The Hartt School is an internationally acclaimed performing arts school with programs in music, dance, and theatre. The school was established by Julius Hartt, Moshe Paranov, and Associated Teachers in 1920 and was one of the three founding institutions of the University of Hartford in 1957. Alongside the traditional performance-oriented majors in music, theatre, and dance, the school offers programs in music history, music theory, music education, and composition. Hartt also offers innovative programs in pre-cantorial studies, music management, performing arts management, and music production and technology.
With a strong tradition of excellence, Hartt takes pride in its talented artist-faculty. Recognized nationally and internationally as performers, educators, and scholars, The Hartt School faculty members are active in their areas of expertise. Through performances, recordings, books, articles, major awards, grants, and fellowships, faculty members set an excellent example for their students. Interaction between faculty and students provides the framework for the development of future professional performing artists, arts managers, composers, music and production technologists, and teachers. A strong commitment to a select student body ensures a high quality of education.
A wide range of opportunities is available to Hartt students. Musicians benefit from participation in large orchestral, wind, or choral en- sembles. Smaller chamber music ensembles as well as solo opportunities help to create well- rounded musicians. Each year, master classes are given by guest artists that have included Sherrill Milnes, Hank Jones, Vieri Bottazzini, Eugene Levinson, Pamela Frank, Maureen O’Flynn, Angel Romero, Elly Ameling, John Musto, Amiri Baraka, Eugenia Zuckerman, Daniel Pinkham, Midori, Bright Sheng, Joseph Schwantner, John Corigliano, the American Brass Quintet, and the Miami, Emerson, Colorado, Lark, and Miró string quartets. Hartt also boasts Performance 20/20, a highly competitive honors chamber music program that provides its students with the opportunity to perform even more extensively. Vocal performance opportunities include a variety of choral performing organizations as well as black-box and fully staged operas. Voice students also have the opportunity to audition for and perform in productions by Connecticut Concert Opera, and to hold section-leader positions in many fine area choirs. Future music educators have years of hands-on practical training with children from The Hartt School Community Division, the Hartt String Project, the Hartt Band Project, and area schools. Management majors have special opportunities to participate in a comprehensive internship program. Interns have worked at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at Creative Artists Agency, and in a wide variety of other arts-related organizations and record companies in New York City and around the country.
Dancers thrive in both workshops and large-scale productions. They benefit from working with professional arts organizations, such as the American Ballet Studio Company that perform, teach and choreograph works throughout the four-year comprehensive curriculum, and collaborate regularly with Hartt theatre and music students on special projects. Ballet pedagogy majors have four semesters of hands- on teaching with students in the Hartt Community Division.
In the Theatre Division, the classroom experience is enhanced by the yearly production of 16 plays and musicals, incorporating a broad repertoire of contemporary and classical works. A highlight of the actor training program is the third-year semester in England. Both the music theatre and actor training programs present a yearly showcase in New York City, and actor training students present an additional showcase in Los Angeles. Music theatre students have the opportunity to participate in Goodspeed Musicals’ annual Festival of New Artists. Actor training students have the opportunity to participate in activities with the Hartford Stage Company, in roles or understudying in the company’s productions.
For more than four decades, the growth of The Hartt School was nurtured by the philanthropy of Alfred C. Fuller, founder of the famous Fuller Brush Company. Fuller’s generosity helped to create scholarship opportunities that continue to benefit Hartt students. Additional support from the Fuller family enabled Hartt to build the Alfred C. Fuller Music Center, the four-story complex that houses The Hartt School music divisions, administration, and community division. In the same spirit of generosity demonstrated by her husband, Mary Primrose Fuller left a bequest of $19.8 million in 1998, creating new opportunities for Hartt.
The Hartt School of the University of Hartford is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music, the National Association of Schools of Dance, and the National Association of Schools of Theatre. Its programs in music education are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, and it shares University of Hartford accreditation by the Commission of Higher Education of the State of Connecticut and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
The Hartt School provides preprofessional training in the performing arts characterized by artistic and academic rigor, individualized attention including mentorship and peer support, and a synthesis of tradition and innovation leading to lifelong service to, and advocacy for, the arts.
