For Prospective Students
MIT Music encompasses a broad range of musical traditions from classical and folk to pop, jazz, and global music spanning diverse eras and cultures. Our classes develop students’ creativity, talent, research skills, and aesthetic sensibilities through performance, composition, analysis, and the study of music in its historical and cultural contexts.
Our practice rooms, rehearsal rooms, classrooms, and concert halls are spaces for meticulous study, musical creativity and intellectual exploration. Our program has been expertly built to offer multiple entries for engagement—from students with zero musical experience to conservatory-level musicians, there is a place for you here in Music at MIT.
Interested in scheduling a meeting to speak with a member of our Music faculty? Contact Senior Academic Programs Assistant, Rachel Burke, rachel42@mit.edu, for more information.
Discover Music at MIT
MIT Music develops students’ creativity, talent, research skills, and aesthetic sensibilities through performance, composition, analysis, and the study of music in its historical and cultural contexts. Students engage with the many facets of music through both its creation and study, working closely with distinguished scholars, composers, theorists, performers, and musical directors.
Music at MIT hosts more than 150 events annually, including concerts, recitals, lectures, demonstrations, masterclasses, colloquia, symposia, and international conferences. Our events take place in Kresge Auditorium, Killian Hall, and the newly opened Thomas Tull Concert Hall in the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building among other spaces on campus.
MIT Music faculty is comprised of award-winning musicians, composers, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, theorists, and directors. Many of our Music faculty are MacVicar Faculty Fellows and SHASS Levitan Teaching Award-winners. In Music at MIT, we pride ourselves on knowing our students’ names and seek to foster a sense of community and comfortability in both our classrooms and ensembles.
MIT Music subjects are tailored to students’ prior experience, ranging from introductory classes that require no previous background to advanced seminars, private lessons, and performance opportunities for musicians working at near-professional levels.
Whether you just want to take one MIT Music subject to satisfy your HASS-A requirement, or you are considering the music concentration, minor, or major, you will be welcome and feel at home in Music at MIT. Our advisors and instructors will help you to find Music subjects that best suit your needs and interests and may even lead you to discover something completely unexpected that you never considered pursuing.
Music at MIT offers many curricular performance classes for credit but our students also enjoy participating in extracurricular activities adjacent to our outside of our program. These opportunities include a cappella groups, the Music Theater Guild, the Video Game Orchestra, or MIT LIVE, among others.
