Unison

The Harvard Musical Association is a private charitable organization founded by Harvard University graduates in 1837 for the purposes of advancing musical culture and literacy, both at the College and in the city of Boston. Among the Association’s most important major accomplishments in the middle of the nineteenth century are the creation of the country’s finest music library of that time, the first professional and public chamber music series, the erection of the great Boston Music Hall, and the formation of the Harvard Musical Association Orchestra which ultimately gave rise to the Boston Symphony.

Today, HMA library and concert rooms are available during weekdays without charge to musicians for practicing and scholars for research. The Association’s Marsh room, the meeting place of The Apollo Club (the oldest male chorus in New England) and the venerable HMA Reading Orchestra, is also frequently a recital venue for area artists and performing groups. The Harvard Musical Association maintains a longstanding tradition of commissioning new works, supporting local non-profit musical organizations, and giving prizes and awards to young performers.