We're always interested in what our alumni are up to after they leave Tufts, and we knew you all might be too, so current music department student Amelia reached out to Meghan Connolly, who earned her master's degree from Tufts in 2017. We loved hearing about her exper
Amelia: Who was a faculty member that influenced you?
Meghan: I can’t really pick one, so I’d have to say John McDonald always encouraged me to look at my own music from a different perspective, and that really challenged me as a composer. Rich Jankowsky taught me to think deeply and critically about what I read and write, and to put myself into the shoes of my audience when conducting research, so as to understand how my words and ideas are being received and be able to adjust accordingly.
A: In what ways has the Tufts music department prepared you for your professional and/or personal life post-grad?
M: The Tufts Music Department prepared me to think critically. Not just about what goes on around me, but about my own words and actions and how they might be perceived by folks with different life experiences to mine.
A: What advice would you give current Tufts music students?
M: You never know where your musical journey is going to take you - when I started at Tufts, I had my heart set on being the first female John Williams, and now I’m getting ready to start a research grant studying cultural anthropology exploring the relationship between music, ethnic identity, and politics in marginalized groups in Nepal. Point being, say yes to as many opportunities as you can because you never know who or what will inspire you next.
A: If you could design/teach a class for the Tufts music department now, what would it be?
M: I’d definitely love to see a class about authenticity in music. I read a great article about a professor who conducted a study to gain insight into attitudes about authenticity in music, using her students’ participation in class as part of the study (with permission)! It was really interesting to read about how often something which “sounded” more authentic to one culture to the students was “less authentic” than another example, and how the answer changed depending both on who was asked and how much information they had about the music before hearing it.