Welcome! I'm Olivia Koo '26, hailing from Los Alamos, New Mexico. I am studying biological chemistry on the pre-med track, and I'm excited to be supplementing it with music, as a classical pianist and singer-songwriter! Some of my favorite things to do are watching YouTube videos about video games, singing and playing my guitar, and reading New York Times op-eds. Look through my page for information about Dartmouth's pre-med track, STEM research, acapella/music, and study abroad opportunities!
Unsure whether I would enjoy the biology-heavy pre-health track, I took an intro biology class. I surprisingly found myself so invested each class—I didn’t think I’d ever be excited trying to determine if the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) had DNA or RNA, but here we are! I found it a great introduction to thinking processes at Dartmouth.
I loved coming to this class with its supportive environment! The professor's feedback really helped me improve in my writing. This course guided us through personal narratives and organizational writing while discussing what it really means to be authentic. It also introduced me to the library’s resources for writing and research!
This class was definitely not easy! The accelerated version of general chemistry, it was my first class at Dartmouth that used a textbook, and I had to adapt and learn how to use a textbook for a class properly. But that didn't mean I didn't have a good time! The classes were full of physical demonstrations, and I felt very supported in the lab and beyond.
This was the first group music class I took, and I loved it! Each class we'd move a little forward in time; one day we'd talk about medieval chants, and by the next couple weeks, we talked about Baroque music. We even got to observe original medieval music scores from the Rauner Library, and attend a performance of Baroque music by the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra!
Songwriting 1 was the first time I was able to work on something creative/in the arts at Dartmouth, and I really loved it! I got to learn how to improve my songwriting and get to know a community of fellow songwriters on campus. The class was both supportive and constructive, and I pushed myself to my creative limit with the assignment of writing one new song a week. This class inspired me to continue writing and being expressive, whether in an academic setting or not.
For one of my classes on the London Music FSP, I got to attend a myriad of musical performances in London and discuss them with my class! It was a once-in-a-life-time experience–getting to watch multiple operas, ballets, jazz sets, and a musical, as well as seeing beautiful performances from the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, and more, helped me grow my ear so much and my inspirations as a musician.
I took this class to learn a little more about the social landscape around medicine, and this class delivered that by a mile. From environmental exposure to racial inequities in medicine/health to the discussion of medicine itself as a manipulative tool in colonialist social structures, this class helped me rethink medicine and my role within it.
As Dartmouth's Foreign Study Programs (FSP) focus on the appeal and practical/cultural education that comes from living in a new place, the academic classes take as much advantage of the location as they can. My FSP is no exception! Like any foreign study program, the classes I take are set by Dartmouth and have to do with the subject at hand.
MUS 71: History of Music in England
Meeting on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, this class is an extensive look at the history of music, as well as its social, economic, political, and cultural impact in England. My professor is Dr. Meinhart, who teaches music history at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich. With a deeper focus on the social and political landscape of England at the time of certain musical practices and entertainment, we discuss how England's expansive colonialism, royal rituals, and religion influenced the music of England's past, and the music of other cultures affected by England's reach. It's been an interesting journey so far, but I'm also excited to get into modern music later in the class!
This week, we accompanied our professor to Greenwich and got to visit the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College.
MUS 70: Perspectives in Music Performance
This class is taught by the Dartmouth professor who directs our FSP, Professor Kui Dong. Before the FSP began, she compiled a plethora of concerts, exhibitions, and operas to attend so that we students could explore the vibrant music scene of London. And there's a lot of them; as of my writing this blog, we've attended sixteen concerts in four weeks! After we attend these concerts in the evenings, we discuss them in class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. During classes each week, we discuss the quality of the performance, the aspects of the performers or performance space that may have contributed to our reception of the performance, and, of course, the music that was presented. I've been training my ear, understanding how to listen to live music, and knowing what to listen for. We've still got many concerts to attend, and I'm excited to see what more lies in wait! In addition to these discussions, this class also has a collaboration component, in which the students can collaborate in small groups to perform a piece of music, whether it be a duet, chamber music group, or a composition. We'll be presenting these at the end of the term, and although there's a lot more work to be done for my duets (I'll be doing a piano duet as well as a composition for piano and trombone—so far), I'm looking forward to stretching myself in ways I haven't been able to before.
Here's a page of my notes while watching a concert to get ready to discuss it in class!
MUS 87: Special Studies in Music Abroad
And, of course, no music-based study program is complete without individual lessons. For the third class, students have one-on-one weekly lessons with a professional London-based musician in the craft of the student's preference. From electronic songwriting to Celtic singing to straight-up classical instrumentalists, there is a huge variety of what students are studying! My one-on-one lessons are for classical piano, as I've been taking individual piano lessons at Dartmouth since my first year. My teacher is a pianist who has much experience in teaching, and I've been enjoying exploring piano in a more relaxed manner and improving my performance through new perspectives that only a new teacher can give. At the end of the term, there will be a class-wide recital to share what everyone has been doing, and I am very excited to see what everyone has learned!
And those are my classes! Although it seems less work-heavy than a typical Dartmouth term on campus, these classes along with the concert-attending, day-trip traveling, and self-exploring result in a term that hasn't had a dull moment yet, and I doubt it will.
To end with, here are a couple of photos from my adventures through the UK these past few weeks!
This is the southern coast of England off the Seven Sisters Cliffs!
Unlike some other universities, many of the STEM lecture classes at Dartmouth require concurrent enrollment in a laboratory section. What is it like navigating that time as a student?
