Nazareth elevates music programs to new school of music

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The scaffolding has only been gone for a year from the Jane and Laurence Glazer Music Performance Center at Nazareth College.

It turns out that the new building itself has been a scaffold: It was part of a long-term plan to create a new school within Nazareth to expand and elevate its music programs.

Nazareth announced this week that it has received accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Music, allowing it launch a school of music. Long-time vocal music professor and administrator Mario Martinez will direct the school. The associate director is Nancy Strelau, conductor of Nazareth College‘s orchestra and the professor overseeing auditions to the school.

“We have been operating as a school of music for a while,” Martinez said. The Glazer center “was basically the last element, to make this decision logical. The journey has been there for a while.”

President Daan Braveman added, “Not only will this new venue draw more visitors to campus to experience the arts, but it will also enable the School of Music to now reach its full potential and inspire our students who can perform there as they pursue their music.”

Nazareth has 250 students in six undergraduate programs and three graduate programs in music, ranging from music education and therapy to performance and composition.

As a school of music, Martinez said, “We can grow existing programs, offer new programs, and achieve greater recognition on regional, national, and international levels.”

Nazareth had already been performing on the highest levels with its mixed chamber ensemble recently receiving a grand prize at an international choral competition in Poland, where it has competed for three years, Martinez said. A select choir of Nazareth singers performs backup for contemporary singer Josh Groban when he tours Upstate New York. And Strelau is recognized around the state for her work with all-state competitions for school-age instrumentalists.

But being a school of music also means attracting more music students to Nazareth, Martinez said.

“It means we can compete at a higher level. That will in turn keep the quality of students we get high and contribute to the expansion of our programs.”

Nazareth’s music programs differ from those such as the Eastman School of Music, as the renown Eastman school is a music conservatory, while students at Nazareth complete a liberal arts curriculum as part of their music majors.

Music education and music therapy are the most popular music majors at Nazareth, Martinez said, with graduates meeting the requirements for certification in those fields so they gain employment. About 90 percent of performance majors go on the higher degrees at one of the top 10 graduate programs in the country, including Eastman, he said.

The school also offers non-music majors opportunities to participate in its programming, with 100 non-majors involved this fall in music ensembles at Nazareth.

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