Featured Faculty/Staff
- Wendy Heller
Scheide Professor of Music History and Chair, Department of Music
(609) 258-1906
Scheide Professor of Music, Chair of the Department of Music, and Director of the Program in Italian Studies
The Music Department provides all Princeton University students with the opportunity to learn from world-renowned composers, historians and theorists, to take instrumental or voice lessons in the private studios of eminent professional performers and performance courses in chamber music, opera, vocal ensembles, and to audition to perform with our six jazz groups, three choruses, two orchestras, a wind ensemble, a lap top orchestra. Students may also participate in a host of student-run ensembles including numerous a cappella groups, chamber music collective, an early music ensemble, opera company, composers collective, and a piano collective.
The Music Major
The undergraduate Music Major at Princeton is designed to give students a solid foundation in the criticism, analysis, and composition of music, allowing them to explore the art from a variety of perspectives. Whether our students choose to write music (focus on composition) or write about music (focus on theory and music history), they are encouraged to give full reign to their creative instincts and have the freedom to develop senior thesis projects that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Performance Studies
Princeton is full of musicians: instrumentalists, singers, composers, non-western; and music: non-western, western, classical, pop and folk and everything in between. Performance is a vibrant part of both academic and extracurricular life on campus, and a stellar performance faculty offers private studio lessons to all students. The Program in Performance offers Certificates in Music Performance, Jazz Studies, and Music Theater (a collaboration between the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Department of Music). The Department also hosts a variety of performance ensembles, and facilitates an Exchange Program at the Royal College of Music (London).
Program in Jazz
Jazz at Princeton University serves to promote this uniquely American music as a contemporary and relevant art form. The program conveys the vast musical and social history of jazz, establishes a strong theoretical and stylistic foundation with regard to improvisation and composition, and emphasizes the development of individual expression and creativity. Offerings of this program include academic course work, performing ensembles, master classes, private study, and independent projects.
Featured Faculty/Staff
- Michael Pratt
Conductor, Princeton University Orchestra; Director, Program in Music Performance
(609) 258-4259
Michael Pratt is the conductor of the Princeton University Orchestra and Director of the Program in Music Performance
Featured Faculty/Staff
- Rudresh Mahanthappa
Anthony H.P. Lee '79 Director of Jazz
(609) 258-2219
The Anthony H. P. Lee '79 Director of Jazz at Princeton University, Mahanthappa is an award winning alto saxophonist/composer who is widely known as one of the premier voices in jazz of the 21st century.