Darryl Harper

Darryl Harper is a Professor in the Department of Music at Amherst College, where he teaches courses in improvisation, jazz history, musicianship, and the live music experience. His teaching approach integrates music as a powerful cultural force that impacts institutions and individuals alike, empowering students to examine cultural assumptions and shape their own experiences.

His research spans jazz, improvisation, music history, musicianship, race and culture, political economy of music, theater, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, literary theory, ethnography, philosophy, and political theory. Harper approaches these interdisciplinary fields with a focus on how they intersect with music and culture.

As an active jazz musician with over 40 years of performance and composition experience, Harper has led his ensemble 'The Onus' since 1996 and performed with notable artists including Orrin Evans, Tim Warfield, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Regina Carter, and Jason Moran.