graduate testimony

C U R R E N T G R A D U A T E

S T U D E N TS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC

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The Music Department received a 100% acceptance rate in 2006, meaning that a record 18 new graduate students joined us in September. Here's a sampling of who they are and why they came.

Mariam Nazarian is a concert pianist with interests in J.S. Bach, 18th- and 19th-century keyboard literature, Armenian folk music and liturgy, and vocal jazz improvisation. She came to Harvard for the level of scholarship in all fields, dialogue between multiple disciplines, welcoming atmosphere, and resources.

Matthew Mugmon, a former Classical Studies major and middle-school teacher, chose Harvard also for its resources and faculty. He’s interested in antiphon borrowing in Ambrosian chant, Sting’s political music, the changing definitions of the term “Symphonic Poem,” biographies of William Byrd circa 1923, the (dis)organization of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book I, and the application of narrative theory to Monteverdi's late madrigals. He also likes Mahler a lot.

Louis Epstein thinks he'll write a dissertation on composers’ relationships with political and non-musical artistic currents in early 20th-century France (he’s also a closet theorist), and chose Harvard for its “all-star faculty, tight-knit student community, exhaustive resources, and proximity to Bartley’s, that hamburger joint in Harvard Square.”

Glenda Goodman comes from the Juilliard School, where she completed a MM. Before that, she graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory with a BA as a religion major and a BM in viola performance. She is interested in the phenomenology of performance, experimental music, and American arts institutions. "I chose to come to Harvard because I knew I would be supported for my work there, both by the faculty and by the tremendous resources available."

Frank Lehman's interest in film music, both historical and technical, served as an entry point into opera, especially that of Wagner. He looks forward to expanding into other areas, including music cognition, history of theory, and atonal forensic criminology.

Thomas Lin has degrees in Musicology and Chemical Engineering and chose Harvard to pursue critical theory in the Renaissance, the development of tonality in Italy, Enlightenment aesthetics, 19th-century opera, and Gilbert & Sullivan. He came “for the strong sense of community among the highly-impressive student/faculty body, along with the intellectually supportive and nurturing environment. And I stayed for the cookies.”

Rowland Moseley studied at King's College, Cambridge before coming to Harvard. His interests are the analysis and compositional pedagogy of “tonal” instrumental music from the 17th to the 19th centuries (especially Bach and Brahms). Although choosing a Ph.D. program wasn't easy, Rowland decided on Harvard because it “seems to be an energetic environment committed to supporting music scholarship that is imaginative and rigorous, and well-informed of the broader academic field.”

Meredith Schweig studies the popular musics of Taiwan and China, particularly with respect to the subjects of identity formation, the cultural dynamics of the cross-strait relationship, and the contemporary music of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. “I chose Harvard because the combined resources of the Music Department and Yenching Institute make the University a fantastic place to pursue studies in East Asian music.”

Gabriele Vanoni studied Piano and Composition at the Conservatory of Milan. Actually, he's interested in writing, from Instrumental to Electronic Music (especially live), along interactions between Composition and Performing Arts. “The reasons I chose Harvard are, mainly, a very good teaching staff, incredible facilities (electronics and library) and a profound bond with Europe.”