[2] From its beginning, Appalachian State University offered students instruction in voice and piano on an extracurricular basis, and by the late 1920s, choruses, glee clubs, and string bands were flourishing on the campus of what was then Appalachian State Teachers College.
More courses were added in order to educate music teachers with an emphasis on excellence in performance.
To further this end, in 1939, Gordon Nash and J. Elwood Roberts began teaching band and orchestral instrument methods classes.
Two years later, Roy R. Blanton and John B. Thompson were recipients of the first music education degrees conferred by Appalachian.
Postwar years, on the other hand, brought a time of growth and new enthusiasm at Appalachian as returning servicemen altered the demographics and psychology of the nation.
In May 2001, the late Mariam Cannon Hayes of Concord, North Carolina, who was a longtime patron of the arts and ardent supporter of the music program at Appalachian State University, made a $10 million endowment gift to the School of Music.
Subsequently, the Appalachian State University board of trustees named the school in her honor.
From the beginning of the 21st-century to June 30, 2009, the composer William Harbinson, an alumnus of Appalachian, served as dean of the School of Music.
[6] The Hayes School of Music is home to many student organizations, including educational, fraternal, and co-curricular activities: