Mannes School of Music is the music conservatory of The New School. The school was founded as the David Mannes Music School in 1916 by musicians and educators David Mannes and Clara Damrosch Mannes. It was originally located on Manhattan's Upper East Side, on East 70th Street. In 1938, after David and Clara Mannes retired from teaching, the school changed its name to the Mannes Music School.

In 1953, Mannes began offering degrees, and became the Mannes College of Music. At this time, the school's director, Felix Salzer, organized Mannes' curriculum, called the Techniques of Music program, and dramatically expanded its scope and prestige. The many prominent students included Burt Bacharach, Julius Rudel, Eugene Istomin, and George Rochberg. In the 1960s, Richard Goode, Murray Perahia, and Frederica von Stade all graduated from Mannes in the same class. In later years, Semyon Bychkov, Michel Camilo, JoAnn Falletta, Tim Page, Shulamit Ran, Lara St. John, and numerous other alumni went on to achieve prominence.

In 1984, under the leadership of Charles Kaufman, the school moved to West 85th Street, and soon thereafter became affiliated with the New School, in 1989. Kaufman oversaw a significant improvement of the school, which now included concert halls, a library, and a dormitory; an expanded faculty; the creation of early-music preparatory and graduate programs and the Mannes Camerata, dedicated to performing medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music; and the reinvigoration of the school's finances. Much of the material in this collection documents Mannes under Kaufman's leadership.

The violinist and theorist Joel Lester was dean of Mannes from 1996 to 2011,and transformed Mannes into a modern conservatory. Under his tenure, the opera program and faculty were expanded, and in 2005 Mannes's name changed once again, becoming the Mannes School of Music at The New School.

In 2015, under the leadership of dean Richard Kessler, Mannes moved once more, joining the rest of the New School in Greenwich Village, in a new home in Arnhold Hall, at 55 West 13th Street. At its new location, Mannes continues to modernize, transforming its curriculum to highlight the role of music in society and develop citizen artists who engage with the world around them through established and emerging forms of practice.

Sources: Message from the Dean, by Richard Kessler: https://www.newschool.edu/mannes/deans-message/ Mannes on the Move: https://www.newschool.edu/mannes/on-the-move/ History of Manens: http://www.newschool.edu/mannes/history/