Skip To Main Content

Composition

Two students performing for an audience at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, our theater high school in Massachusetts

Our Composition program is based on campus at Walnut Hill and provides intensive one-on-one study alongside our Composition Seminar, where students study works by a diverse range of living composers and major figures from the 20th and 21st centuries. Our three popular public Composers Concerts each school year feature student works performed by student musicians. New music is a central feature of our music curriculum and plays a major role in many of our music courses.

Required Courses

Choir
Composition Seminar
Ear Training I, II, III
Introduction to Musical Styles
Introduction to Music Theory
Music History
Music Theory I, II, III
Performance & Ideas Lab
Private Composition Lessons
Private Piano Lessons

Justinas Zlabys '23: A Warren of Illusion

Walnut Hill at Rockport Music, September 2023

Flickered for String Quartet, I. Allegro

Walnut Hill in Boston (Jordan Hall), October 2025

Yurui (Rain) Hou '23 (b. 2005)

Isabel Metz '26 and Sarah Guo '26, violins
Shuaishuai Zhao '26, viola
James Palmer '26, cello

Composition Faculty

William Cooper

William Cooper

Head of Theory and Composition
Reinaldo Moya

Reinaldo Moya

Music Faculty