Home to the College of Arts & Sciences undergraduate degree programs in American Musical Cultures and Theater & Performance Studies as well as dozens of performing groups in music, theater, and dance, the Department features a renowned faculty and close partnerships with leading arts organizations from the D.C. region and beyond.
Why Performing Arts?
Hear first hand from our students and faculty on what makes the performing arts so unique at Georgetown. Watch the full video here.
Letter from the Chair
The Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University lives in the intersection of artistic practice and liberal arts education. Our department comprises four areas of study: Music, Theater and Performance Studies, Dance, and Public Speaking. While each has its disciplinary history, they share a common thread: the exploration of embodiment and performance. The Davis Performing Arts Center and McNeir Hall are at the heart of our department, hubs of creativity, community, and collaboration. These spaces serve as laboratories for our students and faculty and as venues for the diverse performances by world-class artists we host throughout the academic year.
Our continued vision is to interweave the performing arts with Georgetown’s esteemed liberal arts tradition. We encourage our students to forge unexpected connections between their artistic practices and other disciplines, from Government to Biology, Economics to Theology. This interdisciplinary approach prepares our students as artists and creative thinkers equipped to address complex global challenges.
A key initiative for 2024–25 is our new Performing Arts Colloquium. This one-credit course explores the intersections of music, theater, dance, and public speaking, serving as a hub for interdisciplinary artistic exploration and development. Colloquia events are open to anyone.
Our commitment to diversity and social justice continues to drive our programming. This fall, we’re hosting a residency with LubDub Theatre, a New York-based company founded by Georgetown alums, to develop an eco-play addressing critical global issues. The Friday Music Series showcases a range of talents, from the unique sounds of Czech cimbalom virtuoso Matej Čip to the unorthodox guitarist Yasmin Williams and acclaimed soprano Melissa Wimbish, offering a diverse musical experience that reflects our commitment to presenting an array of artistic voices.
In the current global context, the arts play a crucial role in fostering understanding, promoting well-being, and driving economic and social progress. This year’s Season of Radical Care responds to these challenges—it’s our commitment to nurture creativity, build community, and envision an equitable future for the performing arts. We invite you to engage with our new initiatives. Attend a workshop or Friday colloquium, participate in a collaborative project, or experience a work-in-progress. Join us in supporting the arts and witnessing their capacity to create a more connected world.
Benjamin J. Harbert, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor of Music, Department of Performing Arts.
Embrace Incubation and Process in our 2024/25 Season
“Raina’s creative research focuses on liberating and cultivating the dance-making space through harnessing the power of process-to-product collaboration. Recent creative-collaborative choreography projects include The Truth Spun Backwards (2023), ATLAS (2022), Parade (2021) and The Container (2020).”
“A frequent guest conductor across Europe, the United States and Latin America, Maestro Gil-Ordóñez holds the positions of Music Director/Conductor of PostClassical Ensemble in Washington DC, Principal Guest Conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble, and Music Director of the Georgetown University Orchestra in DC.”
“Maya E. Roth was founding Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center. An artist-scholar, she specializes in feminist plays and criticism, cross-cultural adaptations of classics, and new work development. ”