Welcome to the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music. We are pleased to bear the name of two extraordinary people who have given us an endowment totaling $55 million to support students, faculty and programs within the school. This extraordinary gift is the largest single gift to a school of music in a public university in the nation. We are deeply grateful to Dr. and Mrs. Butler for their generosity and know that with this gift we will become one of the best music schools in the nation. For more details please see the press release.

The Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin is a most exciting place where talented students work and study with an outstanding faculty of performing musicians, scholars, pedagogues, composers and a campus full of creative minds. Ours is a community where every day is exciting and every evening is filled with vast opportunities, musical and otherwise. Just as Texas is a place where anything is possible, the School of Music demonstrates that premise regularly with amazing accomplishments.

We offer a comprehensive array of degree programs ranging from the bachelor’s through the doctorate in virtually all concentrations. Our faculty is made up of some of the most outstanding people in their field. With approximately one hundred full-time music faculty serving slightly more than 700 music students one can easily understand that students in our program receive much personal attention. Yet being housed in one of the country’s largest and most outstanding universities our students have opportunities that are not available to students in many other institutions. These enrichment opportunities include the Performing Arts Center, the Blanton Museum, the Harry Ransom Center, the LBJ Library, to name only a few. Each of these organizations brings outstanding guests to campus regularly, along with those of many other campus groups.

Mission Statement

Through professional education of the highest caliber, the Butler School of Music of The University of Texas at Austin prepares students for productive careers as performers, teachers, composers, and scholars and for satisfying lives as informed and responsible members of a democratic society. In accordance with the University’s mission, the School also seeks to extend the boundaries of knowledge and human experience through research and the creation of new music.

While preserving the best of traditional education in music, the School seeks to prepare students for the changing realities of the modern world through engagement with diverse musical traditions, community outreach, and new technologies that can be used creatively to further the art of music. The School promotes the interdependence of performance and scholarship, innovative relationships between music and other disciplines within and outside the arts, and a wider appreciation throughout society of music and its significance.