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Thomas S. Kenan III speaks at the annual Kenan Music Scholars Spring Recital in the Kenan Music Building

The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust has long been a strong supporter of the arts across North Carolina and beyond, and the Department of Music is a proud beneficiary of this legacy. The transformational effects of the Kenan family’s generosity are manifold, empowering every aspect of the Department’s mission. Some notable examples include:

  • a $4 million endowment gift to establish the Kenan Music Scholar Program. Since the first class of Kenan Scholars in the Fall of 2007, this program has attracted more than two dozen of the nation’s best students to study music at UNC-Chapel Hill.
  • a $4 million gift to complete construction of the Kenan Music Building. Completed in the Fall of 2008, the Kenan Music Building provides state-of-the-art studio, classroom, and performance space that expands and complements the Department’s historical footprint in Hill and Person Halls.
  • a $5 million gift in 2013 to inaugurate a $15 million campaign to renovate Hill Hall. Including a complete renovation of Hill Hall Auditorium and the surrounding rotunda, this project will revitalize Hill Hall for another century of service.