

2013

Edith O’Donnell Building Opens with World Premiere Concert +

Edith O’Donnell Building opens with inaugural concert featuring the world premiere of De Rerum Natura written by UTD Professor and composer Robert X. Rodriguez and performed by UTD’s Musica Nova orchestra.

2017

First Drum Line Course at UT Dallas +

Students enroll in UT Dallas’ first drum line course. The drum line included five snare drums, three sets of tenor drums (with a five-drum configuration), five bass drums and two cymbals. Three of the percussionists are women.

Quick Guide

Undergraduate Music Study Areas

Music Theory and Composition

Explore the structure of music through studies in harmony, melody, and rhythm, gaining hands-on skills in ear training, sight-singing, and composition to understand how music is crafted.

Music History

Delve into an introduction to the elements and basic forms of music or the evolution of music from the Middle Ages to today, examining the cultural and historical contexts that shaped styles from Baroque to Modern.

Digital Music

Engage with the techniques of digital music production, from MIDI sequencing to advanced editing, to create everything from ambient soundscapes to dynamic film scores.

Vocal and Instrumental Studies

Develop vocal or instrumental skills through beginner to advanced courses, including ensemble opportunities, with a focus on performance techniques and music interpretation.

Music Study Across Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

BA in Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) – Music Concentration

Allows students to develop a strong musical background through private study of their instrument or voice, along with music theory and relevant history/literature and many opportunities to perform. The school also offers a music minor.

Graduate Studies in Music and the Humanities

Graduate students can pursue interdisciplinary research that includes music within both the Humanities MA and PhD programs and Visual and Performing Arts MA and PhD programs. Courses explore music’s connection to other art forms, cultural contexts, and historical developments, encouraging a deeper understanding of music’s role across disciplines.

Music Spaces

PHY building

Renovated, modernized space features large and small ensemble rooms, improved soundproofing and acoustics, expanded practice spaces, and dedicated instrument storage.

Jonsson Performance Hall

Home to selected performance and ensemble classes, this 196-seat hall features a concert ensemble stage for recitals, public performances and more.

University Theatre

This 275-seat, raked auditorium with a 40-foot-by-40-foot stage also has flexible walls to accommodate conventional-style theatrical performances as well as spatial arrangements for experimentation and performance of nontraditional pieces.

Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building

Designed by STUDIOS Architecture – the same firm that designed Google Headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. – the 155,000-square foot facility is equipped with state-of-the-art spaces.

The Sound Design Studio houses a baby grand piano, two sound booths, and leading-edge technology to record sound for video, music, and more.
Anechoic Chamber and Transmedia Studio provides a controlled, soundproof environment for creative experimentation in multimedia, and rapid prototyping and iteration of ideas and projects.

Music Practitioners

Bass music faculty consists of a number of accomplished musicians and scholars, including: Robert Xavier Rodriguez, the Endowed Chair in Art and Aesthetic Studies and Professor of Music who is a widely-performed and accomplished composer; Jonathan Palant, the Associate Dean of the Arts and Director of Choral Activities who has conducted in Carnegie Hall; and the late Dr. Enric Madriguera, Russell Cleveland Professor in Guitar Studies and Director of Guitar Studies who was a master of the classical guitar and who built a robust guitar program that lives on after his passing in April 2024.

Robert Xavier Rodriguez conducting the Musica Nova orchestra and guest violinist Chloe Trevor at the opening of the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building on November 9, 2013.
Jonathan Palant conducting the Chamber Singers at one of their many performances during their Germany and Poland Tour in March 2024.
Third from left: The late Enric Madriguera, a master instructor and director of the UT Dallas guitar studies program who served the University for 45 consecutive years, performs with the Radiant Guitar Ensemble during the 14th Annual Guitar Competition in 2015.

Classical

Jazz

Guitar

Vocal

Where Attendees Are Going

Recent Musical Theatre Productions

World-Renowned Groups and Musicians at the Bass School

Recent performances have featured acclaimed artists and celebrated musicians.

Emmet Cohen Trio

Multifaceted American jazz pianist and composer Emmet Cohen played unique takes on jazz standards with his internationally acclaimed trio.

José Bowen Sextet

José Antonio Bowen’s new sextet featuring an all-star cast of DFWs finest musicians – Chris Milyo (sax), Peter Clagett (trumpet), Kim Corbet (trombone), Stockton Helbing (drums) and Derrick Horne (bass) – performed a suite of his latest jazz compositions and several jazz classics.

Victor Rosenbaum

Internationally known American pianist Victor Rosenbaum performed beloved solo piano works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin, as well as a new work by Dallas-based pianist-composer Lewis Warren Jr.

Chanticleer

Grammy-award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer performed a repertoire that spanned classical, gospel, jazz, popular, and new works.

One O’Clock Band

The Grammy-award-nominated One O’Clock Band performed a repertoire that included both big band jazz and showcased new and upcoming women musicians.

Fred Hersch Jazz Trio

Fred Hersch has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair and “a living legend” by The New Yorker. A seventeen-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has garnered jazz’s most prestigious awards.

The Branford Marsalis Quartet

Branford Marsalis performed virtuosic improvisations and uncompromising interpretations of jazz classics as well as original music with his quartet.

Anirudh Varma Collective

The Anirudh Varma Collective is a contemporary Indian classical ensemble from New Delhi, India that performed a repertoire that showed the tradition and diversity of Indian music.

Terence Blanchard

Six-time Grammy winner Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective with the Turtle Island Quartet performed music off his most recent album as a tribute to Wayne Shorter.

Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum

The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum is designed to enhance and enrich the arts on the UT Dallas campus by creating a 12-acre cultural district. It is supported by a $32 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation.

Phase II of the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum project involves the creation of a new music building for the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology. This building will place music and performance at the heart of what will be the new cultural district at UT Dallas: the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum.

The hallmark of the new O’Donnell Athenaeum building is a 680-seat music performance hall with a vineyard-style configuration to accommodate diverse live music, with seats on all sides of the stage to provide closer connections between the musicians and audience members.

The O’Donnell Athenaeum’s overarching vision is to interpret the classical athenaeum–a space where art, science, and ideas could meet in lively dialogue–into a new model for breaking down disciplinary boundaries, engaging the broader community, and elevating the arts at The University of Texas at Dallas.

Celebrating a Legacy of Musical Excellence