The Great Professors

T.J. Anderson

In 1972, Thomas Jefferson Anderson was new to the Tufts music department faculty. But as soon as Erik Lindgren, A76, heard him play, “I decided right then that I wanted to study with that fellow.” Today, Lindgren is a composer and keyboards player for whom Anderson remains a “mentor and guiding light.”

Anderson chaired the department until 1980 and taught in it until 1990. Now professor of music emeritus, he is a leading composer and one of Tufts’ most cherished faculty. His compositions “are acclaimed for their compelling voice, complexity and brilliance,” reads the pronouncement to his 2007 honorary degree from Tufts, and as “a dedicated and generous teacher, [he has] stimulated a passion for music in generations of students.”

Common chords connect Anderson’s teaching and his music. Just as his composing is shaped by influences across the globe, “the nature of good teaching is that it should always be an exchange,” he says. “My duty is to learn from students about what interests them and to teach them what I know, not to tell them what to do. I learn from life, and I teach from life.”