Professor Kay Shelemay's "Soundscapes, Music in a Changing World," often features guest artists such as Cape Verdean rapper Cha Chi, above.

Broadway artist Lin Manuel Miranda talks with students after a presentation in Carol Oja's "American Musicals and American Culture"

Opera singer Renée Fleming gives a master class in Paine Hall. Produced by Learning from Performers.

Music Lessons

Does Harvard offer music lessons?

The faculty do not offer lessons. Students who want to pursue lessons during their time at Harvard find their own teachers, usually drawing from the huge pool of music instructors in the Boston area. Lists of local teachers and information can be obtained through the Office for the Arts at Harvard [http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/teachers/index.php?program=Music]. Lessons are arranged privately between the student and his/her instructor, and are usually considered extra-curricular. Some students have their current instructor recommend teachers in the Boston area. Some find their instructor through the bulletin board in the Music Department or seek recommendations from fellow students.

The Office for the Arts also maintains a Lesson Subsidy Program and may fund a portion of the cost of music lessons. There is a late September deadline and all application material is to be obtained from them. An audition may be required for students requesting subsidies for the first time. http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/support/mlsp.php

Will I get academic credit for music lessons?

It is possible to receive course credit for lessons by creating an INDEPENDENT STUDY course.

Independent Study is designed to provide credit for private music lessons given by instructors not on the Harvard faculty and is governed by the guidelines published in the Handbook for Students issued each year by Harvard College. The catalogue number for Independent Study is "9999." Only students concurrently engaged in at least one of the following activities are eligible for Private Music Lessons as Independent Study in Music:

1) Music Concentrators/Joint Concentrators
2) Members of:

Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra
Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum
Radcliffe Choral Society
Harvard Glee Club
Harvard University Choir
Harvard University Jazz Band
Harvard Wind Ensemble
Harvard Jazz Band

3) Students enrolled in a Music Department course (not including Core or GenEd)

The following procedures must be followed:

1. Obtain Application for Independent Study forms (two copies) from your House Resident Dean. Have them filled out and signed.

2. Include in the petition for Independent Study a statement as to why course credit for lessons is desired and what you hope to achieve in the lessons.

3. Fill out the Independent Study Form (from Assistant to the Chair in the Music Department) and obtain signature from Private Instructor.

4. Both forms (Application for Independent Study and Departmental Independent Study Form) must be completed and signed and in the Department Office for the Music Department Advisor's signature four working days before your Resident Dean's due date. You are responsible for picking up the signed forms from the Department and returning them to your Senior Tutor. Please be aware that individual Resident Deans may have different deadlines.

5. At the end of the term both you and your Private Instructor must submit a brief report to the Music Department. Each of these reports should outline what pieces have been worked on and should include an evaluation of your progress. The deadline for the reports is the first day of Reading Period. The reports will be accepted by the Assistant to the Chair and passed on to the appropriate Advisor. Both reports must be received or no credit will be given. You are responsible for making sure that the Private Instructor submits the report by the deadline.

Note: Lessons must be paid for by the student, as the Music Department does not fund private study on any instrument. Independent Study is for upperclassmen only. Independent Study proposal forms are available in the front office of the Music Building and the Resident Dean's Office. Independent Study may not be counted for concentration credit and is not available to Freshman.

Practice Rooms and Instrument Storage

There are fourteen practice rooms in the music building; all of them have pianos. Anyone with a valid Harvard I.D. may use the practice rooms, including all student in all of Harvard's schools and divisions, faculty, and staff. Practice rooms are available on a first come, first served basis. There is a two-hour limit.

To use a practice room you go to the front office at the Music Building (Reception area) and sign the log book. Practice room keys hang on a wooden stand nearby. Leave your ID and take a key. When the offices of the Music Department are closed, the keys will be at a security desk near the practice rooms inthe basement.

Professional lessons are not allowed in the practice rooms. Neither are amplified music and percussion instruments.

*There are also practice rooms in other campus locations, and 60 of Harvard's buildings have pianos in them. There is a percussion practice room in Sanders Theatre. Piano practice rooms exist in all the houses, in SOCH (Student Organization Center at Hilles-one room), in Loker Commons (two rooms plus storage space for large instruments and percussion), in the Freshman dorms [one between Wigglesworth C and D basements, one in Wigglesworth D basement, two in Straus basement (A and C), one in Greenough basement, and two in (wheelchair accessible) Matthews basement; all available from 9 am to 11 pm with the exception of Straus, which is open 24 hours/day. The Freshman Music Rooms are open only to first-year students.
There are a total of 220 pianos on campus.

*There are harp storage spaces in Memorial Hall. Contact the Office for the Arts for information about these. ofa@fas.harvard.edu

*These are not under the jurisdiction of the music department.

