About

In July 2014, the former departments of Music and Theatre joined together to form the Fountain School of Performing Arts.  Funded by a generous $10 million donation by the Fountain family, it is the only university performing arts school east of Montreal and brings a range of new opportunities to students of Music, Theatre and Cinema and Media Studies.

• Academics: Visit Music Programs, Theatre Programs or Cinema and Media Studies to learn more about our academic programs and classes.
  
• Awards:  See the Scholarships and Awards section for details about funding for undergraduate and graduate students.
• Events:  Each season we offer dozens of public events: theatre, opera, concerts, masterclasses, and more.  Our calendar of public events can be found at Our Season.  
• Ensembles:  Our performance ensembles are open to community members by audition.  If you want to stay musically active, please visit our Ensembles page for more information.
  
• EDIA:  Equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility are crucial to the health of academic units and their relationships to our broader society. The Fountain School's EDIA Committee aims to assist our school in achieving EDIA-related goals, such as faculty, staff and student representation, inclusion in programming, and curriculum form, structure, and content.

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Welcome from the Director of the Fountain School of Performing Arts

Dr. Jérôme Blais

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Dalhousie University's Fountain School of Performing Arts, in the heart of vibrant Halifax, Nova Scotia!

A truly unique institution in Eastern Canada, the Fountain School fosters excellence in numerous performing arts disciplines in both academic and applied programs, within a welcoming, diverse, safe and stimulating environment.

In music, we offer instruction in performance (classical and popular music), composition and musicology. On the theatre side of things, our students can choose from acting, theatre studies, stage design, technical theatre, and our unique to North America costume studies program. We now offer classes in dance, a program that will grow in the coming years. Finally, our Cinema and Media Studies program gives students the opportunity to think critically about all aspects and forms of the moving image.

I invite you to look at our faculty page to discover our impressive roster of high-caliber professional artists and scholars, as well as our research and creativity page to see samples of our research and creative output. Every year, our pedagogical activities result in an exciting season of events. All disciplines come together to produce numerous concerts and recitals, theatre plays, an opera and several academic lectures. Visit our season’s event listings to learn more.

Halifax is blessed with a wonderfully rich and active arts scene, for which the Fountain School is a genuine hub. In addition to attending local events (for which we regularly offer free or discounted tickets), students also benefit from learning opportunities related to our school’s unique position within the city. Halifax’s numerous arts organizations attract regional, national and international artists. We offer several mentorship opportunities with professional organizations around town and there is hardly a week that goes by without these visiting artists offering a workshop or masterclass.

To say that the last couple of years have been challenging is perhaps a bit of an understatement, with online and hybrid productions and course delivery. I am particularly proud of how our students, staff, faculty and invited artists have overcome the hurdles placed in front of us during this time. We have all learned a lot during this period, and have been transformed in a positive way, I believe.

I am particularly eager to look forward to the bright future that awaits the Fountain School of Performing Arts. This year will see the opening of our new building extension, with the state of the art 300-seat Joseph Strug Concert Hall, rehearsal spaces, teaching and practicing studios. Most importantly, this exciting new addition will allow for Costume Studies to be back in the same building with all of us, after several decades of being located off-campus. Stay tuned for events taking place in our new hall, and I hope to see you there!

I wish you a wonderful 2022/2023 year, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, or just to say hello!