Support Music at MIT
By supporting MIT Music, you help ensure that artistic creation, performance, and musical exploration remain central to the fabric of an education at MIT.
MIT Music is the largest curricular arts program at the Institute. Enrollments in Music classes regularly exceed 1,800 annually. Indeed, and surprising to many, Music is consistently one of the top five most highly-subscribed courses at MIT, along with Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics—all traditional STEM fields. The MIT Music & Theater Arts Section is also the largest program by enrollments in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS).
By reaching so many students each year, Music at MIT is a major conduit to both the arts and humanities for a significant number of MIT’s 4,500 undergraduates. Our goal is to provide these undergraduates with an arts education that meets MIT’s standard of excellence.
MIT has always been home to many undergraduates who have the talent, passion, and discipline of pre-professional artists and scholars, and who wish to maintain and improve the musical skills to which they have devoted themselves before arriving at the Institute. Admissions data consistently shows that 65 -70% of incoming students report participating in formal arts training in high school, with three quarters of those typically involved in the performing arts (music and theater). For these already-knowledgeable students, our goal is to provide high-level training and unapparelled opportunities on par with those offered by conservatories and academies.
Another key mission of MIT Music is to serve as an ambassador to the performing arts, opening artistic doors for all MIT students who are required to take at least one subject in the arts during their undergraduate years. The success of this “gateway” effort is reflected in our consistently high enrollments, equivalent to approximately half of the undergraduate student body each year.
Our work is ambitious and your support makes it possible. Click here to make a gift to MIT Music.
Join our cause and give today.
Giving Opportunities
Performance programming in MIT Music offers all students—whether graduate or undergraduate—vocal and instrumental opportunities in the areas of classical, jazz, and world music. Each of our performance groups are led by our select faculty of renowned performers, coaches, and musical directors and can be taken for academic credit if desired.
Faculty research is central to the mission of the Institute, a major force in our creative engine, and the foundation of MIT’s productivity. Research funds make possible the creation of new compositions, publications, creative projects, archival work, and ethnographic fieldwork.
Attracting the most talented and inventive students from around the globe by offering fellowship support is key to helping the MIT Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program achieve its goal of being recognized among the best programs in not only the nation but also the world.
Ensuring MIT’s talented students are empowered to reach their full potential in the performing arts is the perpetual force that drives Music at MIT. With the successful opening of the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, we are now focused on securing funds to purchase quality instruments and equipment to enable MIT students to unleash their creativity and pursue their musical passions.
MIT Music provides opportunities for experienced and talented students on campus. The Emerson/Harris Scholarship/Fellowship Program offers merit-based financial assistance for private lessons to MIT students of outstanding achievement via competitive auditions. Private teacher selections, made in consultation with Music faculty, may include instructors from MIT or from the greater Boston musical community.
For additional information regarding giving opportunities to support MIT Music, please contact Assistant Dean for Development, Anne Marie Michel, ammichel@mit.edu or call 617-253-4075.