Director's Welcome

Welcome to the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, a crossroads for musicians and ministers, for scholars and practitioners! The Institute is both a gateway to two professional schools, of Music and of Divinity, and a place where the art of music is studied in the context of liturgy and the liturgical arts. A direct offspring of the School of Sacred Music at Union Seminary in New York City, the Institute was born at Yale in 1972-73, bringing what had been a department of church music in a seminary into partnership with both the Yale School of Music and with Yale Divinity School, set in the context of one of the greatest research universities in the world. This new set of circumstances has broadened and deepened the original mission, while keeping the commitment to the art of music central to the work. The Institute is now one of the major centers for the study of the liturgical arts in the world, and it offers support to a broad variety of students, all of whom care about the work of the churches and synagogues, mosques and temples, as performers, as practitioners, and as scholars. The brief outline below welcomes you to our complexity and our diversity. Please use the links to find more specific information about the various aspects of our work and the requirements of individual programs supported by the Institute.

Majors

The Institute's primary purpose is to support musical and theological education at Yale, especially within those areas and programs directly involved with the practice and study of sacred music, of liturgy, and of the liturgical arts: Organ Performance, Choral Conducting and Voice: Early Music, Oratorio, and Chamber Ensemble-- all centered in the Yale School of Music, and Liturgical Studies and Religion and the Arts -- both centered in Yale Divinity School. Church Music Studies is an optional program available to students. The Institute also offers partial support for the Preaching Program at Yale Divinity School and supports the collections of the Music Library and of Yale Divinity Library.

Students and Scholarships

The Institute offers generous financial support to students in both the Yale School of Music and Yale Divinity School, and primarily to students in the programs mentioned above, but also to a small number of composers and to a small group of talented students studying for the ministry. All degrees are awarded by the professional Schools, and the only all-Institute requirements are attendance at the Wednesday afternoon Colloquium, a presentation to this group in the final year of study, and election of a prescribed number of courses taught by ISM faculty. See each program's webpage for more details.

Instruments, Special Activities and Publications

The Institute maintains facilities and enterprises to support its mission, including the Yale organs, choral activities -- including the Yale Camerata, Schola Cantorum, the Marquand Choir, the Marquand Gospel Choir, Repertory Chorus and Recital Chorus. Related performances, workshops, international conferences, study trips, scholarly, popular and educational publications also come under the aegis of the Institute.

The range of activities described on this site in greater detail will give prospective students a host of good reasons to come to Yale. Yale does have it all, and the Institute is here to open Yale to a wide variety of talented students.

Once again, welcome!

(Updated June 2007)