Three are vying to lead the University of Minnesota’s School of Music.

The finalists — Gary Mortenson, Daniel Melamed and Michael Kim — will visit the University this month for interviews, the school announced Wednesday.

“I look forward, as I know you do, to learning more about how each candidate envisions the future for the School of Music,” College of Liberal Arts Dean John Coleman wrote in an email to students, faculty and staff on Wednesday.

An international search for a new leader began in the summer after the music school’s former director, David Myers, wasn’t reappointed to his position. He returned as a faculty member in the fall.

The University also cut the school’s former assistant department director position — held by Anne Barnes — last summer during a leadership restructuring, a move that upset many music students.

CLA wanted to create consistency across administration in its schools, the college’s communications director, Kelly O’Brien, told the Minnesota Daily last summer. That meant having only one leadership position in the School of Music.

Scott Lipscomb has served as the school’s interim director since last June.

Mortenson, now the director of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Kansas State University, will come to the campus Feb. 9.

Melamed serves as chair of the Department of Musicology at the Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. His interview is set for Feb. 16.

Kim, who will come to the University Feb. 18, currently serves as dean of Brandon University’s School of Music in Manitoba, Canada.