The Music Department is eager to meet all the musicians and music lovers in the class of 2024!

Many of you will want to take lessons, join an ensemble, and take an academic course in music. Here is a guide to the steps you need to take during Orientation Week to get started in music at Wellesley.

Orientation Week in the Music Department
Information Session
To Be Announced
We encourage all students interested in music to attend. At this time, we will outline the steps you need to take to get involved in ensembles, music lessons and music courses at Wellesley. Information materials and sign-up sheets for auditions for lessons and ensembles will be available at this event.

Music Theory Placement Evaluation is available now by way of the link. All students interested in lessons, academic courses or in joining one or more of our enembles should complete the top sheet to this evaluation. Please take the test by midnight on August 5. The results of the test will be posted on or around August 10. Please contact Jenny Tang at jtang@wellesley.edu or Magdalen Christian at mchristi@wellesley.edu if you have questions.

Auditions for Lessons
Lesson auditions/first meetings take place either during Orientation Week or the first week of classes. If you want to take lessons, it is essential you meet with the instructor during the first week of classes, as you will need to register for lessons and complete a lesson contract before the end of week two or by Friday, 9/11/20. To take lessons, you should:
1) make sure to indicate the instrument/voice you would like to study on the top sheet of the Music Theory Placement Evaluation, and
2) sign-up for auditions on the sign-up sheets posted on the bulletin boards or tables outside the Music Department Office; or register over email with Mag Christian if you do not plan take in-person lessons or to come to campus. The music department office is in Jewett, Room 205 (across from the Auditorium). For updates regarding auditions, please visit the Auditions web page at http://www.wellesley.edu/music/performanceprogram/auditions.

Auditions for voice and piano (and possibly other instruments) will begin during Orientation Week, so it is essential that students wishing to study these instruments sign-up for an audition as soon as possible. Other auditions will take place during the first week of classes; that is, the week of August 31, 2020.

If there is no sign-up sheet posted, the appropriate faculty member will contact you during the first week of classes to arrange a meeting. (If you are not contacted, please notify Eliko Akahori, eakahori@wellesley.edu on or before Friday, September 4.) Students wishing to take lessons for credit should indicate this at the audition/first meeting, as this option is available only with instructor permission. Complete co-requisite course requirements for lessons are listed in the course catalog.

Academic Fair
To be Determined
Representatives from all of the Music Department ensembles, the academic faculty and the instrumental faculty will be available to meet you and to answer your questions. This is an excellent opportunity  to meet the faculty of the Music Department. Information materials and sign-up sheets for auditions for lessons and ensembles will be available at this event.

Ensemble Auditions/Open Houses
Ensemble Audition sign-up sheets and notices about the dates and times of Open Houses are posted outside the Music Department Office, Room 205 in Jewett. It is important that students sign-up for auditions as soon as possible. Most ensembles hold auditions and opening events toward the end of Orientation week and during the first week of classes.

Further information about the musical opportunities offered by the Music Department is available on our Music Department web pages at http://www.wellesley.edu/music/performanceprogram

If you have any questions, please contact:
Eliko Akahori, Director of the Music Performance Program, eakahori@wellesley.edu.