Department Location

The Music Department offices are located at 45 N. Snelling (the corner of N. Snelling and Portland, just north of the Macalester campus) while the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center is closed for renovation. All concerts and events will take place in alternate campus and community venues; please check the College Events Calendar for specific information. All physical mail should continue to be addressed to Macalester College, 1600 Grand Avenue.

mission statement

The Music Department at Macalester College welcomes all student musicians to take part in classes, lessons, ensembles, and special projects that celebrate music as both a source of beauty and an agent for positive change. The Music Department strives to combine the practice of music with its critical interrogation, recognizing that the study of music is at root an ethical pursuit, a means by which we learn to imagine empathy with others.

Recent Topics Courses

• American Pop, Rockabilly and Soul, 1954–64
• Musical Performance and Interpretation
• Shostakovich
• Improvisation and the Creative Impulse
• Chinese Music