Centers and Institutes

Center for Chamber Music Studies

The Center for Chamber Music Studies was established in 2002 in order to promote chamber music performance by College of Music students at the highest competitive levels, nationally and internationally. Though primarily composed of graduate students, some exceptional undergraduate music majors are also accepted into the center.  The Center for Chamber Music Studies is consists of four groups – a woodwind quintet, brass quintet, piano trio, and string quartet.  In 2008, the string quartet received the name “Bancroft Quartet” in appreciation of the steadfast generosity and support of the College by Sue Schrier Bancroft and Christopher Bancroft. Ensembles from the program have performed in Europe, Asia, South America, and throughout North America and have been selected to participate in international competitions such as the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition.

Visit the Chamber Music Studies website.

Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI)

The Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) provides a unique environment for exploration of the time-based arts. An interdisciplinary center within UNT’s Division of Composition Studies, CEMI is internationally renowned for its long history of innovation, particularly in the realm of electroacoustic music. Students, guests, and collaborators from a variety of disciplines engage in research, creation, and performance in CEMI’s six production studios and the Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater. 

CEMI fosters cutting-edge music and intermedia projects. Computer music from CEMI is at the forefront of synthesis and signal processing, multi-channel audio diffusion and spatialization, and live interactive performance. Intermedia works from CEMI integrate music with video/film, dance, plastic arts, theater, lighting, and robotics. CEMI composers have been recognized through major international awards, conferences, festivals, and grants. CEMI hosts residencies and guest presentations by emerging artists as well as major national and international figures.

CEMI is an important interdisciplinary link between UNT musicians and their counterparts in other arts and sciences across the UNT campus. CEMI actively promotes research in new technology; recent directions have included sound synthesis and processing, audio diffusion and spatialization, human-computer interaction, interface design, and robotic instruments.

CEMI hosts a variety of concerts of new and experimental music. The “CEMI presents” series includes guest performers and composers, faculty projects, and themed concerts. The “Centerpieces” series focuses on new electroacoustic music from North Texas musicians, including interactive and intermedia works. CEMI’s annual Intermedia Concerts feature music in combination with video and film, dance, visual and plastic arts, theater, and performance art.

Visit the CEMI website.

Center for Schenkerian Studies

The Center supports the publication of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies, the typesetting of Schenkerian graphs for publication and dissemination, the preservation and archiving of documents contained in the Reinhard Oppel Memorial Collection housed at UNT's Willis Library, and the Lost Composers and Theorists project. The Lost Composers and Theorists Project is dedicated to recovering the music of composers whose works were obscured as a result of the cultural policies of the Nazis and the Holocaust. The Project identifies suitable composers, conducts research, publishes articles and monographs, prepares scores for publication by music publishers, and produces and/or fosters performances and recordings of recovered works.

Visit the Center for Schenkerian Studies website.

Initiative for Advanced Research in Technology and the Arts (iARTA)

The Initiative for Advanced Research in Technology and the Arts (iARTA) is where faculty across the arts, engineering and sciences explore new media applications based on shared expertise and evolving technologies. Concepts from diverse disciplines partner to create compelling expressions: dancers wired with sensors perform an interactive concert; media artists incorporate robotics and surveillance hardware in a social context; musicians compose complex scores based on math equations; computer-artists animate visual models from biological data.

Visit the iARTA website.