John Milbauer

Dean John Milbauer’s leadership at the DePaul School of Music has been transformative. Since his appointment in July 2023, he has invested deeply in and expanded programs of excellence while reducing barriers to access; led the formation and execution of a new strategic plan based on international development diagnostic frameworks; recruited 25% of current full-time faculty, emphasizing subject expertise, growth potential, external affiliations, and soft skills; strengthened relationships with organizations such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Opera Festival of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, and Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative; created the Gannon Fellows program to support graduate performance studies; and nearly tripled the school’s endowment while bolstering its near- and long-term fiscal health. 

Prior to his arrival in Chicago, Milbauer performed as soloist and chamber musician around the globe. He continues to perform as a Steinway Artist, with recent highlights including recitals with cellist Steve Balderston, baritone Randall Scarlata, violinists Janet Sung and Lauren Roth-Gómez, violist Ann Marie Brink, CSO Principal Percussionist Cynthia Yeh, and the Civitas Ensemble. France's Republique du Centre has called him "a virtuoso of the first magnitude" while American Record Guide awarded him an annual "Critic's Choice" for his Fleur de Son release of works by Debussy, Bartók, Crumb, and Adams, writing, "Milbauer employs a full expressive range, performs with astounding delicacy, and conveys unspeakable wonder through an intimate touch and astonishing versatility." 

Milbauer studied music and government at Harvard College before earning degrees from the Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and, as recipient of a Fulbright grant, the Liszt Academy in Budapest. He was awarded the Eastman Performer's Certificate and was nominated for the Gina Bachauer prize for outstanding pianist at Juilliard. Twice Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, he maintained a 25-year association with the Chautauqua Institution Piano Program in New York, helping transform it into one of the premier summer piano programs in the Americas. He served as Professor of Piano at the University of Arizona for 17 years, where he was awarded several of the highest teaching honors of the University. His piano teachers include Jerome Lowenthal, Ferenc Rados, György Sebök, Joan Moffat, and Rebecca Penneys.

Milbauer returned to school in 2019-20 as a John F. Kennedy Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government under the guidance of Professor Ron Heifetz, Co-Founder of Harvard's Center for Public Leadership. He earned a Master in Public Administration degree from HKS in 2020, having been Co-Chair of the HKS Arts and Culture Caucus as well as Associate Editor of the Harvard Kennedy School LGBTQ Policy Journal. In addition to the MPA curriculum at HKS involving global development and governance, adaptive leadership, behavioral economics, and negotiation, Milbauer studied innovation ecosystems and regional acceleration at MIT Sloan School of Management and arts entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School. This experience led to his appointment to National Endowment for the Arts grant screening bodies, as well as to human rights, foreign policy, and cultural institution platform committees in support of a successful candidate for President of the United States. He draws on all of these experiences in his work at DePaul with the goal of maximizing personal, communal, and institutional potential.