Celebrating 15 Years of Transformation - The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

<h2 class="header a-fade-in-up"><span class="highlight">Celebrating 15 Years of Transformation</span></h2>

Fifteen years ago, Herb and Lani Alpert invested $30 million from the Herb Alpert Foundation to establish The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. This remarkable gift spurred the evolution of the school into an incubator for ingenuity, leadership, scholarship, and artistry, supporting hundreds of students through scholarships, leading-edge technology, real-world career preparation, and much more.

Herb and Lani Alpert have continued to invest in the future of the school and its students through additional generous philanthropy. These gifts, plus the impact of the endowment and its annually generated income, has resulted in double that dollar amount benefitting the School of Music.

“I continue to be tremendously inspired by Herb and Lani’s generosity to UCLA and appreciative of the mark they’ve made on music education,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “It’s a joy and honor to celebrate fifteen years since their gift to establish the Herb Alpert School of Music, their continued investment since then, and their incredible legacy in the music world. I am deeply grateful for their commitment to our university as well as their leadership, creativity, and passion for supporting the arts.”

“Ever since discovering the trumpet in my elementary school music appreciation class, I have understood the transformational power of music in education and the importance of music to the fabric of society,” said Herb Alpert. “Watching the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music thrive these past 15 years has been incredibly gratifying and I am confident that the future will lead to even greater accomplishments.”

Areas directly impacted span student scholarships to space renovations, curriculum expansion to new academic programs. Transfer students from Los Angeles Community College have a much more supportive path to the School of Music thanks to the Herb Alpert Foundation LACC Transfer Student Scholarship. This pathway has resulted in a 46% increase in enrolled transfer students since 2019 when the process was streamlined and funding was specifically earmarked for these scholars.

And since 2008, the school has been enriched by the establishment of two new interdepartmental degree programs, creating bridges between areas of study to expand research, performance, teaching, and career opportunities. The school’s Global Jazz Studies major was created in 2018, providing students with the opportunity to earn a B.A. in jazz. This fall, students will be able to enter the new Music Industry degree program and earn a B.A. in an area with vast career potential.

When live-streaming technology was installed in the school’s main theaters—Schoenberg Hall and Lani Hall—these capabilities were the first of their kind in the University of California system. Lani Hall itself received a complete makeover, thanks to a $3 million gift from the foundation; formerly known as Jan Popper Theater, the space was renamed in Lani’s honor in 2019.

In 2022, the Herb Alpert Foundation committed $5 million to renovate the school’s 46 practice rooms—critical spaces for the vast majority of its students—to state-of-the-art specifications, including enhanced acoustics, modern LED lighting and hardwired Wi-Fi. The renovated space will be named Imagination Hall, as a tribute to the breadth of musical creativity that it will foster.

Perhaps most notably, thanks to the Alperts’ investments, over $10 million in scholarships has been generated—more than 43% of all the scholarships awarded in the school—793 talented students to enroll in the School of Music and benefit from all that it has grown to offer as they pursue their musical dreams.

“21^st-century music is truly being made here. The School of Music has become a beacon of change, opening doors for students from a variety of backgrounds to benefit from all that we’ve grown to offer,” said Inaugural Dean Eileen Strempel. “We are a home for caring, brilliant faculty; for scholarship that melds history with the future; and for artists whose work brings out the best in humanity.”