College, NEC offer new dual-degree program

By Lesley Banatyne

Music Department Communications

The New England Conservatory (NEC)/Harvard College five-year dual-degree program — which has, as yet, accepted only 14 students — awards candidates a Harvard A.B. and an NEC M.M. Dunster House’s Sandy Cameron ’09 was one of six students accepted in the program’s 2005 inaugural year. The violinist, music concentrator, and program pioneer, now more than two years into her studies, talked recently about the ongoing experience.

Music, Cameron says, was always a part of her life. “My Korean grandfather is a poet,” she explains, smiling. “He listened to violin music while writing. It’s what my mother grew up listening to. So, ever since I was a baby, my parents put on classical music when they put me to bed.”

Cameron began studying violin at 8, initially with a tutor her mother had found while the family (Mr. Cameron was in the military) was stationed near Frankfurt, Germany. When the family moved back to the United States, 10-year-old Sandy was accepted into Juilliard’s precollege program; she began her performance career two years later with the State Orchestra of Eindhoven, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Then, after nine years at Juilliard, Cameron was ready to move on.

“Because I’ve experienced different places and different cultures growing up, I didn’t want to stay in the same spot,” she says. “And I’d always wanted to go to Harvard.”

The admissions process for the dual-degree program is extensive. Students apply to Harvard and NEC independently. NEC requires an audition, and candidates may choose the instructor to audition for. “I had performed with Mr. [Donald] Weilerstein in the Weber Clarinet Quintet at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland — I played second violin to his first. So I decided to audition for him.”

The day Cameron received her acceptance to Harvard “was one of the best days of my life.” Next, she learned from Weilerstein that NEC had accepted her, as well. “But,” explains Cameron, “you can get into both schools and not the program.” Four days later, she received the NEC acceptance letter to the joint program.

Freshman year, Cameron recalls, “was trial and error. As a freshman I was still trying to decide what I wanted to concentrate in. I thought, ‘I’m a musician and that’s not going away, so why not try something different?’ I thought about folklore and mythology, and English, too. But then I realized that I have to do the NEC requirements, plus they want us to be involved with ensembles here at Harvard. By the end of the year, once I thought about … everything the Music Department at Harvard offers … , I decided to become a music concentrator.”

Although it might be hard for someone in the program to concentrate in something other than music, Cameron suggests that it can be done. “NEC’s requirements for the first three years are a challenge for people not in music concentration because they have to do extra, but it is possible.”

Being involved in a brand-new degree program, says Cameron, has both its challenges and its perks. “We’re the guinea pigs!” she exclaims. “We’re actually being asked what’s going well, what’s not.” The group of six first-year dual-degree students comes together occasionally to talk about the program and how it’s going, but the students also interact in classes and ensembles. “The interesting thing I found out about being a student at Harvard is that you make friends with a ton of people in different places. They can be in your House, classes, … in an ensemble. We [the first six] all know each other — we work together sometimes; we take courses together as musicians. But there are also times when we don’t see each other much.”

As a performer, Cameron has already found new interests and opportunities at Harvard. “Mozart is my idol, so naturally I signed up for the Mozart class freshman year. To hear Professor [Robert] Levin speak about music the way he did was something I hadn’t experienced before in my life. Then, I went to the concerts that were part of a Bach/Mozart conference and it was the first time I heard live performance on period instruments. It blew me away — the sounds!

“We discussed all these things in Levin’s Music 180, and that was when I really started to get more seriously involved with learning about performance practice issues; it made me develop new ways of thinking and new ways of preparing for performance. I’ve been addicted since then.”

Performing in Korea last year, for example, Cameron found inspiration in a harpsichord recording by Levin, Dwight P. Robinson Jr. Professor of Music. “I heard him play an improvised cadenza and I thought, ‘Can I do this?’ I thought, ‘Well maybe this is short enough for me to make something up.’ I made up maybe three or four seconds of music on the spot. It was quite a ride.” She also joined the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra this year, where she has played Gesualdo, Mozart, a Bach cantata for one of the morning services at the Memorial Church, and even a concert with new music written for the group.

No one knows yet what it’s like to be a senior at Harvard and a student on the NEC campus — taking NEC courses and regular lessons, and being involved with the NEC orchestra while at the same time wrestling with a thesis and finishing up Harvard requirements.

Cameron grins. “I’m not sure how it’s going to work. There’s one bus that goes down Mass. Ave., and it’s notorious for lateness. … But I’m definitely looking forward to this experience of being in two places at once!”

“People ask if I have time for a life, but it doesn’t make sense to me to separate school from everything else, as if life is everything but school, music, performance. I’m trying to develop my own career as a performing violinist; it’s something I would do in my spare time if I had it. Yes, I have time for life. I’m living it.”