| Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is a collegiate social fraternity for men with an interest in music. The Fraternity is also referred to as Phi Mu Alpha or Sinfonia, and its members are known as Sinfonians. The Fraternity currently has 217 active collegiate chapters, 15 colonies, and 12 area alumni associations throughout the United States. More than 150,000 men have been initiated into Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia since its founding in 1898, making it the largest and oldest secret society in music. Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia operates independently from any of the major governing councils for collegiate fraternities in the United States such as the North-American Interfraternity Conference, though it is a member of other interfraternal organizations such as the Association of Fraternity Advisors, the Collegiate Fraternity Editors Association, and the National Interfraternity Music Council. Since 1970, it has been headquartered at Lyrecrest, an estate on the northern outskirts of Evansville, Indiana. |  |
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia became a national fraternity on October 6, 1900, with the admission of a group of men at the Broad Street Conservatory of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Under the guidance of Percy Jewett Burrell (sixth Supreme President, 1907-1914), whose writings and speeches continue to be influential in the teaching of Sinfonian ideals to this day, the fraternity grew.
Sinfonia became a professional fraternity in 1970. When Title IX was passed in 1972, Phi Mu Alpha began to open membership up to women, as all professional organizations were now required to do, and gave permission to some chapters to initiate women. Because of this, 236 women were initiated during this period until 1985, when Sinfonia voted to return to being a social fraternity, and limited its membership to men once more. Despite having not been a professional organization since 1985, the Fraternity was a member of the Professional Fraternities Association up until 2007.
The purpose statement of the Fraternity, called The Object, reads as follows:
The Object of this Fraternity shall be for the development of the best and truest fraternal spirit; the mutual welfare and brotherhood of musical students; the advancement of music in America and a loyalty to the Alma Mater.
The national philanthropy of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is the Mills Music Mission. Created in 1998, it was inspired by a practice originated by the fraternity's founder, Ossian Everett Mills, in the late 1800s. Mills was organizer of the Easter Song and Flower Mission in Boston in which musicians and assistants to Boston's hospitals on Christmas and Easter would sing, play music, and give recitations. In 2003, the Mills Music Mission was adopted as Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's official national philanthropy. This project is rare among fraternity philanthropies since, instead of raising funds to supporting a selected charity, the fraternity uses the unique talents and interests of its members to personally interact with those in need.
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