Focus on Music:
Views from the Podium
Conductors reflect on music-making at Harvard

Harvard student musicians and singers are fortunate to work with a variety of gifted conductors and artistic directors. At the start of the new academic year, Office for the Arts Director Jack Megan asked several of them to reflect on the state of music-making and music education at Harvard, and what their hopes are for the future. The following excerpts are from responses by Tom Everett, Director of the Harvard University Bands; Allen Feinstein ‘86, Conductor of the Harvard Pops Orchestra; Akiko Fujimoto, Conductor of the Mozart Society Orchestra; Jameson Marvin, Director of Choral Activities at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges (Collegium Musicum, the Harvard Glee Club, and the Radcliffe Choral Society) and Senior Lecturer on Music; Sheldon Reid, Conductor of the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College; and James Yannatos, Conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and Senior Lecturer on Music.

How would you assess the caliber of instrumentalists and singers at Harvard?

EVERETT: The level of abilities and interests of our Harvard musicians is remarkable. Although there is a dichotomy of training and performance levels, the most accomplished are indeed outstanding. More impressive is the diversity of interests; many students thrive on participation and leadership in multiple musical organizations.

YANNATOS: I agree. The caliber is very high, with a lot of additional talent in the second tier who feed the hungry performing groups.

REID: I’m always surprised by the extreme excellence I continue to find in music at Harvard. Students here approach their extracurriculars with a drive and a standard that makes it easy to forget they’re not professionals—not yet, anyway. There is clearly a different atmosphere encouraged here than at other schools, which continues to produce musicianship of a very high caliber.

FUJIMOTO: There are freshmen who could have easily gone to a conservatory instead of a liberal arts university, but who came to Harvard because their interests and achievements are far too broad to be caged into a “boot camp” for professional musicians. They’re here to get a diversity of experiences.

MARVIN: The undergraduate talent of instrumental musicians is equal to (or better than) those of major conservatories and schools of music in the United States. Almost all the singers in my choirs have an instrumental background; in fact, if they don’t play an instrument they must have a very good ear to be accepted into the choir. It’s not at all unusual for auditioners to have studied 12 to 15 years of piano, and/or 10 to 12 years of violin.

What do you hope that students will take from the experience of making music with you?

REID: I hope any person who sings with Kuumba will leave with a better understanding of the purpose, power, and presence of music in our lives. Too often we mistake everything that plays on the airwaves as having equal quality. Learning to listen critically and with an informed ear is the first step to being a musician and the key to learning anything.

YANNATOS: I hope my work with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra will reach into the body and soul of each musician: that immediate and lasting connections are made between musicians and composers, that time is obliterated, and that past and present fuse as we play, deepening our awareness of the extraordinary beauty we create moment to moment.

FUJIMOTO: I hope they’ll take away from the Mozart Society Orchestra a musical experience that is one of the million things they will do at Harvard, without the pressure of having to prepare for juries and solo recitals, or practicing excerpts five hours a day to win a job audition.

EVERETT: Besides my desire to instill in students a passion, curiosity, and the ability to make creative observations, my goals have little to do with them taking any of “me” away with them. Most important is the exposure to challenging literature in a creative, open environment. The music provides the content, insights, and learning experience.

MARVIN: I hope they take a lifetime of memories: magic moments, transcendent experiences. Over time, as ensemble develops, magic moments occur.

FEINSTEIN: As for the Pops, I want students to have not only a fine performing experience, but also some sense of the freedom and exhilaration I feel with this ensemble, with its nontraditional approach to programming. Some very accomplished students come to Harvard looking for something different—sometimes this means abandoning an instrument on which they are very accomplished.

Are there challenges that pertain to making music at Harvard that are different than other liberal arts settings?

EVERETT: The Harvard music environment is unique. Unlike most institutions, there isn’t a traditional performance program or ongoing performance curriculum. Harvard’s practice facilities—or lack thereof, inadequate equipment for student organizations, and forced evening and weekend scheduling create conflicts and frustrations for both students and conductors. The most difficult morale situations may be rehearsals with missing students, who are absent due to evening film review class, examinations, or other academic requirements.

REID: The nature of the institution is one of frantic achievement that makes it difficult to pursue all one wishes to, as well as to enjoy, as a member of the audience, the work of others.

YANNATOS: I agree. There are challenges in developing and maintaining a first-class ensemble: students have time conflicts trying to maintain good grades; an extracurricular group has to work around the curricular schedule.

