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From DELTA OMICRON to YOU
Dear Prospective Member of D.O.,
We are eagerly waiting for the time when we may welcome you into Delta Omicron and see you wear over your heart the symbol of our Fraternity - the beloved lyre of gold.
While preparing for that memorable event, your day of initiation, there are some things we wish you to know about the Fraternity.
Delta Omicron was founded on September 6, 1909, at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati, Ohio, by three young women music students enrolled there: Lorena Creamer, Mabel Dunn, and Hazel Wilson.
Delta Omicron is the only professional music fraternity founded by undergraduate students.
Delta Omicron became an international music fraternity when the first collegiate chapter to be established abroad was chartered at Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul, Korea, in June 1958.
Founders Day is celebrated annually on December 13, the date of the incorporation of Delta Omicron under the laws of the State of Ohio.
Chapters of Delta Omicron are installed in accredited universities, colleges, and schools of music. The Fraternity is composed of collegiate chapters, alumni chapters, alumni clubs, and alumni-at-large.
The policies and laws of the Fraternity are formulated by the Delta Omicron Triennial Conference to which each chapter sends a delegate. Legislative and judicial powers of the Fraternity are vested in the Triennial Conference of chapter delegates that meets every three years. Executive power is vested in a Board of Directors consisting of seven members (five elected by the Triennial Conference and an Executive Secretary and a Treasurer who areappointed by the Board of Directors). The Board assumes legislative guidance between Triennial Conferences. Chapters in the United States are supervised by Province Presidents, and foreign chapters are under the supervision of the area Field Representative.
The Fraternity Endowment Fund established early in the history of the Fraternity provides summer scholarships to members, awards to chapters, and aid to chapters. Delta Omicron Rotating Grants are awarded to chapters to use to for local projects on their campuses and in their communities.
The Delta Omicron Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit corporation which provides student loans, scholarships, grants-in-aid. It is an affiliated philanthropic arm of the Fraternity.
Delta Omicron is an organization professional in classification because its membership is limited to students of music or professional musicians. Collegiate membership is extended to students of music enrolled as music majors or minors (or the equivalent) in schools where chapters of the Fraternity are located, and who meet the Fraternity requirements in scholarship, music, and character. Alumni membership is extended to initiates upon graduation or withdrawal from school, with the privilege of belonging to an alumni chapter or club.
National Honorary Members are initiated from outstanding musicians who have attained national musical
prominence. Men and women of national prominence in music also are inducted as National Patrons or Patronesses of Delta Omicron, as an honorary distinction.. For a complete list, please refer to Roster of National Honorary Members and Patrons.
Chapters are encouraged to invite men and women in their own locales, who are interested in helping young musicians, to become Chapter Patrons and Patronesses.
Publications of Delta Omicron include The WHEEL which is published quarterly and the Whistle which is the national alumni newsletter and published annually.
The MISSION of Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity is to promote and support music and musicianship.
The PURPOSE of our Fraternity is embodied in these words:
“Delta Omicron was founded to create and foster fellowship, to develop character, and to arouse and encourage the appreciation of good music and performance among musicians during their student days so that the highest degree of musicianship might be attained individually.”
A quotation from Phillips Brooks was adopted as the CREED OF DELTA OMICRON:
This truth comes to us more and more, the longer we live, that in what field or in what uniform or with what aims we do our duty, matters very little, or even what our duty is, great or small, splendid or obscure, only to find our duty, certainly and somewhere, somehow do it faithfully, makes us good, strong, happy, and useful, and tunes our lives into some feeble echo of the life of God.
The PRAYER of DELTA OMICRON was written in 1909 by Ethel Cox Stewart of Alpha Chapter and was later set to music by Edwyl Redding of Omicron Chapter:
O Lord, Thy blessing now shed down
Upon dear Delta Omicron;
May all her ties and friendships be
Strengthened and honored, Lord, by Thee.
Amen.
There is much we wish to tell you about our beloved Delta Omicron, but that pleasure we shall reserve until
we greet you in the bonds of Fraternity.