The sound of music

Music was in the air on the Harvard campus this past summer.

On many a night in June and July the sounds of a baritone or tenor, clarinet or trumpet, flute or violin could be heard floating through the Yard on a soft breeze.

In keeping with a long summer tradition, students, children, and adult musicians of all ages and skill levels took part in three of the musical options offered by the Harvard Summer School.

For years the Harvard Summer Pops Band, the Harvard Summer School Chorus, and the Harvard Summer School Orchestra have provided a musical outlet not only for students taking classes on campus during the summer months, but community members looking to get involved with a musical ensemble.

Both the orchestra and chorus hold auditions, while the band is open to any brass, woodwind, or percussion player who is ready and willing. Players for each group range in age from their early teens to their 70s, and their experience runs the gamut from beginner to advanced. The season is a brief one; weekly rehearsals begin in June for each group and their concerts are performed in July or early August.

This year, the orchestra, under the direction of Judith Zuckerman, performed with Keisuke Wakao, assistant principal oboist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As it has done in the past, the pops band, conducted by Thomas G. Everett, director of the Harvard University Bands, performed one of its concerts at the Hatch Shell in Boston. This year’s program for the chorus, led by Jameson Marvin, director of Choral Activities at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and senior lecturer on music, included a selection of works by Handel and Haydn.