News Stories

An exit interview with Butler School's Beloved Outgoing Director

The Butler School Welcomes the New Dean of the College of Fine Arts

Dma Candidate Abbey Young Gives a Voice to Musicians Recovering from Homelessness

How students and faculty adapted to a year of remote learning

Earlier this year, Austin's local NPR station KUT did a profile of Longhorn Band Director Cliff Croomes, a story they included as one of their 10 best in 2021.

Tusa retires from the university after a Remarkable 40-year career at the Butler School

The University of Texas Trombone Choir wrapped up the semester with an impromptu concert at the alumni center. They spread Christmas cheer with a number of classics, including Feliz Navidad, Winter Wonderland and We Three Kings. "I feel like this is a perfect way to wrap things up," said D.M.A Trombone student Jared Dickerson, who played trombone and conducted a number of tunes during the concert. "We had a lot of serious concerts during the year, which is great to be back in the concert hall, but this is also part of the live music, just super casual playing for people."

The Hispanic Caribbean Ensemble played their final concert of the semester recently outside a local market in Central Austin. The group performed a number of acoustic and electrified dance pieces in a casual setting for a public crowd. They played along with the Butler School's Tex-Mex Conjunto and Middle Eastern Ensemble for a comprehensive showing of the school's world music groups.

"The best part of the concert was when we saw all these people towards the last couple of tunes come up into the front and start dancing and moving around," said J.A. Strub, a doctoral student in Ethnomusicology who sang vocals and played a variety of instruments during the concert. "We saw interactions from people of all different generations."

The Butler School is proud to announce the 2021-22 Rainwater Grant winners. Students who were selected through a competitive process will receive funding to implement their proposed projects. Founded in 2017, the Rainwater Fund for American Music was established with a $5 million endowment created by the late UT Austin alumnus Richard E. Rainwater (B.A., Mathematics, 1966), a Fort Worth investor and fund adviser. 

Master's student in piano pedagogy Moegi Amano's article "Where to Begin" was recently published in Piano Magazine. Amano details the process for learning a new piece successfully, from identifying the title and how it's expressed in the piece, to creating characters and a story line in order to better imagine the piece.