Student Spotlight: Dacha Thurber
Dacha Thurber is a Senior and Double Concentrator in Music and Computer Science. “I’ve played the violin almost my whole life and here at Harvard I play in the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and study with Professor Daniel Chong. I try to play as much as possible.” Dacha says computer science is an entirely different world. “Some people are interested in where the two worlds overlap, but my interest in music is more on the analog side of things.” He explains, “Computational methods have been a big part of my research, so it felt like a logical thing to continue working on. Although I like to keep music and computer science separate, they actually require a very similar kind of thinking.”
Q: Describe how you chose your path of musical study at Harvard. What influenced your decisions?
“Music has always been a big part of my life, that was never in question. I have always enjoyed playing, playing with other people, and the academic side of music. These were all things I had experience with before I got to Harvard. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to [my] professors here.
I connected with Professor Daniel Chong before Harvard was ever a part of my plan. When I got here my freshman year, continuing to study in the department was largely thanks to him. And to Federico Cortese with whom I had worked at the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra where I now work as a mentor and coach. His mentorship has been invaluable to me, and it is especially thanks to the two of them that I continued studying music. Since arriving at Harvard, I have become interested in conducting and have been learning to conduct. It’s very different from playing in an orchestra, it requires a different kind of connection. In some ways, I suppose your instrument is the orchestra itself when conducting.”
Q: Which music courses have you found the most rewarding, and why?
“I really look forward to meeting and working with professors across the board in the Music Department. I think one of my most memorable and impactful courses was Federico Cortese’s conducting course, which I took in the spring of my sophomore year. It was the first time I was conducting, and it introduced me to a whole new approach to music and musical thinking. When conducting, you must think not just about how you will communicate the music outwards to an audience, but how you are going to communicate it to the other people that are playing the music. It forced my own thinking to become a little bit more critical and intentional.”
Q: How have you explored music performance at Harvard? What avenues have been most rewarding?
“I play in the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and I’ve performed in the Music 189 (Chamber Music Performance) concerts every semester, but I’ve also put together and given a recital every year. That’s been my own initiative but it’s very rewarding to hold myself to that goal. The department has all these wonderful opportunities to perform frequently, and I have taken advantage of as many of them as possible.
I was also very fortunate to receive a Davison Fellowship for Travel in Music my sophomore year. I traveled that summer to Serbia to study at the University of Novi Sad with Professors Stefan Milenković and Nikola Aleksić. I had the opportunity to learn a different sort of music making and experience a different style of teaching and playing. I am connected to Serbia through my family, and this is also influencing my thesis. I will be focusing on Slavik folk music, especially the composer Aleksandra Vujić. My final thesis will include the American premiere of a lot of his music. The Davison Fellowship paved the way for me to explore Serbian Slavik folk music.”
Q: Tell us about an experience in the Harvard Department of Music that helped to shape your artistic identity, and how you hope to carry that experience with you after graduation
“The first thing I would point to is the summer I spent in Serbia; there were a lot of things I was able to do while I was there that have been incredibly impactful. I spent a weekend in Budapest listening to master classes from composer Györky Kurtág. Parker Quartet just so happened to be in Budapest that weekend and Professor Chong reached out and asked if I was available. It was incredible to listen to Kurtág coach Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 130. That whole summer was made possible by the Davison Fellowship and the Music Department.
The other thing I would point to is working with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Through Federico [Cortese], I have been coaching and teaching some of the younger orchestras. I think teaching is one of the best ways to learn because, especially with younger kids, I must be extremely clear with what I am trying to get across. In order to do that, I have to really understand the pieces. It’s been challenging and incredibly rewarding to think in that way about music, phrasing, and even the mechanics of playing in an orchestra. It’s wonderful to see how quickly these kids are learning, they’re all so incredibly talented and the organization is one that I’m proud to work with.”
Dacha will present his thesis in Spring 2025, including a recital of Slavik folk music focusing on violin compositions. Visit music.fas.harvard.edu for more information as it becomes available.