The progress towards the establishment of a Department of Music, and later a School of Music at Memorial, can be credited to a great many people and events that unfolded over a significant number of years.

• 1820s — "Classical" music first appears in St. John's in the form of concerts and theatrical performances and begins to develop alongside the strong tradition of folk music that has always been part of Newfoundland culture.
  
  
• 1850s — This interest is then taken up and promoted by many amateur musicians and a few professionals including the Sisters of Mercy and the Presentation Sisters. It is boosted by the arrival in St. John's of a number of influential church organists and band masters from Britain and Ireland.
  
  
• Early 1900s — People such as Gordon Christian, Charles Hutton, Georgina Stirling, Fredrick Emerson, Bob MacLeod, Ignatius Rumboldt, and later, Andreas Barban and others champion professional music-making and lay a firm groundwork for classical music culture in the city. This helps create a favorable climate for the establishment of a School of Music.
  
  
• 1925 — Memorial University College is founded as a memorial to those who served in World War I and begins to offer courses in music appreciation and choral singing.
  
  
• 1946 — The Community Concerts Association is formed.
  
  
• 1949 — Memorial University College is given degree-granting status as a university shortly after Newfoundland becomes a province of Canada.
  
  
• 1952—The Kiwanis Music Festival is established. Members such as Lloyd Soper, Charlie Strong, Charlie Pope and David K. Peters lobby the government and the university long and hard for a School of Music.
  
  
• 1960 — In response to public pressure, Memorial University appoints Ignatius Rumboldt as "Specialist in Music" in the Faculty of Education.
  
  
• 1965 — Rumboldt succeeds in establishing an Extension program that grows to encompass 16 choirs, 3 orchestras and a concert band in St. John's, Coiner Brook and other centers across the province, eventually involving over 7,000 participants. His early efforts in forming the St. John's Extension Orchestra later lead to the development of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra.
  
  
• 1968 — Rumboldt is joined at Memorial by Donald F. Cook who is appointed as a second "Specialist in Music".
  
  
• 1969 — Cook wins approval to introduce the first credit courses in music at Memorial: Education 0313 (Music in the Primary Grades) and Education 0316 (Music in the Elementary Grades).
  
  
• 1970 — Further music courses are approved and made available to students in the Arts and Sciences.
  
  
• 1972 — Doreen Coultas, a native of St. John's, is appointed to the Faculty of Education and becomes the first musician to be given a full-time tenure-track faculty position at Memorial.
  
  
• 1973 — Memorial appoints a new president, Moses O. Morgan, for whom the establishment of a Department of Music is a high priority.
  
  
• 1975 — Just two years after Morgan's appointment, the university sees the creation of a Department of Music with D.F. Cook appointed as its Head.
  
  
• 1975-76 — Cook begins his work as a department of ONE, but soon hires coordinator Deryck Harnett to help with financial and administrative tasks.

• • 1976 — Donald F. Cook and Deryck Harnett are joined by Maria (Crane) Noseworthy who becomes the departmental secretary, a position she holds for nearly 40 years until her retirement in 2014.
    
    In August, the Department hires its first three full-time tenure-track faculty members: woodwind specialist Paul Bendzsa; theory, brass and band teacher Kjellrun Hestekin; and history and strings teacher Murray Charters.
    
    By September the faculty of three, together with Cook teaching history, organ and choral arts, are ready to welcome their first class of students.
    Housing for the new Department is a temporary, wooden structure located behind the Arts and Administration Building. It lacks running water and bathroom facilities and boasts a leaky roof and an established family of rats!
    
    Despite these circumstances, the faculty are determined to provide a first-rate education in music that rivals the best available in the country. Cook writes that "neither President Morgan nor I were prepared to tolerate compromises that might lead to mediocrity".
    
