Program Overview
The BA music major at Lawrence provides a uniquely flexible and inclusive approach to doing music. As part of your liberal arts education, you will build your own pathway in alignment with your developing goals and aspirations. Production, recording, composition, sound design, performance, music education, dance, entrepreneurship, arts management, music theory, and musicology are all possibilities for study and future career paths.
Opportunities for creativity span multiple modalities and perspectives, from private study to interdisciplinary analysis to collaborative thinking and making, always fostering an awareness of specific contexts, systems of value, and music’s worldmaking possibilities. Artistry and intellectuality, body and mind, are not distinct categories but integrated ways of being and making.
Program Highlights
Shape Your Musical Identity
Build a curriculum around your interests, experiences, and goals as you develop your own creative voice.
Connect Music Across Fields
Bring ideas from different areas of study into dynamic, creative interaction through performance, composition, research, and collaboration.
Prepare for Multiple Futures
Strengthen your skills as a performer, creator, communicator, collaborator, and entrepreneur for a wide range of career paths.
Create a Senior Project That Matters to You
Design a culminating project that reflects your experiences, ambitions, and vision for your future in music.
Spotlight
Lawrentian Spotlight
Student Perspective
“You have some of the best professors here who really care. You come to them, and they’ll drop everything for you. They want to see you succeed. I feel that every time I come to them.”
Tomi Oladunjoye ’23 Music (Self-directed) Lynn, Massachusetts
Types of Degrees
Students can pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Music, for which they will create their own nexus of study. Students can also add a minor or another major. Students can also choose courses or areas of study that will enrich their music study and interdisciplinary possibilities. A minor in Music is also available.
Advising
At Lawrence, academic advising helps you shape an educational experience that reflects your interests, goals, and aspirations. Your faculty advisor will support you as you plan your path, connect with campus resources and communities, and make informed decisions that prepare you for a meaningful and fulfilling future.
Faculty
Engage deeply and collaboratively with professors who are experts in their field and committed to supporting your education.
All students will transition to a major advisor upon declaration. The major advisor will help students plan their coursework to satisfy major requirements, select courses in other areas to complement the major or satisfy personal interests, and prepare for their Senior Experience. Prospective Bachelor of Arts in Music majors can consult with any of the following faculty about serving as a major advisor:
All Faculty
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Brigit Pacher (she/her)
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music
Dr. Brigit Pacher is an artist determined to positively impact students, audiences, and collaborators with her art. She is delighted to carry out this mission as a Visiting Assistant Professor…
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Julie McQuinn (she/her/hers)
Professor of Music
I teach courses on Claude Debussy, opera, film music, music and gender, music and memory, music and the fairy tale, and music and disability. My teaching converges with my research…
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Michael D. Mizrahi
Frank C. Shattuck Professor of Music
michael.d.mizrahi@lawrence.edu
Praised as "intrepid" (Philadelphia Inquirer), "engaging" (Houston Chronicle), and "endlessly fascinating" (WQXR New York), pianist Michael Mizrahi has won acclaim for his compelling performances of a wide-ranging repertoire and his…
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Rebecca A. Perry (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor of Music-Music Theory
Rebecca Perry is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. She received Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Arts, and Master of Philosophy degrees at Yale University.…
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Samantha George (she/her)
Associate Professor of Music and Teacher of Violin
Currently Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University, Samantha George served as Associate Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from 1999-2008 and as Acting Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra…
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Sonja Lynn Downing (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology
I am an ethnomusicologist with research interests in Balinese gamelan music and dance, traditional music pedagogy, the intersection of gender and performance, and ecomusicology. My book Gamelan Girls: Gender, Childhood,…
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Victoria Kononova (she/her; она/её)
Associate Professor of Russian
victoria.kononova@lawrence.edu
My specialty is nineteenth-century Russian literature and theater. I love digging into such staples of Russian literature as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Gogol, and Chekhov. I also teach advanced Russian language…
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Learning Spaces
Students will have opportunities to learn, listen, create, and collaborate in many different spaces across campus. All students are welcome in the production studios in the Con: The C.A.V.E. (the Conservatory Audio Visual Enclave) and SOL (Students of Lawrence) Studios. And there are multiple spaces in the Hurvis Center for Film and Media Studies (https://www.lawrence.edu/academics/college/film-and-media-studies/hurvis-center-film-studies) for multimedia makings.
