Science Center Plaza is alive with the sound of music

The steady pulse of music filled the Science Center Plaza on May 3 as a crowd of students from visiting artist Steven “Rhythm” Garcia’s Office for the Arts Dance Program course “House” moved freely to the beat, spun by DJ Luna del Flor. Suddenly, the music cut — and members of The Kuumba Singers and the Harvard Choruses began to sing “This Little Light of Mine.” A deep, resonant bass-baritone voice broke through the harmony, as opera singer Davóne Tines ’09, the recipient of the 2025 Harvard Arts Medal, rose to sing a stirring solo.

As Tines’ final note faded, Abe Joyner-Meyers ’22, American Repertory Theater sound engineer, picked up the melody on banjo. He was quickly joined by the Arts Fest Jazz Band, which launched into “When the Saints Go Marching In,” leading a parade of onlookers into the nearby tent and officially kicking off the Harvard Arts Festival’s Performance Fair.

The annual spring celebration of the arts took over stages, museums, and other venues across Harvard’s campus. The annual festival, produced by the Office for the Arts at Harvard, had nearly 2,000 participants, including students, faculty, staff, and alumni, in 150 events ranging from public concerts to theatrical performances, and hands-on art-making activities.

“This is really the culmination of art-making that’s been happening across our campus over the past year,” Fiona Coffey, director of the OFA, told the audience in the plaza tent. “This is a time when we need joy, resilience, community, collectivity more than ever. … I think that the arts are a really great example of how we can lift each other up and how we can lift up humanity during challenging times.”

Adam Bartholomew ’26, a molecular and cellular biology concentrator, and Elizabeth Bennett ’26, a music concentrator with a secondary in government, led the Harvard College Steelpan Ensemble through a resonant rendition of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” made famous by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, to enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Bartholomew, a member of the Harvard-Berklee Joint Studies program who grew up playing steelpan in Trinidad and Tobago, said bringing the instrument to a Harvard stage has long been a dream.

“As we planned to create this ensemble over the past two years, we’ve always envisioned playing at Arts Fest once we got it started,” Bartholomew said. “The fact that it’s finally coming to fruition is a really good feeling.”

In Holden Chapel, Ethan Chaves ’26, a music and philosophy joint concentrator, performed original compositions for solo viola that were inspired by the idea of the Jungian shadow. It was a busy day for Chaves, who also performed with the Brattle Street Chamber Players in Adolphus Busch Hall earlier in the day, and had an original choral composition, “Exultation is the going,” premiered by the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum at Memorial Church later that afternoon. Chaves, who is enrolled in the Harvard-New England Conservatory Dual Degree program, said the festival allows students to experiment with new projects.

“It’s fun because it’s so hectic, there are always about 80 things going on all at the same time,” Chaves said, “It’s nice to be able to see your friends perform different things than they usually would and try out different works in progress you don’t normally get to see.”

President Alan Garber awarded Tines the Harvard Arts Medal in a ceremony May 4 in Lowell Lecture Hall. In his remarks, Garber recalled standing beside the award-winning opera singer as he transfixed the crowd in Tercentenary Theatre with his rendition of “Lift Ev’ry Voice” at Harvard’s 2019 Commencement ceremony.

“Art conveys truth in ways that are layered and unique,” Garber said. “It enlarges our hearts as well as our minds. It compels us to deepen our understanding and to expand our perspective at its best. It challenges us to appreciate the world and one another in new ways, creating the possibility for sympathy and empathy, for real and lasting connection.”

At the medal ceremony, Tines and his band The Truth performed “Let It Shine,” a stunning “This Little Light of Mine” reprise that brought the audience to its feet. He also spoke with Diane Paulus, the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the A.R.T., about his time at Harvard, where he concentrated in sociology, was a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and sang his first opera, Stravinsky’s “Rake’s Progress,” with the Dunster House Opera Society.

Tines said his years spent working in arts administration (including as an A.R.T. intern) before becoming a performing artist helped him gain a better understanding of all the work that goes into every artistic production. He said being an artist now not only means “holding a mirror up to the world,” but also serving as a model to inspire creativity and bravery in others.

“In my ongoing quest to understand all the parts of myself and put them together in a cohesive way, I’m trying to model that that’s possible for everyone else, artists, people at large,” Tines said. “We’re made of so many things, we come from so many things, and it’s important that we honor all those things and empower ourselves to become them, even when they contradict.”