Lara Hirner '05 dunster house opera, choir, voxjazz, joint with women, gender & sexuality   Music concentrator because: Like many Harvard Freshmen, I initially declared myself pre-med and loaded my fall semester with math and science courses. I also joined Uchoir and performed as Mabel in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance," a minor role in DHO's production that year, and Rapunzel in Sondheim's "Into the Woods." I quickly realized that I was devoting much more of my time, energy, and passion to my performance extracurriculars than to my academic work. My freshman proctor strongly urged me to reconsider my plans. During my time as an undergraduate, we had a program that was a precursor to the current joint degree with NEC. I applied and was accepted into the five year performance option, which afforded me the wonderful opportunity to immerse myself in the study of performance practice academically, as well as to pursue conservatory-level training with a private voice instructor at NEC while still performing with a diverse range of groups and in dozens of productions. I also ultimately chose to joint concentrate with the WGS department. I wrote my thesis on gender and cultural identity as expressed through women's heritage music and the politics of the world music genre. Current job: I work as a speech language pathologist in an adult acute care hospital (Massachusetts General Hospital). While I primarily diagnose and treat Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), I also work with patients who have impairments in speech, language, and voice. Most people think of stroke survivors when I tell them what I do, but in reality, I work with patients all over the hospital, from patients with head and neck cancer to trauma victims; from cardiac surgery patients to patients with neurodegenerative diseases; from patients surviving strokes to the oncology floors to patients with dementia or ventilator dependence or delirium or pancreatitis! I interact daily with doctors, nurses, other therapists, families, and patients to help guide goals of care decisions, day-to-day acute management of their specific impairments, and assist with discharge planning by identifying their long-term communication and swallowing needs. In my setting, speech pathologists are also trained to perform instrumental assessments of swallowing, including the Modified Barium Swallow test performed in a radiology suite and a Fiberendoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing, which uses a tiny endoscope to directly visualize the anatomy of the throat during swallowing. I also co-teach a summer course on Foundations in Medical Speech Pathology at the Institute for Health Professionals, a graduate program for nurses, speech therapists, and physical therapists affiliated with MGH. In addition to my work as a speech therapist, I continue to perform as a singer in a limited capacity. One of my favorite long-standing performance opportunities is my work as the soprano soloist for the New York City Ballet's production of the West Side Story Suites. While in NY, I performed with an a cappella quintet called West Side Five, which consisted of alumni members from VoxJazz, a Harvard group of which I was a member when I was an undergraduate The group just released an album, and we placed as semi-finalist in the national Harmony Sweepstakes when I was singing with them. Lastly, I also have found my way back to Harvard and work as a Freshman Proctor in Weld hall! I've just finished my first year and am looking forward to continuing to help students transition into college life, provide academic counseling, and create fun, social opportunities within our entryway community. The way music fits into that: My performance career post-graduation was largely facilitated through connections I made at Harvard. I participated in Harvard's Gala celebration of Leonard Bernstein in 2005, and much of my early work in NY came about from working with a particular conductor during that festival. My career as a musician is what guided me to the field of speech pathology. I wanted to find a career that would wed my knowledge and training in voice with my interests in providing care. While I initially planned to work as a voice therapist for singers who had damaged their instruments, I found that the acuity of a hospital setting was ultimately more appealing. Music does still fit into my work as a speech therapist, however - I do have some private voice clients, and one of the very effective therapy methods for patients with aphasia (a language disorder) is called Melodic Intonation Therapy, which accesses a person's linguistic processing through the alternative neuro-pathway of melody. I also feel that my training in ethnomusicology and analysis of identity has helped foster another skill I use daily: cultural sensitivity and the value of difference, diversity, and belief systems when helping to facilitate health care decision making. During my graduate work, I traveled to Cambodia with a group of students and professors to work with children who had speech, language and swallowing impairments in a cultural setting with very different ideas of what health care intervention means. It remains some of the most rewarding work that I've done. As a proctor who advises Freshman, my experience with the music department is quite obviously advantageous. It's exciting to me to know the wide range of rewarding careers that my fellow concentrators have discovered, and to share with enthusiastic students the many possibilities before them! WEBSITE: Lara Hirner/Edge Studio   BACK TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES