Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America. Iota Chapter (Northwestern University)
Biography
The Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (also known as Sinfonia, or as Phi Mu Alpha) Fraternity was founded as the "Sinfonia Club" at the New England Conservatory in Boston on October 6, 1898. The founders, led by Ossian Everett Mills, wanted to improve the social life of the young men students of that institution by creating an Order where men with a shared love of music could develop manhood. The name "Sinfonia" is the result of a recommendation by George W. Chadwick, who was the second honorary member of the club after Mills. Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia became a national fraternity on October 6, 1900.
On March 13, 1910, four young men attending the Northwestern University School of Music met to "start a movement toward the organization and the establishment of a fraternity" at the School of Music. They wrote to the New England Conservatory of Music for information about its fraternity. By March 21, the NU students had added several members and sponsored a social event. At this point they and had determined to seek membership in the Sinfonia. The Iota chapter of Phi Mu Alpha was originally installed and recognized at Northwestern University on April 29, 1910. It was then the ninth chapter of Phi Mu Alpha, and is now the largest and third oldest continually active chapter in the nation.
In 1970, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia became a professional fraternity, but voted to return to being a social fraternity in 1985. The goal of the Phi Mu Alpha fraternity is to encourage and promote the highest standards of creativity, musical education and performance throughout America. Members hold quarterly recitals, sing at basketball games and other functions, serenade residential areas all over campus with their choruses, and present regular stage shows with a wide variety.
The Phi Mu Alpha fraternity of Northwestern University is currently located at 626 Emerson in a building designed by NU architect James Gamble Rogers. The building became the home of Phi Mu Alpha in the late 1908s; it was previously occupied by the Triangle fraternity, which had occupied the building since 1974, when the Alpha Omicron Pi fraternity chapter closed.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Phi Mu Alpha (Sinfonia), Iota Chapter, Minute Books
The Iota Chapter of music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha (Sinfonia) was formed at Northwestern University in 1910, and continues today. The two volumes of Minute Books document the early years of the organization.