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Amherst College

Music Department

Music Department

220 South Pleasant Street
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002
413.542.2000
admission@amherst.edu

Degrees offered

Bachelor of Arts in Music

About the program

The goal of the music major at Amherst College is to provide you with a solid grounding in music theory and the fundamentals of composition, to teach you to think and write critically about music, and to help you achieve a level of sophisticated command in at least one of the following areas: performance; composition; music scholarship (music history, theory, ethnomusicology, and jazz and popular music studies), and music drama and opera studies. By graduation a major will have the following: 1) knowledge of and appreciation for the craft involved in creating and performing tonal music; 2) knowledge of one or more major time periods in Western music history; 3) the ability to think and write critically about music; and 4) a high level of achievement in at least one major area of musical study (performance; scholarship on a Western or non-Western topic; or composition), knowledge of at least two specialized areas, or knowledge of one specialized area combined with a broad base of knowledge. We strive as a department to support the widest possible range of musical styles in our course offerings and performance activities. We encourage all students interested in making music a part of their lives and their liberal arts education to acquire a strong mastery of the fundamentals of musicianship.

Acceptance rate

Amherst College, known for its selectivity, has an overall acceptance rate of 9.8%

Faculty

Arianne G. Abela (Director of the Choral Music Program and Lecturer in Music), Mallorie Chernin (Senior Lecturer in Music), Amy M. Coddington (Assistant Professor of Music), Bruce P. Diehl (Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of Jazz Performance), Jeffers L. Engelhardt (Professor of Music), Darryl Harper (Associate Professor of Music; Director of the Center for Humanistic Inquiry), Klara Moricz (Professor of Music Professor of Music), Katherine A. Pukinskis (Joseph E. and Grace W. Valentine Visiting Assistant Professor of Music), Jason Robinson (Associate Professor of Music; Chair of Music), Eric W. Sawyer (Professor of Music ), David E. Schneider (Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music Dean of the Class of 2021), Mark L. Swanson (Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of Instrumental Music), Noah D. Horn (Visiting Director of the Choral Music Program), Junko Oba (Five College Visiting Associate Professor of Music) Olabode F. Omojola (Five College Professor of Music), Jenny L. Kallick (Professor of Music, Emerita), Suzette M. Farnham (Academic Department Coordinator), Edmund M. Keyes (Concert, Production, and Building Coordinator), Ann R. Maggs (Music Library Specialist), Alisa C. Pearson (Manager of Concert Programming, Production & Publicity).

Goodspeed to Host 41 Writers for Annual Writers Grove

Goodspeed to Host 41 Writers for Annual Writers Grove

by Chloe Rabinowitz — January 22, 2026

Goodspeed Musicals has revealed the participants for the 14th annual Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, which will be held on the Goodspeed campus in East Haddam, Connecticut.

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