MUSIC EDUCATION at Southern Miss has been a driving force in the southeastern United States since the early years of The Pride of Mississippi Marching Band in the 1940’s.  Dr. Raymond Mannoni assembled a nationally recognized School of Music that, through education and performance, prepared decades of some of this region’s finest music educators. Dr. Mannoni’s leadership encouraged the growth and expansion of a music department that currently includes student and faculty major performing ensembles such as The Symphony Orchestra, The Southern Chorale, The Wind Ensemble and The Symphonic Winds, Southern Arts Faculty Brass Quintet, Category 5 Faculty Woodwind Quintet.

For more than sixty years, music education and music performance have been at the heart of the university’s first nationally accredited program.  Those traditions and expectations continue to thrive through the hearts, minds, and instruments of the students and faculty in the School of Music at The University of Southern Mississippi.