Maggie Rogers
May 27, 2022
When Capitol Recording artist Maggie Rogers took the stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2022 to perform in front of tens of thousands of people, many of them likely did not know the performance was also part of her graduate school requirement.
Rogers, the Grammy-nominated songwriter, producer, and performer, will graduate this year from Harvard Divinity School with a Master of Religion and Public Life (MRPL) degree, a program designed for experienced professionals who wish to develop in-depth knowledge of the complex ways religion influences public life related to their career areas. She is one of 11 people who will be the first to complete the new program, which launched last year and requires a public presentation to earn the degree.
“I brought everything I was learning into the details of that performance, some of which people will never see. From the way I collaboratively worked to design the stage layout, the stage production, the set list, the clothing, the way we came off the stage, the way we rehearsed. At the end of the day—creativity and spirituality—it’s about the process. Every layer, all of it, at the end of the day, is about intention,” said Rogers, who views her artistic practice as a form of spiritual practice.
Rogers has announced her sophomore release, Surrender, will be available on July 29th. It is the follow up to her 2019 stunning major label debut Heard It in a Past Life..