Initiatives

The Religion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture initiative provides important resources to academic audiences and the broader public though the hosting of events and symposia, and the funding of individual and team projects.

The ISM’s Interdisciplinary Program in Music and the Black Church brings scholarly attention to the music of the Black Church and to the tradition’s extraordinary influence on a host of musical cultures—confessional and commercial, American and global.

This annual conference held at Yale University, promotes the study of the music, ritual, and related arts of religious cultures of the Black Atlantic and beyond. Scholars, artists, and practitioners from around the globe gather to discuss topics around a theme that is central to the research of Black expressive cultures.

The Yale Sacred Music Academy is held in June in New Haven, Connecticut. It is designed for professional church musicians, including organists, choral conductors, liturgists, singers, and graduate students aspiring to a career in church music. It offers masterclasses and coaching with resident faculty who are skilled in conducting, organ literature, organ accompaniment, hymn-playing, and liturgical organ playing.

Providing a welcome to thousands who do not have easy access to music education and create vibrant communities of artists and teachers.

Celebrating local communities of faith as settings in which music, worship, and the arts take on vibrant life, to the glory of God and for the sake of abundant life for all.

Yale faculty and official student organizations outside the ISM can apply for financial support for certain kinds of scholarly and performance projects.