<p>HI!</p>
<p>I was admitted at Tufts (and am really excited) as well as wesleyan, which are my top two choices at this point. I was initially thinking of majoring in music (not really performance but more from an ethnomusicological point of view) or anthropology. I was wondering if anyone who knows anything about the music department at Tufts could comment on the main focus and strengths of the music department? Also, is the anthropology department good?</p>
<p>At this point I am leaning toward tufts for other reasons such as location, tufts is a little larger than wes, more academic options if i choose to switch to a different major, the experimental college sounds really cool etc.</p>
<p>if anyone could give any insight into this, it would be really helpful!!! thanks!!! :)</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that Tufts has an affiliation with the New England Conservatory, so you could take music classes there too, I believe.</p>
<p>Actually, Ethnomusicology is, intuitively, what I consider to be our greatest music strength (unless we're talking about the NEC program, and that's different). I'm not sure I would call it "the focus" of the department, but there's a TON of really interesting research and opportunity. Jeffrey Summit - who is also the campus Rabbi - is a grammy nominated ethnomusicologist who specializes in the music of particular African tribes. Joe Schloss does a lot of work with the musical history, unpinnings, and theory of hip hop and is currently looking for undergraduate students to help him with a research project on Irish music and immigration.</p>
<p>There are ongoing projects dealing with Dagomba Dance-drumming, Puerto Rican Reggaeton, and others. And this doesn't even include the student initiated projects. </p>
<p>If you go to the summer scholars website (<a href="http://summerscholars.programs.tufts.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://summerscholars.programs.tufts.edu/</a>) and search the opportunities for Music, you'll see that there are many opportunities to do research in those fields, and what's listed on the summer scholars page is only the summer opportunities that take place through this one program. There are many more during the school year, and lot of summer research takes place outside of the program.</p>
<p>awesome!!! thanks so much, Dan. That was exactly the information i was looking for!! :)</p>
<p>I've only participated in the music department insofar as I sing in the Chamber Singers and take private piano and voice lessons. My experiences have been amazing. Not everyone in Chamber is a music major, so it's a diverse group of kids who love singing in choir. There are touring, scholarship and performance opportunities galore.</p>