Music

专业详情

Training thinking musicians

Occasionally we are asked what a music department does in an academic institution. The simple answer is: we train thinking musicians. This can mean a several things, depending on your interests. A number of our courses are concerned with the connection between detailed music analysis and performance, others with performance, with musics of the world, or with the exploration of the connection between compositional styles and the wider intellectual movements in the arts and humanities such as sound studies, creativity, or politics. The concentration offers a great deal of flexibility and ensures that the many diverse interests of our students are represented in its course offerings.

Academic, rather than pre-professional

As a liberal arts program rather than a pre-professional program, the music department does not have an extended performance faculty. We do not offer regular instrumental or vocal lessons, but do offer a large number of performance-based courses each semester. Harvard also offers very competitive dual degree programs (AB/MM) with both the New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music that provide their participants with both a broad-based liberal arts education and specialized music training.

Performance groups and classes

The Music Department offers undergraduate classes in which master performers coach chamber music ensembles, vocal ensembles, creative music, jazz, African music traditions, songwriting, or 21st-century ensemble in a number of different settings. In addition, Harvard University’s Office for the Arts hosts 45 music groups from Mariachi to the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra to jazz bands to the Harvard Undergraduate Drummers (THUD).

Composition studies

Harvard has educated a distinguished line of composers from John Adams to Leonard Bernstein to Du Yun. Currently the Department has special strengths in electro-acoustic music, jazz harmony and improvisation, creative music, avant-garde music theatre, songwriting, and instrumental music. Students have the opportunity to hear their work performed in end-of-term recitals as well as by various performance groups on campus.

Thinking across disciplines

Training thinking musicians means fostering connections between music and the other arts and humanities. We regularly offer classes that engage music in a wider cultural context, linking musical works with works of art, literature, or with political or philosophical questions. Many of our students are joint concentrators, who combine the rigorous study of music with another discipline. In their final year they write an honors thesis that combines their two chosen fields. Some combinations are more common than others, but very exciting senior theses have brought such diverse fields as economics, computer science, linguistics, or neuroscience to bear on music.

Read the story: Joshuah Campbell, joint concentrator, Music and French

Read the story: Kapena Baptista, joint concentrator, Music and Social Anthropology

What can you do with a music degree from Harvard?

The A.B. degree from Harvard with a Concentration in Music is a liberal arts degree, and our students pursue careers in professions similar to anyone with liberal arts training. They become lawyers, congressional aides, software developers, sound technicians, arts administrators, and speech pathologists, as well conductors, performers, composers, and music professors. LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR ALUMNI

Resources for Study and Performance

The Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library offers an outstanding collection of books and scores, as well as listening equipment for its extensive recording collection. An electronic music studio is available. Musicians have access to the practice rooms, all of which have pianos, and a limited number of instrument lockers are provided. The many musical organizations on campus include the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Bach Society Orchestra, Harvard Glee Club, Collegium Musicum, Radcliffe Choral Society, University Choir, Harvard Group for New Music, Piano Society, Jazz Bands, Lowell House Opera, and numerous a cappella groups, among many others. Students interested in composition may submit works for performance at concerts offered by the department, performance ensembles, and for the Harvard University Prizes. The Office for the Arts offers a special lesson subsidy program for musicians (by audition), as well as information on private teachers in the area. For more details, visit our Resources page.