What do Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Kushner, and Yo-Yo Ma have in common?

Whoopi Goldberg (clockwise from top), Yo-Yo Ma, and Tony Kushner are just a few of the artists who’ve visited Harvard over the past 50 years via the Learning from Performers program.

Photo illustration by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff; Harvard file photos

Arts & Culture
What do Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Kushner, and Yo-Yo Ma have in common?

Eileen O’Grady

Harvard Staff Writer

January 21, 2026 5 min read

They all visited Harvard as part of arts program kicking off 50th year with talk by Robert Carlock, Tina Fey

Eric Cheng had just landed the role of Song Liling in the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club’s 2019 production of “M. Butterfly,” when the senior got a bit of advice from the ultimate expert.

Actor BD Wong, who originated Song Liling on Broadway in 1988, visited Harvard for two days in 2020 as part of the Office for the Arts’ Learning from Performers program. Wong did a master class with students, spoke to an English class, and attended an “M. Butterfly” rehearsal. He ended up helping Cheng workshop the first love scene between the two main characters.

“I remember showing him around the Harvard campus and just having a conversation,” recalled Cheng, now a content creator and podcast host living in Los Angeles. “There was something to be said about just being with this person proximally — seeing the life of a successful actor and performer — that was exciting and hopeful. I didn’t necessarily have access to many successful people in the arts, so that was really important.”

This year the Office for the Arts is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Learning from Performers program. The initiative brings professional artists to campus for events with students that range from lunchtime discussions to workshops, residencies, classes, seminars, and coaching.

“Learning from Performers gives students the opportunity to interact with world-class artists from across disciplines and understand that what they learn here at Harvard — in traditional classrooms as well as on stages and in studios — can translate into extraordinary careers that define fields and help shape the world,” said the office’s director, Fiona Coffey. “When the OFA operates as a space that has one foot in the professional arts world and one foot in an educational setting, when we can bridge those two worlds together, that’s when our students encounter and understand the full power of the arts.”

The anniversary celebrations kick off Jan. 30 with an event at Sanders Theatre featuring Robert Carlock ’95 and Tina Fey. The comedy A-listers have worked together on “Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock,” and more. They will share insights about their creative collaboration with an audience of students and community members.

“More than 50 years of Learning from Performers have taught us that often the most daring and impactful art is really rarely a solo act,” Coffey said. “It’s a very collaborative process.”

“More than 50 years of Learning from Performers have taught us that often the most daring and impactful art is really rarely a solo act.”
Fiona Coffey

Learning from Performers, launched in 1975, was the brainchild of then-student Jerold Kayden ’75.

Kayden, who is now Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Graduate School of Design, said the idea came during his senior year while he was serving as president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra. He invited cellist János Starker to perform as a guest artist with the ensemble when the cellist’s agent suggested a master class for an additional fee.

“He did a master class that I found very compelling with several student cellists,” Kayden said. “It struck me at the time, ‘This is interesting. I wonder if we could do more of that?’”

Actor BD Wong (center) poses with students after a master class event at Agassiz Theatre in fall 2019.

Photo by Jake Belcher/Office for the Arts at Harvard

Bobby McFerrin works with undergraduates at a dance session at Lowell Hall.

Harvard file photo

Ma answers questions at the event “Silk Road Perspectives: A Musical Conversation with the Silk Road Ensemble” in 2005.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell

With the support of Myra Mayman, the OFA’s founding director, Learning from Performers was born the following fall. Kayden oversaw the program for its first year, when they hosted 19 artists including pianist Les McCann, composer Stephen Sondheim, and vocalist Sarah Vaughan. A program advisory committee formed over the same period that included dancer Alvin Ailey and jazz musicians Dave Brubeck, Cannonball Adderley, and Count Basie.

“It began as a series of conversations, it grew into conversations and workshops, then to something like the BD Wong residency, visiting classrooms and working behind the scenes with students in real time,” said Alicia Anstead, who leads the program as OFA’s Associate Director for Creative Productions and Producer of Harvard Arts Festival. “It continues to morph as we envision new ways of bringing art-making and grounding artists and students together at Harvard.”

“It continues to morph as we envision new ways of bringing art-making and grounding artists and students together at Harvard.”
Alicia Anstead

Other notable artists to participate in the program include actors Mel Gibson, Whoopi Goldberg, and Laura Linney; musicians Quincy Jones, Bobby McFerrin, and Yo-Yo Ma; playwright Tony Kushner; and artist Maurice Sendak.

Kayden said it is gratifying to see the program he founded as an undergraduate now entering its 50th year. He encourages current students to take similar risks with their own creative projects.

“Taking advantage of what Harvard offers to all of us is a great gift, and the combination of an idea and the convening power of Harvard made this work,” Kayden said. “My advice to students is: If you dream it, you can do it.”