Student string quartet rehearsing with a coach
Students and Alumni in Music
Hundreds of Swarthmore students are active in the Music Program. Many participate as performers; some also take academic courses; and some do coursework toward a music major, minor, special major, or double major that combines music with another discipline. Our alumni, similarly diverse, include musicians in symphony orchestras; solo instrumentalists or vocalists; freelance studio musicians and arrangers; music teachers in private, school, or college settings; composers and scholars; arts management professionals; and amateur or semiprofessional musicians in combination with professions such as law and medicine. The flexible nature of our program prepares students to engage with music in many ways in a lifelong process.
Student Profiles
Tammy Ryan (Fayetteville, Arkansas), Senior
voice; Double Major: music and religion
I didn’t choose Swarthmore for music. It’s a magical surprise that music found me. Thanks to Swarthmore, I have a solid background in theory and history. I am better at learning music. I understand and appreciate what it’s a part of. Every semester, I write a paper on which the entire department gives feedback. By my first year, I knew the entire faculty. And now, I know them really well. They let me pursue my own program and paid for me to attend the Florence Voice Seminar for the last three summers.
Serena Le (Albany, California), Junior
violin; Honors English major, honors music minor
After being the concertmistress, first-violin chair, since my freshman year, I’m now co-concertmistress for the orchestra. I’ve played first violin in a string quartet for 4 years. I’m in a piano trio this semester. Since I was a freshman, I’ve taken private lessons in Philadelphia with a first violinist in the Philadelphia Orchestra, funded by the Music Department. I think Swarthmore has the best, “hidden” music program among liberal arts schools. Classes are generally small, providing a lot of time with the faculty. The professors are always available to us. Their knowledge is phenomenal.
Mark Loria (Staten Island, New York), Sophomore
piano and composition; Music major, premed
I considered going to conservatory, but I wanted the liberal arts because of my interest in premed. There’s a good balance between music and science here, and I when I graduate I will be in a position to go to medical school or to pursue music professionally. This was a big deciding factor in my choosing Swarthmore. In an ideal world, I would do both -- music and medicine.
Kara Peterman (Fairfax, Virginia), First-year student
clarinet and saxophone; Engineering major
I chose Swarthmore based on the Music Program—liberal arts with support for lessons, ensembles, and its own music building. The private-lessons program really did it for me. With an eye to the future, liberal arts, where you obtain a broad education, is a better choice than conservatory, where you’re just another person with one discipline. In my research, no school supported the individual more than Swarthmore does. My attitude toward engineering and music projects is the same, whether I’m working on a problem set or a piece of music. Practicing hard in one can help the other—they complement each other. Furthermore, practice is a stress relief, so if I get stressed, I know where to go. The concert hall is open all the time, and the practice rooms are always available—no sign up sheets are required. It’s awesome.
Alumni Profiles
Peter Schickele '57 , a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach, internationally recognized composer, musician, author, and satirist:
While a music student at Swarthmore, I wrote a piece for fire-hose nozzles. There were these big fire-hoses in Parrish Hall, with big nozzles-about 16 inches long-that you could play as brass instruments. The piece was for two fire-hose nozzles and piano. I think its only performance was in the Parrish parlor, which then, as now, had a piano, and I sort of improvised opera. Although I didn't start giving formal concerts-the sort of prototype P.D.Q. concerts-until I was in Juilliard, I was certainly doing plenty of that kind of thing at Swarthmore.
Grace Kang ’95, director of Programs and Community Outreach, Turtle Bay Music School, and freelance pianist and composer:
Over the years, I’ve come to value the support of the music faculty and Swarthmore’s comprehensive approach to music. Classes in music theory, history, and composition provided solid musical preparation for further music study as I entered graduate studies in piano performance. Swarthmore’s training wasn’t purely academic, however, as there were plentiful opportunities to grow as a musician. I received practical training as a pianist and accompanist by performing in ensembles, accompanying for juries, and playing in the orchestra. Swarthmore was also generous with scholarships and work-study. I was able to take private lessons all 4 years and even accompany for the Dance Department. Most of all, I appreciated the encouragement and open-mindedness of the faculty to allow me to try new things academically and musically. Even after graduation, there were numerous occasions when I returned to Swarthmore to speak with faculty about career decisions and musical direction. I remain mindful of my Swarthmore experience, which has fostered in me a lifelong love for learning and music.
Ken Schaphorst ’82, chair, Jazz Studies and Improvisation, New England Conservatory:
Swarthmore helped me see the connections between music and the broader social, intellectual, and artistic worlds. The connections were more a result of accidental collisions of ideas. There were things I learned in my quantum physics class, like the “Uncertainty Principle,” that reminded me of aspects of improvisation. There were things I learned by reading T.S. Eliot that helped me understand the creative process. I learned about the connections between art and politics in a course on the Russian novel. I could go on. Swarthmore was an environment where these connections seemed ripe for the picking.
Updated May 2006