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Music

In Focus

Music

Whether through dance, song, instruments, or voice, music provides us with a universal language. Experts from the Harvard community explore how music aids in learning, improves well-being, and fosters social change.

Lifting our voices

From the sounds of John Legend and Beyonce to gospel and traditional African folk music, everything the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College sing is meant to promote and uplift Black spirituality and creativity on Harvard’s campus and beyond.


Almost Home with Harvard’s Kuumba Singers
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The benefits of music

The benefits of practicing, listening, and making music are well-documented.

A child uses legos in a classroom

Using music in early childhood classrooms

Good morning songs aren’t just fun—they can teach about others.

Using music in early childhood classrooms

Can music improve our health and quality of life?

A close up of a person playing an acoustic guitar
Can music improve our health and quality of life?

Developing critical, creative thinkers through music

A pair of black headphones
Developing critical, creative thinkers through music

Harnessing the therapeutic potential of music

A piano and sheet music
Harnessing the therapeutic potential of music

Why is music good for the brain?

An older woman dancing
Why is music good for the brain?

The arts and medicine

An up-close photo of a cello being played
The arts and medicine

Voices at Harvard

The power of performance

Theater, Dance, & Media, a Harvard College concentration, recently celebrated six years of learning and performance.


Celebrating Theater, Dance & Media
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The sounds of a movement

What role has music played in the pursuit of justice, equity, and our understanding of social justice?


A black and white photo of a man wearing a sweatshirt with writing on it

Protesting police violence, a playlist

According to Marcyliena Morgan, the founding executive director of the Harvard Archive, we should think of hiphop as a historical record of the nation’s racial violence and injustice.

Explore hiphop’s history of exposing police brutality

Learn about Southern's career
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Eileen Southern and the music of Black Americans

Dive into the life and work of Eileen Southern, the first Black woman tenured at Harvard.

View her contributions to the history of Black music

Men stand on a stage, one holding a cello

It’s never art for art’s sake

Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma discusses the ways in which “citizen musicians” can help build a more just and free society as an extension of their work as artists.

Read about music as a force for social justice

Hiphop pedagogy in action
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The role of hiphop in education

Students at the Graduate School of Education explore hiphop’s long history of being a tool of civic expression, and how it should be embraced in education.

A universal language

Music’s ability to create connections across communities, cultures, and even cosmos is well-documented.


The Loeb Music Library

Open to the general public, Harvard’s Loeb Music Library gives visitors the opportunity to embrace musical performance and research from around the world.

Explore the library’s many resources and collections