The Hartt School is the performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford, a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1920 by Julius Hartt and Moshe Paranov, Hartt has been part of the University of Hartford since its charter merged the Hartt College of Music, the Hartford Art School, and Hillyer College to create the university in 1957. The Hartt School offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, dance, theatre, and associated disciplines. The Hartt Community Division offers a variety of opportunities in music and dance for students of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.[1]
Organ Studies
Since its founding, Hartt had an organ program of study. In 1970, the school acquired a new Gress-Miles pipe organ;[2] it was inaugurated with a performance of Bach's Wir glauben all' an einen Gott. The organ program's director, John Holtz, subsequently launched the International Contemporary Organ Music Festival which ran from 1971 to 1984, and brought world-wide attraction to Hartt with new organ music commissions and performances from major composers and organists, including Marilyn Mason, William Albright, Iannis Xenakis, and William Bolcom.[3][4] In 1982, the festival expanded to include harpsichord music.[5] In 2015, facing total declinement of enrollment, the school closed down its organ studies program and sold the Gress-Miles organ to United Methodist Church in Babylon, New York.[2][6] As of 2022, faculty member Scott Lamlein re-started a Foundations of Organ Performance course available to Hartt piano students, taught on a 1986 Wolff studio pipe organ.[7]
Notable faculty
The Hartt School's faculty perform, teach, and present all over the country and around the world.[8] Notable faculty members have included:
Glen Adsit, conductor & founder of the National Wind Ensemble Consortium Group