We offer both an undergraduate and a graduate program. Undergraduates earn an A.B. with a concentration in music. Graduate students complete a PhD program in musicology, ethnomusicology, theory, composition, or Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry.

Harvard College also offers two dual degree programs: one with New England Conservatory where students earn an A.B. from Harvard and a M.M. from NEC over the course of five years. The other is with Berklee College of Music, where students earn an A.B. from Harvard and an M.M. or M.A. from Berklee, also over five years.

Although we do not offer a vocal or instrumental performance degree (such as a B.M., M.M., or D.M.A.), performance is very much a part of music department coursework, and students are welcome to join any of the many extracurricular music performance groups on campus.

We are located in the Fanny Peabody Mason Music Building, which houses classrooms, music practice rooms, the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, the Harvard University Studio for Electroacoustic Composition (HUSEAC), an Ethnomusicology Lab, SoundLab, and faculty and administrative offices. The Department sponsors numerous concerts, colloquia, lectures and special music events each month, which are free to students and the public.