Music

Through the study of traditional concert works, film music, music theatre, improvisation, and advanced modern techniques, you gain the tools needed to present your musical ideas clearly and imaginatively. Hartt’s balanced curriculum emphasizes traditional skills, classical practice, and contemporary techniques. In addition to study in our challenging and stimulating core music program, you receive hands-on experience with new and emerging musical technologies and take part in classes that include orchestration, analysis, and conducting.

Strong musical training and versatility are needed to make a career as a performer. As an instrumentalist at Hartt, you receive training in performance, pedagogy, and career development. Solo, chamber, and large ensemble opportunities provide experience in standard repertoire and new works. We also offer many opportunities to perform in collaborative environments such as playing in the pit orchestras for an opera, dance concert, or a musical theatre production.

The mission of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz is to develop your aspiration and skills in the art form known as jazz.  You will be exposed to historical analysis, perspective, narratives on improvisation, and dialogue concerning the expression of jazz music.

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with a music major is a rigorous academic program that prepares you for graduate study in music or other disciplines. Students in the program receive a broad overview of musical study with a heavy concentration in music history and music theory.

In addition, our music majors in the BA program take courses from a variety of disciplines that introduce you to other fields and ways of thinking. As a final project, you have the choice of completing a thesis project or performing a recital.

Students who graduate from Hartt with a degree in music education are highly sought-after professionals and teach in schools across the country. One reason for our students’ success is the time spent practicing to be a music educator. Our students start working in area music programs during their first year and end up student teaching in their fourth year. As our students grow into educators, they are supported by an internationally recognized group of music education faculty, experienced graduate students, and in-service music teachers. Completing the music education degree leads to teacher certification in the state of Connecticut, which is also accepted through reciprocity agreements throughout the United States.

Here at Hartt, we believe that a thorough grounding in music history is not only a valuable educational pursuit in and of itself, but it also provides much-needed context for, and enhances the study of, theory, performance, and other musical endeavors. Our history faculty specializes in everything from medieval music theory to opera and film music, Handel, CPE Bach, and Max Reger, video game music, critical editing, and cognitive musicology.

When you decide to major in music management, you have the desire to pursue a strong musical and business course of study. Playing a musical instrument or being a vocalist is required for entrance to the program. This can include classical instruments or classical voice, jazz instruments or voice, or commercial instruments (bass, drums, guitar, keyboard, or voice.)

Music production & technology at Hartt trains musicians to become music production professionals (i.e. recording, mixing, and mastering engineers). Musicianship training has played an essential role for many, if not most, successful producers. Through study in music, electronics and acoustics, you will develop the skills and knowledge necessary to work in the professional audio industry.

Music theory at Hartt is designed to prepare you for graduate studies in music theory. Our students study tonal harmony, tonal analysis, modern techniques, tonal counterpoint, modal counterpoint, keyboard harmony, score reading, orchestration, and music theory pedagogy.

As a performing arts management major, you will learn the skills to have a career in the performing arts of the commercial music business. You are given the opportunity to concentrate in many different areas of management and business including the recording industry, touring, arts marketing, fundraising, for and non-profit management and entrepreneurial studies. Not only will you explore a variety of current problems inherent to the industry through classroom discussions, guest speakers, case studies and assignments, but also attend conferences and go on field trips to Connecticut arts institutions, as well as those in Boston and New York.

At Hartt, growth in technique and musicianship, guided by distinguished faculty, is the focus of vocal study. Our rich undergraduate and graduate course of study includes private voice lessons, coachings, vocal pedagogy, language and diction study, opera stagecraft, and our invigorating core music curriculum.