New England Conservatory

Co-founded in 1867 by Rhode Island native Eben Tourjée and German composer Robert Goldbeck, New England Conservatory is the oldest independent music school in the United States. Located off Tremont Street for its first few years, when classes were held at Boston Music Hall (now the Orpheum Theatre), it moved to Franklin Square in the South End in 1870, then to 290 Huntington Avenue in 1902. The school’s 1,000-seat Jordan Hall opened at 30 Gainsborough Street in 1903; it currently hosts some 600 concerts a year and is considered one of Boston’s most acoustically sublime venues.

Academic highlights include the offering of a masters of music degree, starting in 1933, NEC’s founding of a preparatory school in 1950; and the opening of its jazz studies program in 1969; faculty in latter program have included pianist-saxophonist Jaki Byard. A list of alumni could fill a telephone book, but among the most famous are pianist and free-jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor, Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist and co-founder Bernie Worrell, drummer-entrepreneur Vic Firth and members of the popular Americana group Lake Street Dive.

In 1994, NEC was named a National Historic Landmark, becoming the only music school in the US to have such a designation. Always looking toward the future, the Conservatory announced a campus expansion in 2012, its first in nearly 50 years. In February 2025, a Stradivarius violin made in 1714 and owned by NEC was auctioned at Sotheby’s for $11.3 million, one of the highest prices ever fetched for an instrument, according to the auction house. The estate of NEC alumnus Si-Hon Ma donated the instrument to NEC in 2016; Ma bought it in 1967 and performed on it until his death in 2009.

(by Stephen Haag)