<p>I am very dedicated to playing classical music, I play the clarinet. I won't go into the depth of my studies, but I was wondering if classical musicians ever contacted music directors or conductors at elite colleges like Harvard. I know superior athletes often contact coaches to tell them of their interest. Do musicians ever do the musical equivalent?</p>
<p>Harvard’s music department is not a conservatory; it’s an academic based music program. Students interested in music do not declare their concentration until sophomore year, so having contact with music professors would be akin to having contact with teachers in the physics or math department. It’s nice, but admissions does not give them slots, like they do with the athletic department.</p>
<p>I can’t remember where I read this, but supposedly the number one extracurricular activity cited by applicants to Harvard is music – and music at a high level, seven to ten years of piano or violin, performances at Carnegie Hall, think Yo Yo Ma.</p>
<p>That said, I know of several prospective students who have met with professors in the music department – some have been accepted, others rejected. (The rejected student is now at Juilliard studying piano, so his music skills were not the issue.) You could always contact someone in the music department and ask them: [Harvard</a> Department of Music](<a href=“http://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/contact.html]Harvard”>http://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/contact.html).</p>
<p>If you’re that dedicated, you might want to consider Juilliard… Or Oberlin, great school with a conservatory. I’m sure you could contact music professors at Harvard, but there’s no “recruitment” for music, ahah.</p>
<p>I completely agree with Gibby’s description of the Music Department’s academic focus.</p>
<p>Back in the '80s, at least, the joke was that Harvard’s Music Department should be seen and not heard.</p>
<p>There is a five year AB/MM joint program with New England Conservatory. You must be independently accepted at both institutions. The arts at Harvard are getting better. President Faust has commented that she took serious note of the 2012 “Senior Class Survey” which showed that a MAJORITY (not a plurality) of graduating seniors, if they could would go into “the arts” if they had their druthers. She has lamented that there is a very strong disconnect with what the seniors wanted to do and what they ended up doing (finance/consulting were the top two job categories) and recognized that Harvard has an obligation to better prepare students in the arts if that is what they would have wanted to pursue. Toward that end Harvard has hired Jill Johnson as the Director of Dance (an amazing hire) and is working to augment the rest of its arts offerings.</p>
<p>The music department is not as academic as Yale’s (but Yale has a professional School of Music–which Harvard does not have)-- Harvard’s department now has a composer’s track within its concentration (a composition can be submitted for a honors thesis) and has one full time composer as a full professor and is looking to increase its facility in this area. That being said-- NO Harvard credit for performance or lessons. But there is a very thriving co-curricular program from HRO to a cappella groups and everything in between. An international competition winner in the violin is a rising sophomore as is a newly named Yamaha artist (composition). Matt AuCoin, who just graduated, is the conducting fellow at the Met next year–so lots of good musicians around.</p>
<p>Rumor is that there will be a MFA offered at Harvard within the next decade (discussions are happening now) – probably in theatre, however.</p>