Spring 2026 Course Search

Instructor will provide musical prompts such as chordal patterns, melodic fragments, and rhythms as a basis for evocative and expressive improvisation. While we will learn some music theory terminology, the class will de-emphasize sheet music in order to focus on navigating the keyboard itself. All experience levels are welcome.

This course serves as an introduction to rhythms, songs, and musical practices from Africa and the African Diaspora, including Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Students will learn these traditional folkloric rhythms using indigenous percussion instruments from these territories and provinces. Class discussions will convey history, culture, language, and dance from these regions. Students will also have opportunities to create rhythms and arrangements in collaboration in our “break-out” segments.

This discussion-animated, readings-based seminar provides art historical, cultural, and critical contexts for the Visual Arts Lecture Series (VALS). In addition to our ongoing interrogation of the public lecture as such, students present their own work (in any field) and analyze the technical and stylistic aspects of structuring an effective and engaging ‘talk.’ The course provides unique opportunities for interaction with visiting artists, curators, critics, and historians.

What is the lyric? How did lyric poetry emerge as a genre, and how have reading practices evolved alongside it? This is a 2-credit survey class exploring theoretical engagements with the modern idea of the lyric, including readings in genre theory, new criticism, structuralism,  post-structuralism, and beyond.

This ensemble-based course explores the intersection of live performance, experimental soundscapes, and dub aesthetics. Rooted in the traditions of dub music—including remix culture, delay and reverb manipulation, and bass-driven textures—students will create immersive sonic environments using a mix of acoustic instruments, electronic tools, field recordings, and live effects processing.

This seminar course investigates the cultural, philosophical, and aesthetic dimensions of sound through critical readings, listening exercises, and discussions. Drawing from fields such as sound studies, media theory, musicology, literature, and art, Readings in Sound challenges students to consider how sound shapes experience, knowledge, identity, and space.

An advanced course in sonic contraptions, for students who have already completed significant work in sound, visual design, or project management.  Starting with Collins’ Hardware Hacking, we’ll review soldering, circuit bending (i.e. “tickling the clock”), and associated topics, such as no-input mixing and basic circuit tinkering. We will look at alternative methods of physical sound creation through programming languages and mechanical paradigms such as solenoids and sensors.

Self-taught guitar playing often begins with the recognition of simple patterns, evolving into complexity. These patterns, while helping us gain familiarity, can eventually become a constrictive box, requiring new material to refresh the old.  How do we make a song more effective through focusing on guitar, how can we make a song find its destination? This course develops each student’s guitar practice in tandem with songwriting, while challenging players to hear all notes, chords, rhythms, and breaks as viable.

Music reflects the powerful journey of the people This course will study Music of the Struggle for Freedom, Rebellion and Civil and Social Rights, beginning with the African American journey in the United States from late 1700s to present day, and expanding to other cultures throughout the world.