Music Honorary and Professional Societies
Musical and scholastic achievement at the University of Mississippi is recognized and fostered by student chapters and affiliates of national honorary and professional organizations. The following societies are active on the Ole Miss campus:
- Pi Kappa Lambda music honorary
- Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity
- Sigma Alpha Iota music sorority
- Kappa Kappa Psi band fraternity
- Tau Beta Sigma band sorority
- National Association for Music Educators
- American Choral Directors Association
The Society of Pi Kappa Lambda, established in 1916 at Northwestern University, is dedicated to the furtherance of music in education and education in music in colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning which offer music degree programs. The local Eta Nu chapter annually recognizes and inducts as new members those juniors, seniors, and graduate students who have demonstrated superior achievement in their respective programs of instruction. Inductees are recognized at a department-wide convocation in April or May, at which the local chapter also sponsors an address by a distinguished scholar and teacher.
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia of America was founded in 1898 at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. The fraternity now boasts nearly two hundred chapters across America, including the Lambda Xi chapter at Ole Miss, founded in 1962. Individual chapters work to bring music to their communities and to foster their own members’ musical and personal growth.
Sigma Alpha Iota is a music fraternity for women, founded at the University of Michigan School of Music in 1903. It currently has over 82,000 initiated members, and more than 300 college and alumnae chapters throughout the United States. SAI works to uphold the highest ideals of a musical education, and to raise the standards of productive musical work among the women students of colleges, conservatories and universities. THe Alpha Omega chapter at Ole Miss was founded in 1937.
Kappa Kappa Psi is the national honorary band fraternity, dedicated to the furthering of college and university bands through service and brotherhood. The Beta Beta Chapter at Ole Miss was the fiftieth chapter, founded in 1948 and reactivated in 1974.
Tau Beta Sigma is the national honorary band sorority whose membership is open to college students who have participated in a college band program. Founded in 1946, Tau Beta Sigma is a student service and leadership recognition society whose purpose is to assist music directors in developing leadership and enthusiasm within the band. It provides the band with organized service activities, while giving its members experience in organization, leadership and social contacts. The local chapter at the University of Mississippi is Beta Tau.
The National Association for Music Educators (formerly the Music Educators National Conference) is a voluntary, nonprofit organization representing all phases of music education in schools, colleges, universities, and teacher-education institutions. Active membership is open to all persons engaged in music teaching or other music educational work.
The American Choral Directors Association is a non-profit professional organization of choral directors with an active membership composed of directors from schools, colleges, universities, religious organizations, and professional choral groups. Associate members include students and other interested individuals, institutions, music publishers and manufacturing firms.
