Hayes School of Music

Make the music happen with your iBackAPP gift!

When you visit one of the giving buttons on this page and make your gift on or before March 6, you'll help the Hayes School of Music and Cannon Music Camp unlock our matching gift challenges!

Appalachian State University's Hayes School of Music prepares students for a range of careers in music — graduating great musicians, life-changing teachers, expert music therapists, and Grammy-winning producers and performers.

Day to day, the Hayes School of Music shapes the musical life of App State and Boone! The Marching Mountaineers and Basketball Band encourage our teams to victory. Throughout the school year, we offer 200 performances by students, faculty, and guest artists, almost all free and open to the public.

We're not just for music majors! Our bands, choirs, orchestras, and other ensembles include students of any major across the university. The Community Music School offers lessons and classes for youth and adults in our community. Each summer, Cannon Music Camp welcomes around 175 high school students for an incredible three weeks of music on App State's campus!

How will my gift help the Hayes School of Music?

The default selection for the Hayes School of Music, the Hayes Circle Dean's Fund, makes gifts available for various needs and goals! For example, iBackAPP gifts from previous years have supported the Marching Mountaineers and brought in incredible guest artists hand-picked by faculty to meet with students, share career advice, and offer performances FREE to the community!

You can also select Cannon Music Camp, making an incredible summer experience possible for middle and high school music students! Established in 1969, Cannon Music Camp brings together high school students in the areas of voice, band, orchestra, guitar, and piano for 3 weeks on App State's campus.

Choose your own fund: If there is a specific music scholarship or fund close to your heart, you can type the name of your favorite fund in the search bar to direct your gift there! Gifts to ANY fund in the Hayes School of Music will count towards our total number of donors.

How do challenge and matching gifts work?

To help us meet a challenge or matching gift, simply donate to a fund that has a challenge occurring, and your gift will be counted!

To create a challenge or matching gift, select "Offer a Matching Gift" or "Offer a Challenge Gift" to learn more and set up a gift! You will be able to share with your friends. Some challenge and matching gifts may be featured on this page.

A special THANK YOU to our friends and supporters making matching or challenge gifts!

Our Mission

The Hayes School of Music cultivates passion, creativity and academic excellence to create musical professionals for life. Supported by faculty and staff in our innovative degree programs, students work together in a diverse community, becoming composers, educators, performers, therapists and music industry professionals dedicated to music's transformative power. Performances and community programs make us a destination for music in the region while preparing graduates to be leaders in their community and the world.