They Study to Their Own Soundtrack

Three years ago, Bong-Ihn Koh ’08 found himself asking a bleary-eyed and baffled hotel receptionist in Tokyo to fax his organic chemistry problem set at 4:30 a.m. to his TF back in Cambridge, where his 5 p.m. deadline was approaching.

Koh, one of only 13 students in a joint program between Harvard and the New England Conservatory (NEC), was touring with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at the time—leading to his late-night expedition in the hotel lobby.

This June, Koh, a cellist, and another senior will be the first students enrolled in the program to graduate from Harvard under the Harvard/New England Conservatory joint-degree program. Next year they will study at the conservatory to earn a master’s degree in music.

“It will be very exciting to finally see a culmination of these efforts,” says Mary C. Gerbi, who coordinates the undergraduate music department at Harvard.

It was only a year earlier that two great institutions on both sides of the Charles River merged their worlds—music and academia—into one.

A MUSICAL ENTRANCE

There had long been interest in linking Harvard and the conservatory, according to Thomas W. Novak, the conservatory’s dean of admissions and financial aid.

“This is a way of providing students who really excel in such a degree of academics and performance level with an outlet to pursue both of these interests,” Novak says.

Students enrolled in the program will receive both a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a master’s degree in music from the conservatory in five years, instead of two.

Similar joint programs are offered by Columbia, which partners with Juilliard, and by Yale, where students in the college can also study at the School of Music.

Not surprisingly, the Harvard-conservatory program is highly selective. Applicants have to be accepted by Harvard and the conservatory individually before they can be considered for the joint program.

And even if both schools accept a student, admission to the program is not guaranteed. Admitted students tend to be those who had particularly strong auditions, Novak says.

The joint program took its first class in 2005: four freshmen and two sophomores who were already Harvard students.

Now, around 80-100 students apply to the program every year. Only four or five are accepted.

The 13 musicians now in the program range from vocalists to percussionists, from string players to wind players.

“One of the nicest things about this program is the diversity [of instruments] which is represented,” Novak says.

Yield has been high, Novak says. Of the students admitted to the program since its inception, only two have declined their offers.

DOUBLE TIME

Koh, the cellist who toured with the Tokyo Philharmonic, says the joint program with conservatory was the primary reason he came to Harvard, where he now concentrates in biochemical sciences.

Born in Korea, Koh began to play the cello at the age of seven and, at 12, won first prize in the Third International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians.

Koh says that when he decided to attend college while continuing his music studies, he received a lot of criticism from the music world for not focusing solely on his music.

“I just couldn’t see myself just doing one,” Koh says. “I’d be very depressed and unsatisfied with my life.”

The Harvard-conservatory program allows students to receive both an academic college experience and pursue music—if they’re up to the challenge.

Some see the program as an opportunity to continue their musical passion while keeping other career options open.

“I really have no idea what I’m going to end up doing,” says Aaron T. Kuan ’09, a violinist and a physics concentrator. “I’m going to try to keep this up as long as it is feasible to do so.”

Averaging two hours of practice a day, keeping up with coursework, and performing with several music ensembles on campus, Kuan says the ability to work as efficiently as possible is crucial.

TUNING UP

Violinist Sandra M. Cameron ’09, who also concentrates in music, said the program is still in its beginning stages.

“We’re like the guinea pigs of the program,” Cameron says. “We have meetings about once a year to talk about what’s working, what’s not working, and what could be changed.”

Challenges include accounting for the discrepancy between the academic calendars of the two institutions and working out what classes will be required for those students.

“The details of the academic curriculum are definitely still a work in progress,” Gerbi says.

Gerbi also says administrators at Harvard and the conservatory feel the two schools should provide a stronger sense of belonging at the conservatory. This is vital during the first three years of the program, when students make the trek across the river only once or twice a week for private lessons.

“My first year was not that great. I didn’t really feel I was a part of the NEC community,” says jazz pianist Malcolm G. Campbell ’10, a chemistry and physics concentrator. “This year, I made my own initiative to go there more, and it’s been great.”

Finding time to juggle all these activities seems to be a common worry among the students. Both the conservatory’s standards of performance and the demands of the Harvard course load are high.

“It’s unrealistic to expect to get the best of both worlds,” Kuan says. “There’s a finite amount of time in a day.”

FINAL NOTES

Koh, who will graduate from Harvard this spring, reflects on the program with a tired smile.

“Many times I have felt that 24 hours is not enough, that even five years is not enough. There were tough times when I was just exhausted by all of this,” Koh says. “But there are more moments where I can’t stop smiling, because I’m here doing what I want to do, where I want to be.”

—Staff Writer June Q. Wu can be reached at junewu@fas.harvard.edu