    
  • 1976-79 — The Department flourishes rapidly, improving the status of classical music throughout the entire province, enhancing the profile of the university, and gaining the credibility and respect of sister institutions throughout the country. Departmental activities include:
    
    
    • Numerous on-campus recitals by students, faculty and visiting artists including the Moscow Chamber Orchestra under Rudolph Barshai and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra
    • Concert tours throughout the length and breadth of Newfoundland and Labrador by student choirs, bands, orchestras and various small ensembles
    • The establishment of the MUN Music Preparatory School (1976)
    • The introduction of the Suzuki Talent Education program (1978)
    • The release of the MUN Chamber Choir's first LP recording entitled Winter's Gone and Past (1979). The choir wins the CBC Choral Competition, thus establishing a standard of choral excellence for which the province is known to this day.
      
      
  • 1979 — In May, the Department proudly sees its first graduating class consisting of Karen Kierstead Mills, Glenda Abbott, Andrea Rose, Rex Bowring and Carl Goulding.
    
    
  • 1982 — Memorial's new President, Dr. Leslie Harris, declares that a new purpose-built music building is a top priority of the University.
    
    
  • 1983 — Dr. Harris receives approval for the new building and the University appoints the local firin of Lippa and Fugard as architects. Dr. Morgan, now President Emeritus, and Bruce Woodland (formerly director of University Affairs) provide indispensable assistance in fundraising.
    
    
  • 1985 — The new School of Music building is completed on time and on budget. The new facility, named in honour of university president emeritus M.O. Morgan, includes a 300-seat recital hall (named the D.F. Cook Recital Hall in 1993) with adjustable acoustics and a 43-rank Casavant organ, an electronic music studio, rehearsal rooms, library, 30 practice rooms, and 22 teaching studios. 
    
    
  • 1990s — The School of Music enters the decade with 120 students and 22 faculty (12 full-time, 10 part-time) and under the leadership of Director Maureen Volk, focuses on curricular expansion, increasing student numbers and professional development for its faculty. By 1998, enrollments reach a critical target of 150 students.

• 2002 — Under Director Tom Gordon, Memorial inaugurates its Master of Music program, becoming the first school in Atlantic Canada to offer a graduate program in music.
  
  
• 2003 — The Research Centre for Music, Media and Place - "MMaP" - opens. The new Centre, affiliated with both the School of Music and the Folklore Department of Memorial University, is founded by the School's first Canada Research Chair (Tier One), Beverley Diamond. The Centre is dedicated to the study of music as a social practice and to the promotion of traditional, popular and other musics of the world.
  
  
• 2003 — The School of Music announces a $1.2 million donation from Petro-Canada for the construction of a new performance hall to be added to the existing building.
  
  
• 2003 — Theory and Composition professor Clark Ross inaugurates Newfound Music, an annual festival of contemporary music.
  
  
• 2004 — The School of Music is proud to see its first Master of Music graduating class consisting of David Chafe, Julia Halfyard, Jonathan MacInnis, Michael Snelgrove, Katie Sullivan, Jeff van den Scott and Kellie Walsh.
  
  
• 2005 — Petro-Canada Hall (now Suncor Energy Hall), the School's new state-of-the-art performance venue with recording and web-casting capabilities, is opened.
  
  
• 2005 — New MA and PhD programs in Ethnomusicology are introduced.
  
  
• 2005 — MMaP inaugurates the archival CD series Back on Track, the first of a number of its widely respected publications.
  
  
• 2006 — Kelly Best becomes the first graduate of Memorial's new MA program in Ethnomusicology.
  
  
• 2008 — MMaP celebrates its newly renovated space in the Arts and Culture Centre, St. John's.
  
  
• 2008 — Dr. Judith Klassen and Dr. Janice Tulk become the two first graduates of the Ph.D. program in Ethnomusicology.
  
  
• 2011 — The Memorial Electroacoustic Music Research Lab (MEARL), a state-of-the-art digital music facility, is opened.
  
  
• 2011 — The School of Music announces its first full-tuition multi-year scholarship, the Dorothy and David Peters Scholarship in Music. Several other full-tuition scholarships are established in the following years.
  
  
• 2012 — Gamelan Sagara Ash, the School's Sudanese Indonesian gamelan, is launched.
  
  
• 2013 — The Bruneau Centre for Excellence in Choral Music is established with a $1 million donation from Drs. Angus and Jean Bruneau.