Pacific University Music Programs, 1880-1993

Pacific University has a long history of offering music programs such as concerts and student and faculty recitals. It offered its first music courses around 1870, nine years before the death of Pacific's first president, Sidney Harper Marsh. Olivia Haskell was listed as Teacher of Music in the Faculty roster of 1870-71. The University's course offerings expanded over the following decade, until the Conservatory of Music was formed in 1884, with Mary H. Edwards serving as director. In 1945 the music program changed and the conservatory was discontinued. The Department of Music was created to replace it. It was another five years later, in 1950, when the official School of Music appeared in the university catalog. The School of Music continued until 1983 when it was, once again, absorbed into the College of Arts and Sciences.