Music Department Practice Room Hours

SUMMER PRACTICE ROOM HOURS 2013:
Intersession: 9am-4:15 pm, Monday-Friday (closed weekends)

Summer School session (begins June 24)
9am-8:30 pm Monday-Thursday, 9am-4:15pm Friday (cloased weeends)

REGULAR HOURS (fall and spring terms)
Monday - Friday: 8:30 am to 11:00 pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10:00 am to 10:00 pm

Practice rooms are closed during all legal holidays, and over the December holiday break (normally December 23-January 2).
During the summer session, practice rooms may vary: hours will be posted in the spring.
During January and reading period, hours are curtailed. Please call for details.

Where can I store my instrument?

There are a limited number of lockers in the music building. Ask to reserve one at the Receptionist's desk. There is additional instrument storage in the Memorial Hall/Sanders Theatre complex; contact ofa@fas.harvard.edu about storing harps.

Does Harvard rent instruments or repair pianos? Can I buy an instrument through Harvard? Would Harvard buy my piano? How often should my piano be tuned?

Please visit the Piano Technical Services website for answers to these questions and more about pianos at Harvard. We do not rent, purchase or sell instruments. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pts/index.html

RESOURCES FOR PERFORMERS	Hydra sound diffusion system set up in Paine Hall. The Music Department offers courses in composition and student works are often give a performance as part of the class. In addition, there are both graduate (HGNM) and undergraduate (Harvard University Composers Association) composer's groups on campus that produce concerts of new student works.		Room 33 in the Music Department, which serves as the main classroom for electroacoustic composition. In addition to discrete eight-channel spatialization, the workstation is used for 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound with both standard- and high-definition editing.
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall (Music Building)
Other Performance Venues
OFA Funding for Student Performances/Projects
Music Library: Scores & Recordings
SOCH Recording Studio
Harvard Box Office
Office of the Arts at Harvard
Collection of Musical Instruments
RESOURCES FOR COMPOSERS
Electroacoustic Music Studio (HUSEAC)
Harvard Group for New Music
Hydra Sound Diffusion System
Composition Prizes
Fromm Foundation (Composition awards)
Harvard University Composers Association/Harvard New Music Ensemble (undergraduate composers) zsheets@college.harvard.edu

Concert Venues

John Knowles Paine Hall is located on the second floor of the music building, and is a concert hall that seats 437. Other performance venues exist across campus including the beautiful, 1166-seat Sanders Theatre and Lowell Hall (seats around 200). Several of the Harvard houses also offer opportunities for musical performance. For instance, Dudley House hosts several graduate student music groups including a chorus, orchestra, jazz band, and traditional music ensemble.

Many of the Harvard houses also have common rooms that can be used for music performance. Each house has its own music tutor or tutors and all of the houses have piano practice rooms and pianos available for students.

Left to right: Paine Hall, Sanders Theatre, and Lowell Hall

The Chiara Quartet are the current Blodgett Artists-in-Residence. They give public concerts four times each year in Paine Hall. The Quartet also premieres the winning composition of the Blodgett Composition competition.

Blodgett Chamber Music Series

The Blodgett Chamber Music Series produces several concerts each year featuring the artists-in-residence. These concerts are free and open to the public, and take place in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall. The Chiara Quartet (Rebecca Fischer and Julie Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; and Gregory Beaver, cello) are currently the Blodgett Quartet-in-Residence.

Playing “Chamber Music in Any Chamber,” the Chiara Quartet reaches from the concert hall into clubs, bars and galleries, expanding the places to hear live classical music while returning chamber music to its roots in intimate spaces. The Chiara is also continually finding new meaning within pieces from the well-established quartet canon. Their performances have been described as “luminous,” “searing,” (New York Times) “soulful,” “biting,” and possessing a “potent collective force” (Strings Magazine). Awarded the Guarneri Quartet Residency Award for artistic excellence by Chamber Music America, the Quartet’s other honors include a top prize at the Paolo Borciani International Competition, winning the Astral Artistic Services National Audition, and winning First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

The Fromm Players at Harvard

The Fromm Players at Harvard present a series of two concerts each year dedicated to new music such as that of Cage, Martino, Kampela, Gompper, Davidovsky, Berio, Fedele, Ung, Sierra, Leon and many other composers working in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Fromm Players concerts seek to program works not normally heard in Boston. In 2010, for example, the concerts (curated by Joel Sachs and featuring New York's internationally renowned ensemble CONTINUUM), explored the music of international composers working where cultures collide and fuse. Each year's curator is different, and each year the concerts focus on a new area of work. In 2009, for example, Jeffrey Milarsky programmed a set of new works performed by Manhattan Sinfonietta and in 2012 Harvard's Hans Tutschku created a program of electroacoustic work performed by Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

The concerts are sponsored by the Department and the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard. They are free and open to the public.

