All-School Project

The projects provide a unique opportunity for all Curtis students to:

• deepen and broaden their artistry by studying and performing together a defined repertoire;
• practice critical listening and analysis of that repertoire, along with research, writing, and discussion in musical studies courses; and
• explore the surrounding social history, literature, philosophy, psychology, visual art, politics, and general cultural ethos in liberal arts courses.

Extracurricular programs such as outside concerts, lectures, museum visits, and social activities expand the students’ learning experience beyond the walls of Curtis.

Bold Experiments: Reflections on Democracy and Music

Democracy, broadly defined, is a system of governance in which power rests in the people; but more than that, it is an ideal, a dream even, wherein life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights. Democracy seeks to locate human flourishing somewhere between the opposing poles of freedom and structure, belonging and exclusion, the one and the many. The 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026 presents an opportunity to reflect on the nature of democracy, as well as how it has been understood and experienced throughout history.

An extension of our founder Mary Louise Bok’s ‘Bold Experiment’, Curtis’s All-School Project for 2025-2027 asks us as a community to consider democracy’s successes and failures along with the promises and dreams deferred. Through Bold Experiments: Reflections on Music and Democracy, we will interrogate and explore the social, political, philosophical, historical, and artistic revolutions that animated and continue to provoke, reflect, and inspire our national discourse.

The projects, uniquely envisioned by Curtis President Roberto Díaz, began in 2007–08 with the Opus 95 Project, which focused on Beethoven’s string quartet masterwork. That first project received praise from the New York Times for its innovation and inspired a yearly tradition at Curtis.

• • 2008–09: Beethoven’s Late Quartets
  • 2009–10: Paris Between the Wars
  • 2010–11: Music of the Second Viennese School
  • 2011–12: Appassionato
  • 2012–13: Romeo and Juliet
  • 2013–14: Sojourns in Russia
  • 2014–15: The Influence of Russia
  • 2015–16: Darmstadt
  • 2016–17: Beyond Darmstadt
  • 2017–18: The Edge Effect
  • 2018–19: The Edge Effect
  • 2019–20: China: A Nation, Practice, and Influence
  • 2020–21: Beyond China
  • 2021–22: Civil Rights and the Music of Change
  • 2022–23: Civil Rights and the Music of Change
  • 2023–24: Music of the Earth
  • 2024–25: A Bold Experiment