Sinfonia was born on October 6, 1898 at the New England Conservatory in Boston,
when a group of thirteen young men under the guidance of Ossian Everett Mills met
“to consider the social life of the young men students of that institution” and
“to devise ways and means by which it might be improved.” Mills, bursar of the Conservatory,
sought to create an Order in which men with a shared love of music could develop the virtues of
manhood in themselves and in their fellows.
Sinfonia became a national fraternity on October 6, 1900, with the admission of a group of men at
the Broad Street Conservatory in Philadelphia. Since that time Sinfonia has grown into the largest music
fraternity in the world, with more than 150,000 initiates, and chapters on over 200 college and university
campuses across the nation.
The Beta Lambda Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia began with an interest group of seven men in 1929, a group
whose members eventually went on to become the founding members of Phi Mu Alpha at Muskingum University. This
group ran until 1956 when the charter became inactive. The current incarnation of the chapter was re-colonized in
1994, and with the guidance of its mentor chapter at Capital University, the Beta Lambda Chapter regained full chapter
status in 1995. We currently have 21 collegiate members. The Beta Lambda chapter is located in Province III in east
central Ohio, at Muskingum University in rural Muskingum County.