Portrait Concerts and Special Concerts

The Music Department also produces a number of concerts each year that showcase the work of a specific composer, performer, or theme. "On My Music" featured the compositions of Visiting Composer Helmut Lachenmann (2008), for example, and pianist Ursula Oppens performed a concert of "Music of the 21st Century" (2010). For upcoming special concerts, please see our the Events Calendar.

Concerts Around Campus
Music Department concerts represent only part of the concert schedule at Harvard. Student groups produce concerts, as do other academic departments, the Harvard museums, libraries, and churches, student societies, and the Office for the Arts. There are musical events taking place on campus nearly every day during the academic year.
To learn more about music events on campus, go to the Harvard Box Office
To see a listing of daily events at Harvard, go to the Harvard Gazette Calendar
To see a listing of all arts events on campus, go to the Harvard Arts portal

Student Music Groups

Music performance, like all performing arts at Harvard, is considered extracurricular. Musical groups on campus are all student-governed, and each handles its own auditions, operations, touring, and funding.

The following is a partial list of student music groups on campus. A more complete list (including opera, musical theater, and many more chamber choral and world music groups) is available on the Office for the Arts website.

Click for FULL Listing of Music Groups at Harvard


Singing

Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum [photo Mark Haveli, OFA]

Kuumba Singers [Photo by Harvard News Office]

Choirs

The Holden Choirs:
-- Harvard Glee Club
--Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus
--Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum
--Radcliffe Choral Society

Kuumba Singers
University Choir
Dudley House Chorus

A Capella Groups

Harvard Din and Tonics
Harvard Low Keys
Harvard-Radcliffe Callbacks
Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones
Mizmor Shir
Noteables
Radcliffe Pitches 
Harvard Krocodiloes

Playing

A rehearsal of he Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, the largest and oldest on campus. The HRO is conducted by Federico Cortese. [photo: Harvard Crimson]

Orchestras

Bach Society Orchestra
Dudley House Orchestra
Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra
Harvard Pops Orchestra
Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra
Mozart Society Orchestra
Toscanini Chamber Orchestra

Chamber Music & Ensembles

Brattle Street Chamber Players
Mather House Chamber Music Program
Harvard Wind Ensemble

Early Music

Harvard Early Music Society

Concert Bands

Harvard University Band

Jazz Bands

Dudley House Jazz Band
Harvard Jazz Bands

Instrument-Dedicated Groups

Harvard-Radcliffe Organ Society
T.H.U.D. (The Harvard University Drummers)
Harvard University Flute Ensemble
Harvard Piano Society

Theatrical/Opera

Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players
Dunster House Opera
Hasty Pudding Theatricals
Lowell House Opera

Composing

New Music

Harvard Group for New Music
Harvard University Composers Association

World Music

Dudley House Traditional Music Ensemble
Han Ma-Eum (Korean Drummers)
Mariachi Veritas

Gamelan

Gamelan Si Betty, Studio and Information

Gamelan Si Betty is modeled on the court gamelan of central Java, and is perhaps the largest American-built gamelan in terms of numbers of instruments. It accommodates over 30 instrumental players as well as vocalists. Gamelan Si Betty is in residence at Harvard.
READ THE STORY

Join in! [Gamelan sessions happen each Thursday night throughout the academic year). READ ABOUT IT

Prof. Richard K. Wolf, above, on vina, performs in concert with guest artist Umayalpuram Mali, mridangam.

Organs


Harvard University is blessed with a rich and varied collection of organs. The magnificent 1958 Flentrop is perhaps its most famous example: championed by the playing of E. Power Biggs, it remains one of the great examples of classic organ building principles, and is still revered by organists the world over. In addition, the university houses a 1911 Skinner in Andover Hall, as well as a Hutchings in Divinity Hall; several of the undergraduate houses have instruments, as well as a number of churches in Cambridge that house organs on loan from the university.

The newest addition is the Fisk Op. 139, pictured right., and housed in Memorial Church.

 

Collection of Early Instruments


The Harvard University Collection of Musical Instruments comprises 165 objects including instruments, both Western and non-Western, the Isham and Hewitt Collections, and a small group of musical miscellany. A growing number represent the cultures and traditions of many parts of the world including Europe, North America, the British Isles, and the mid- and far-east, especially China. 

Here you'll find a piano made by Streicher & Sons of Vienna in 1869; the piano Brahms would have played. The collection also features reproductions of the fortepianos of the likes of Mozart and Beethoven, a William Dowd harpsichord, and a Dolmetsch clavichord once played by virtuoso Gustav Leonhardt. Other highlights include Baroque viols, French 19th-century clarinets, a carved walnut Serpent D'Eglise, and a Pardessus de Viole created in the French city of Metz in 1730.

more