Music for All
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The music department nurtures talent in students across disciplines
by Tony Moore
Dickinson’s music department is known as an open artistic environment that lets both majors and nonmajors explore their love of music. And for graduating students who have completed one or more semesters of studio training, the annual senior recital is a time to shine.
“I’m an American studies major,” says Aaron Hock ’15, whose vocals filled the Rubendall Recital Hall during the performance, “but the music department at Dickinson is not a conservatory, which means I have the ability to be involved—to be involved in ensembles, to take lessons and to fuel my own passion for music and the arts on campus.”
Amy Wlodarski, associate professor of music, notes that many students majoring in music are double majors and that they’ve found that through their music they’ve discovered new dimensions of themselves.
“It’s in music that they’ve developed some of their personality skills,” she says, illustrating how music is just one more aspect of Dickinson’s brand of the liberal-arts education, “their ability to network with people, their ability to give public presentations, because they were used to performing.”
“Anyone who wants to pursue music in any way … can come and perform,” says Holly Kelly ’15, a theatre arts and music double major. “I would not have gotten the training anywhere else that I have gotten here.”
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Published June 8, 2015