Toni-Marie Montgomery will step down as the Bienen School of Music’s dean after two decades in the position, Provost Kathleen Hagerty announced Sept. 14.

Montgomery will serve until the end of the 2022-23 academic year, with her last day being Aug. 31, 2023. Following her departure, Montgomery will remain at NU as a tenured professor.

“Montgomery proved herself to be one of our finest and most respected leaders over the past two decades,” President Emeritus Morton Schapiro said in a news release.

Montgomery is both Bienen’s first African American and first female dean.

Since she became dean in 2003, Montgomery oversaw the opening of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts in 2015, established two biennial international prizes and helped found the Institute for New Music. 

Under her leadership, Bienen introduced a new core curriculum to promote inclusion and diverse representation in music history and started the Black Composer Showcase series.

“The resulting leaps forward in scholarship and performance, facilities and the core student experience under her leadership will be felt for decades to come,” Hagerty said in the release.

The University will soon begin the process of finding a new dean for the school, according to Hagerty.

“It has been a true honor to serve as dean of this great school,” Montgomery said.

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