Music
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Music at Bennington is dedicated to helping students grow in their ability to do creative work in performance and composition. Our faculty of active professional musicians and composers represent a rare diversity of musical traditions who share a belief in hands-on learning and the development of versatile, thinking musicians who are conversant with multiple musical perspectives. Courses range from ensemble classes in Filipino kulintang, North American traditional music, and percussion music from the African diaspora, to classes in counterpoint, voice, jazz improvisation, electroacoustic music, studio recording, music history, and individual instrumental study.
Guided by a principle that technique, theory, and scholarship should be pursued in tandem with the immediate experience of making, the program and its individual courses balance disciplined technical studies and practice with multiple opportunities for original work, collaboration, and creative exploration.
Learn more about studying music at Bennington by contacting our admissions office
At Bennington, students work closely with faculty to design the content, structure, and sequence of their study and practice—their Plan—taking advantage of the College's resources both inside and outside the classroom to pursue their work.
Faculty
Bennington’s music faculty is made up of renowned musicians, composers, and performers. They represent a rare diversity of musical traditions, performing and premiering work from Portugal to the Philippines, from Lincoln Center to CBGB.
Field Work Term
Students tour their work, record their work, promote music, and learn the ropes in recording industries—music from every angle—during Bennington’s Field Work Term.
- ARChive of Contemporary Music
- ASHE Records
- Big Heavy World
- BRIC Arts Media
- Caffé Lena
- Center for New Music
- Jeremy Little Music
- Larrabee Sound Studios
- Meredith Monk House Foundation for the Arts
- Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society
- Northfire Recording Studios
- Prison Radio
- Seattle Improvised Music
- Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
- Subway Guitars
- Taiko Center of the Pacific
- The Music Cellar
Alumni
Bennington alumni have earned some of the biggest honors and achievements in music: Grammys, Obies, Bessies, Oscars, and Guggenheim awards. Their works have premiered on Broadway, at Lincoln Center, on television and movie scores, in the hottest experimental venues, at museums, at international festivals attended by thousands.
Lead singer of the Grammy-nominated Spin Doctors, best known for their album Pocketful of Kryptonite
President and CEO David C. Bohnett Presidential Chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
Singer-songwriter and YouTube sensation whose “Song a Day” project has made him a media darling
The performing powerhouse behind Sylvan Esso and the folk trio Mountain Man
One-third of the critically acclaimed indie folk rock trio Mountain Man
Member of the critically acclaimed indie folk rock trio Mountain Man
Jazz vocalist, improviser, composer, and originator of Embodied VoiceWork, a vocal improvisation method of music therapy which she teaches at The Experimental Theater Wing at New York University
Tony award-winning orchestrator for some of Broadway’s most innovative musicals, including Assassins and Next to Normal, and for films including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tangled, and Chicago
Songwriter, guitarist, and composer whose albums and online releases have received national attention from outlets like NPR for their vivid storytelling and compelling instrumentation
Composer, writer, and director who fashioned a unique style of socially engaged musical theatre
Grammy-winning American composer hailed by The New Yorker as “one of the most successful woman composers of all time”
