Music at Hamilton
Departmental Ensembles
Hamilton's Music Department ensembles offer a wide range of performance opportunities for student musicans, and are open to all students regardless of their major. Students may join more than one ensemble. Participation in any of these groups carries .25 course credit, up to a limit of .5 credit each term. Practice rooms, lockers, and instruments are available for students taking private lessons or playing in an ensemble.
Choir
The Hamilton College Choir performs a diverse repertoire from around the world and spanning several centuries. In addition to performances on campus and in neighboring communities, the 60-voice choir tours annually during the spring recess; recent tours have ranged as far as Chicago, Boston, Montreal, and St. Petersburg, Florida. The Choir also tours internationally every four years, most recently to Italy in 2017.
Conductor: Charlotte Botha
Rehearse 3 hours per week
Annual Spring tour
Earn 0.25 credit per semester
Membership determined by audition
Hamilton Voices
Hamilton Voices is a flexible vocal ensemble that studies and performs a selection of music based on a specific time period, vocal technique, theme, or style. The group seeks to respond to, create awareness of, or engage with current issues through interdisciplinary artistic expression. As a project-based ensemble, Hamilton Voices approaches each semester as a clean slate to celebrate unique, individual talents and to explore fresh performance expressions. Following the principles of choregie, each part of the collaborative artistic process is driven by group reflection, discourse and creativity.
Conductor: Charlotte Botha
Rehearse 2.5 hours per week
Earn 0.25 credit per semester
Membership determined by audition
Orchestra
The Hamilton College Orchestra (HCO) typically includes 45-50 college students and community members. The Orchestra has recently performed major works by Brahms, Dvorák, Schubert, Schumann, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Philip Glass, and Leonard Bernstein, and regularly features advanced student musicians as concerto soloists.
Conductor: Heather Buchman
Rehearse 4 hours per week
Perform 4 concerts on campus each year
Earn 0.25 credit per semester
Membership determined by audition
Chamber Ensembles
The chamber ensembles program encompasses a wide range of ensembles. Standing groups include the Brass Ensemble, Flute Ensemble, Saxophone Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Hamstrings Quartet, and Piano Duet Class; other groups are formed based on interest. Each group works with a coach from the full time or adjunct music faculty and performs multiple times a semester both on and off campus.
Coordinator & Brass Ensemble Director: Heather Buchman
Coaches: adjunct music faculty members
Rehearse 2 hours per week
Membership determined by audition
Jazz Ensemble and Combo
The Jazz Ensemble focuses on the big band sound; it also provides opportunities for student improvisation within an ensemble context, and for students to have their own charts and arrangements read. The ensemble performs several concerts on campus each year.
The Jazz Combo is a small select band (or bands) made up of members of the larger ensemble. They rehearse under the direction of Prof. Woods, and they also rehearse on their own. They play concerts with the ensemble as well as their own gigs.
Director: Monk Rowe (Prof. Mike Woods is on leave for Spring and Fall 2021)
Rehearse 4 hours per week
Earn 0.25 credit per semester
Membership determined by audition
World Music
The Music Department owns a Javanese gamelan, an ensemble that consists of approximately 25 instruments: metallic keyed instruments similar to xylophones, hanging pots, pot gongs, drums and flute. Gamelan music is a shimmering blend of slow-moving melodies and interlocking melodic elaborations punctuated by gong strokes and intricate drumming patterns. Students in a variety of music courses have an opportunity to play in the gamelan, and some classes will gain enough skill to feature the gamelan in performances throughout the year. Students interested in studying gamelan should register for Mus 254 (Studies in World Music). Also, a group consisting of both students and faculty rehearses once a week when there is enough interest. Those interested in joining should contact Prof. Lydia Hamessley for more information.
The Music Department owns a set of Ghanaian Ewe drums and a set of Ghanaian Kete Drums. These instruments are used in several classes, and students perform publicly as part of those classes.Students interested in studying Ghanaian drumming should register for Mus 254 (Studies in World Music). Contact Prof. Lydia Hamessley for more information.
The Department also owns an African kora, African balafon, Zimbabwean mbiras, North Indian tabla, South Indian kanjiras, and open-back banjos.