FEINSTEIN: I don’t know if the challenges and opportunities are so different at Harvard; they are just magnified in certain instances. At Northeastern University in Boston, where I’m on the faculty, there are logistical challenges of rehearsal space and student schedules. At Harvard there are the same issues, but they can be extreme. For instance, last year we tried to arrange for Harvard Pops rehearsals from 10 pm to midnight, but the rehearsal venue was booked every weeknight!

Has the music scene changed at Harvard during your time? How?

YANNATOS: Yes, there have been some positive changes over the years: the creation of the Office for the Arts; a Memorial Hall [Sanders Theatre] staff that is a true partner; a Department of Music that is more open to performance; signs from the administration that yes, the arts are important; a sympathetic admissions staff; some financial support to purchase the percussion equipment necessary for large groups. These are some of the many signs that there is a place for the arts at Harvard.

MARVIN: I have seen many changes in the performing arts at Harvard. Most striking is the abundant musical talent reflected by over a third of the freshman class coming to Harvard each year. Music performance is their passion, and this is reflected in the quality and quantity of the performing ensembles at Harvard. When I came to Harvard there were four choirs, two orchestras, the band, wind ensemble, and jazz band, and two close-harmony groups. There were about 25 musical productions per year.
     Now we have nine choirs (seven faculty-led), four orchestras, the band and wind ensemble, three jazz bands, and 13 close-harmony groups. Nearly 60 musical productions per year dot the landscape of musical-dramatic productions in Harvard’s undergraduate Houses. In the music department, we have an in-residence string quartet, a master’s degree in Performance Practices, and an enormous growth in instrumental chamber ensembles.

REID: Yet, while it’s important that students create what they feel the need to create, the increase in music groups has taken away some of the competitive edge that puts the best of the best in the same place and allows them to take things to a new level. As numbers increase, identity decreases. Groups blur together and start to get in each other’s way in terms of space, financial support, audience interest, etc.

FEINSTEIN: Perhaps there are more musicians on campus now to feed all these ensembles, but I would guess there’s not a much greater percentage than in the early ‘80s. This means more competition to get players for groups, and equally more pressure for students to join more ensembles.

EVERETT: From my perspective, the greatest development in the Harvard arts community over the past 30 years is the presence of a support community. The arts are indeed on the University agenda. There is support by key administrators as well as resources to encourage and facilitate arts and artists: various arts grants, professional advice, Office for the Arts programs, the ARTS FIRST festival, and some ties to the curriculum. Both the number of students participating in music organizations as well as the number
of specialized groups in all of the arts has increased considerably.

If you were to visit Harvard 30 years from now, what would you hope to find with respect to music on the College level?

REID: Facilities. Space, equipment, and opportunity. We are in an educational environment that could produce the most amazing and powerful art anywhere. Music is not yet seen with the academic respect that it should have—although we are getting there—but if we provide the opportunities for these students to work and create together, we would find a new reason to be proud
of Harvard.

EVERETT: I would hope that the arts would be more centralized with a multi-disciplined, professional arts facility or center. Currently the arts are too decentralized with few opportunities for cross-disciplinary interaction. The availability of more professional musicians and advisors would foster community.

FEINSTEIN: I hope there’s a good balance—that the exciting ideas of students and ensemble leaders can be realized within reason, that there is enough rehearsal and performance space to go around, and that a sense of community has developed between the various musical and nonmusical outlets.

YANNATOS: Beyond these specific needs, I hope that music at Harvard will not be dumbed-down, broken down into smaller and smaller units so that larger ensembles cease to exist. Classical music is a minority art even at this great university. If it can’t exist here it will exist nowhere.

Finally, for those of you who have been here many years, what are your thoughts on the undergraduate curriculum review as it pertains to music-making at Harvard?

MARVIN: I think that credit or having a curricular connection is beside the point. What I would really like to see is more unanimous, enlightened enthusiasm for the flourishing of the arts at Harvard, and some concrete suggestions to reverse the psychological marginalization of the arts here.

YANNATOS: I believe there has to be a curricular connection—a co-curricular connection, so that music and the arts in general become an integral part of the liberal arts, and not a token participant.

EVERETT: More opportunities for connections to the curriculum may be valuable, not necessarily to receive academic credit, but to both integrate music insights and performance sensibility into the classroom and to add depth of understanding—historical, cultural, political, social, psychological—to music interpretation. Music will always exist at some level regardless of the support, curriculum, or sense of community. Without the depth and quality of guided arts activity at all levels, Harvard will be graduating young adults lacking the intangibles that create wise and effective leaders.

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