Music
At Haverford, students with musical aspirations can be performers, listeners, composers and scholars.
There are many ways in which Haverford is an ideal place to pursue your musical interests in the context of a challenging liberal arts curriculum. For those considering a major or minor in music, there are courses taught by the five members of Haverford's regular faculty covering an unusually broad variety of disciplines, ranging from Western harmony, counterpoint, composition, and history, to the music of Native Americans, Asia, and jazz. However, unlike many schools with a conservatory or large music department, non-majors are allowed opportunities to sing or play in fine ensembles, and even perform as soloists with one of the groups or gain experience conducting under the guidance of faculty directors.
The Music curriculum is designed to deepen understanding of musical form and expression through development of skills in composition and performance joined with analysis of musical works and their place in various cultures. A major provides a foundation for further study leading to a career in music. The composition/theory program stresses proficiency in aural, keyboard, and vocal skills, and written harmony and counterpoint. The musicology program, which emphasizes European, North American, and Asian traditions, considers music in the rich context of its social, religious, and aesthetic surroundings. Applied Music Study offers opportunities to participate in the Haverford-Bryn Mawr Chamber Singers, Chorale, Orchestra, and ensembles formed within the context of Haverford's Chamber Music Program. Students can receive academic credit for participating in these ensembles and can receive credit for Private Study in voice or their chosen instrument.
Featured: Music & Life After Haverford
Stephon Alexander '93 performing Afro Blue with Will Calhoun (two time Grammy award winning drummer; drummer of the band Living Colour) at the Cornelia Street Cafe. (Total Time: 11:32)
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Read "Stephon Alexander '93 on Physics, Jazz, and Life After Haverford."
Music Department News
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"Music of the Renaissance" by John C. Whitehead Professor of Music Richard Freedman was released in October 2012.
The Union Music Building houses classrooms, practice rooms, the music library and listening room, as well as the MacCrate Recital Hall for rehearsals and small concerts. The 12 practice rooms in Union Building and Roberts Hall house over 20 pianos, the majority of which are grands. Large concerts take place in the Marshall Auditorium of Roberts Hall which offers a Bösendorfer Imperial concert grand piano, a Schlicker two-manuel Baroque style organ, and a Shortridge-Jacquet two manuel harpsichord. Additional music resources include a five-octave Zuckerman clavichord, CD-Rom instructional and research stations, and an electronic music lab.
In addition, every year the Music Department's Guest Artist Series presents distinguished and emerging performers in public concerts. Together with the resident ensembles (which are currently Network for New Music sponsored by the Department of Music through a grant from the Spencer Foundation, and V.S. Narasimhan, composer-in-residence with the John B. Hurford '60 Humanities Center) there are many opportunities for students to work directly with professional musicians through master classes, coachings, lecture-demonstrations, classroom visits, and performing alongside them in ensembles. Recent performers on the Guest Artist Series include the American String Quartet, the American Brass Quintet, Lionheart, Lyric Fest, Anne Marie McDermott, Moscow String Quartet, Paul Orgel, The Orlando Consort and more.
Performances are held in various locations around campus, including outdoor shows on the Main Green and student-organized indie rock and hip hop concerts in Lunt Basement, where the popular Lunt Café is also located. And though there are 40 to 50 musical performances on campus every year, many students also go off campus to enjoy all that Philadelphia, one of the greatest musical cities anywhere, has to offer.