A maestro and a wordsmith
This is one in a series of profiles showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates. It’s often been said that the Harvard undergraduate experience is what one makes of it. Senior Matt Aucoin took that message to heart. He leaves campus having immersed himself in Harvard’s rich worlds of poetry and music, with a degree in English, a passion for writing and composing, and a future destined for The New Yorker, or the conductor’s podium, or both. A resident of Kirkland House, Aucoin was poetry editor of the literary journal The Harvard Advocate. His thesis, a collection of poetry titled “Aftermusic,” recently won a Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for outstanding scholarly work or research. In 2009, he received several coaching sessions with classical music legend James Levine, and he used a 2010 Artist Development Fellowship from Harvard’s Office for the Arts to study at the famed opera house La Scala in Milan. He...