Through multiple modes of inquiry and experience, the department advances new ways of understanding music as both creative expression and cultural practice throughout the world. The department promotes musical education, research, and engagement at the highest standards of excellence on an open and inclusive basis.
Department of Music
Department of Music
The Department of Music is a community of scholars, creators, and performers dedicated to exploring music’s past, present, and future.
Department of Music
The Department of Music is a community of scholars, creators, and performers dedicated to exploring music’s past, present, and future.
Academics
Undergraduate
Our diverse curriculum combines creative courses in composition, technology, and performance with speculative studies in history, theory, ethnomusicology, philosophy, and musical aesthetics.
Graduate
At Brown, your degree is what you make it: the more adventurous you are, the more exciting your program is likely to be.
Music Making
The Department of Music at Brown offers a huge array of performing opportunities, all available for academic credit.
Students seeking to improve their playing or singing ability have the option of taking individual private lessons with about thirty professional musicians from the greater Boston-Providence area.
Recent News
News from the Department of Music
Devanney Haruta Receives 2026 Frederick R. Selch Award
Devanney Haruta, a Brown University PhD candidate in Musicology & Ethnomusicology, earned the award for her paper “A Matter of Life and Death: Performance, Preservation, and Instrumental Ethics in Musical Instrument Museums.”
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News from the Department of Music
Alexander Hardan (PhD '26) Awarded Dissertation Prize
Alexander Hardan awarded 2026 Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Dissertation Prize
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News from the Department of Music
The 2026 Music Awards for Outstanding Undergraduates
Each spring, the Department of Music faculty vote on and bestow academic and performance awards to outstanding undergraduate students at Brown University. The awards are presented in person at the Honors & Awards Ceremony. This year's ceremony was presided by Professor Eric Nathan, Director of Undergraduate Studies. The 2026 awardees are listed below. Congratulations to all recipients of awards this year!
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