Performing Arts and Technology

The original Alma Mater song was written by A. E. Escott, although it was replaced as the official alma mater of the college in 1925.

The first campus orchestra had 12 musicians and did not last more than one year.

Percy W. "Daddy" Price was the first director of the music department from 1924 to 1933. He took over the State College Band in 1918. During his time at NC State, Price organized an orchestra, men’s glee club, the Red Coat Marching Band, the honorary music fraternity Mu Beta Psi, a drum and bugle corps, a men’s vocal quartet, a concert band, and the ROTC band.

Class of 1923 alumni Alvin M. Fountain and Bonnie Frank Norris composed the Alma Mater song. They were both in the university's ROTC program. The alma mater used more recently was an abridged version, arranged by former music department chair Dr. Robert A. Barnes in the early 1960s.

The space was used for rehearsals, practice rooms, offices and storage, and to perform in the ballroom of the newly constructed student union.

Robert Barnes organized a symphonic band and a percussion ensemble during his time as music director.

Barnes and Gerald Erdahl, the director of the student union, founded the concert series, and the programs were presented in Reynolds Coliseum. Friends of the college was the largest season subscription concert series in the world with 16,000 annual members. It ran from 1959-1994, and put on 226 concerts featuring international and national symphony orchestras, opera companies, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Itzhak Perlman, New York City Ballet, Westminster Choir, and more.

Raul Spivak was an internationally-known pianist who was serving as a musician-in-residence with the music department. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was considered one of the most prominent Latin American musicians.

J. Perry Watson reorganized the orchestra program and hired James E. Dellinger as a full time faculty member to recruit and train musicians and to organize and conduct a university/civic symphony orchestra. He was successful in establishing a minor symphony orchestra. In 1980, the orchestra was renamed the Raleigh Civic Symphony.

Milton Bliss organized "State Men." This was a versatile group that could sing acapella, be accompanied by a piano or guitar, and sing classical or semiclassical music. "State Men" was changed to "Grains of Time" in 1968.

Due to the fire in old Pullen Hall, a new building was built and opened specifically for the music department. The center was named after the first director of music, Percy W. Price, in 1973.

The two buildings were dedicated during a ceremony at which the NC State University Symphony Orchestra and Choir presented a concert. The 816-seat theater opened during the fall 1972 semester. It was named for James Jackson Stewart Jr., who was dean of Student Affairs from 1954 to 1969.

Dr. Phyllis Vogel was the first woman hired in the music department, and she established the department's first music theory courses called "Rudiments of Music." She taught composition, women in music, applied piano lessons and more. She conducted the chamber singers and performed in recitals.

This was due to the success of Grains of Time and to provide the women's chorus the same musical education as the men in Grains of Time.

The minor was established by director Dr. Ronald Toering (1989-1994). The minor offered two tracks in performance and general studies, and there was another minor in arts entrepreneurship.

The NC State Board of Trustees approved removing the word “Dixie” from the NC State Alma Mater and adding the word “Southern.”

The newly formed Department of Performing Arts and Technology unified arts entrepreneurship, dance, music and created a new degree program in Music Technology.