We believe in an education that
The Hartt School operates the Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center, the Alfred C. Fuller Music Center, and Lincoln Theater.
The Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center was converted from an industrial building designed in 1929 by pioneering industrial architect Albert Kahn. This vibrant new center for performing arts education serves as a resource for the entire community. The 56,000-square-foot center provides performance and rehearsal space, classrooms, and studios for students in The Hartt School’s Dance, Theatre, and Community Divisions. Housed in the Handel Performing Arts Center are the 184-seat Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation Black Box Theater and the 96-seat McCray Theater, given through the generosity of Kent ’51 and Susan McCray. Performances in these venues include the third-year student public performances in theatre and music theatre, recitals, lectures, and Community Division performances. Each theater has a state-of-the-art, computerized light board and sound equipment.
All courses for dance majors are taught at the Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center. The south wing includes five spacious studios, artistic and production offices, a conference room, and dressing and shower facilities. The 9,000 square feet of dance studios have high ceilings, hallway observation windows, wooden barres, mirrors, and Gerstung multilayered dance floors.
The Fuller Music Center consists of three wings:
Millard Auditorium provides one of the main performance venues on the University of Hartford campus. An intimate, 428-seat house, Millard is used for operas; theatre productions; orchestra, wind ensemble, and chamber music concerts; solo recitals; and lectures. Millard has computerized sound and lighting equipment, a 50-foot proscenium arch with a stage depth of 32 feet, a 22-line-set fly rail, and a full orchestra pit.
O’Connell Hall houses the organ studio, Berkman Recital Hall, practice rooms, teaching studios, and offices for the Hartt Community Division.
Paranov Hall, a four-story instructional building, houses classrooms, the Hartt recording studios, faculty and administrative offices, the University of Hartford Center for Computer and Electronic Music, and the LEGO Learning Center, a state-of-the-art research facility housing a large classroom and an adjoining observation room designed to further the understanding of how children in their first seven years develop musical understandings and skills.
Lincoln Theater accommodates outside bookings as well as campus-based activities. It is used for commencements, lectures, concerts, theatre and music theatre performances, solo performances, orchestra/wind ensemble concerts, and a variety of other activities. Lincoln Theater seats 716 and has a thrust stage that measures 65 feet at its widest, 52 feet from back wall to front edge of thrust. It has a full orchestra pit as well as sound and computerized lighting equipment with follow spots. The dressing rooms easily accommodate up to 50 performers.
The Mildred P. Allen Memorial Library is located adjacent to The Hartt School on the second floor of the east wing of the Harry Jack Gray Center. The Allen Library provides reference, circulating, and online materials in the fields of music, dance, and related arts. Its holdings include approximately 22,000 books and bound journals, 41,000 scores, more than 23,300 sound recordings (including recordings of Hartt operas, concerts, and recitals), more than 1,100 videocassettes and DVDs, and thou- sands of audio tracks streamed over the Internet. More than 400 online and print journals allow students and faculty to remain abreast of current research.
In addition, the Allen Library website (http://library.hartford.edu/allenlibrary) presents extensive resources in music, dance, and theatre. The library catalog and other online research aids help users identify and locate all the scholarly resources managed by University Libraries. Members of the University community holding University of Hartford e-mail accounts (available from Information Technology Services) may access subscription databases and electronic journals from locations off campus. Professional library staff members are available to help users find materials, and library instruction is available upon request.
The Allen Library’s facilities include 18 iMacs with both Windows and Mac OS X installed, as well as Microsoft Office, to provide access to online resources. Mac and PC laptops may be checked out at the service desk; the Mac laptops have Finale and Sibelius music notation software. The library has three fully equipped listening/viewing rooms to allow for in-library use of audiovisual materials. Eight individual audio carrels provide another option for in-library listening. A teaching seminar room, fitted with a full complement of listening and viewing equipment, iMac computer (Windows and Mac OS X), and overhead projection, is available to faculty for classes and lectures. An additional small seminar room with a PC and some listening and viewing equipment, is available for group study and meetings. Self-service photocopying ($ .10/copy) and printing ($ .05/page) is available, payable only with HawkCASH.
The Allen Library is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. until 11 p.m., Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon until 11 p.m. Special hours are observed during the summer and holidays, and are posted on the library website.