http://tableau.uchicago.edu/articles/2011/09/crossover-music Crossover Music Anne Walters Robertson talks about the medieval and contemporary tunes that keep her humming. by Elizabeth Station Whether the setting is a medieval abbey or a Broadway stage, “I have always had a very strong sense that music exists in spaces,” says Anne Robertson, the Claire Dux Swift Distinguished Service Professor in [...]
Dear alumni/ae, This year Alumni Notes will again be part of the Goodspeed Notes Online at music.uchicago.edu. A form is laid out below for your response with news of family milestones, events, premieres, performances, publications, prizes and anything else you’d like to share. WE WANT YOUR NEWS! You can return the related form sent to [...]
arts.uchicago.edu | X marks the spot for jazz innovation, exploration at UChicago. In a universe of jazz quartets and quintets, sextets and septets, you might assume a band calling itself an “X-tet” has an undefined number of members. And in the case of the University of Chicago’s Jazz X-tet, that surface definition applies. But to [...]
At this writing our new University Professor of Composition, Augusta Read Thomas, has just had the world premiere of her University of Chicago-commissioned violin duo double helix played to immense acclaim at the dedication ceremony of the new Joe and Rika Mansueto Library. What an honor for us!
In June of 2011 the Department was deeply honored and tremendously excited to be able to sponsor the first honorary doctorate ever given to a composer or indeed any creative artist. The recipient of the degree was the magnificent Russian-Tatar composer Sofia Gubaidulina, a shining light among today’s composers, who was gracious enough to make [...]
Dear friends and colleagues: I’m delighted to announce that recent PhD Luis-Manuel Garcia was just awarded the Lise Waxer Prize, which recognizes “the most distinguished student paper in the ethnomusicology of popular music” (awarded by the Popular Music Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology). The prize was for Luis’s 2010 paper, presented at the SEM [...]
In 2011-12, the Music Department is tremendously excited to welcome Mexican choreographer Claudia Lavista as Mellon Resident Artist in conjunction with the new Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. Hosted by Music faculty, Claudia will work with our graduate students in composition to craft a dance-music installation called “Visible/Invisible,” using multiple [...]
Dear friends and colleagues: It’s my very great pleasure to bring to your attention the election of ethnomusicologist Philip Bohlman, the Mary Werkman Distinguished Service Professor in Music, the Humanities and the College, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2011 class of fellows. As many of you know, Phil works on a number [...]
Dear friends: Our theory postdoc and jazz man Paul Steinbeck sent me this note to share with the whole Department: “I have accepted a tenure-track position at Syracuse University, where I’ll be an assistant professor of musicology in the Department of African American Studies. Special thanks are due to…
Assistant Professor Seth Brodsky comes to us after five years of teaching at Yale. He received his BA at Lake Forest College and his PhD at Eastman (2007). As a scholar, teacher, and critic, his work focuses on problems of musical intertextuality, particularly in the work of living, recently deceased, or frequently resurrected composers. Brodsky is [...]
Dear friends and colleagues: I’m extremely happy to announce that music historian Seth Brodsky, Assistant Professor at Yale University, a specialist in music of postwar period, 1945-present, has just accepted our offer to join the faculty here in fall 2011. Prof. Brodsky holds degrees from Wake Forest University (B.A., 1997) and the Eastman School of [...]
The Lovers from the Cloister of Valldemosa (Grand Theater, Łodź, 2008-10) Thursday, May 26, 7:00 PM, Fulton Recital Hall 1010 E. 59th Street, Goodspeed Hall, 4th floor RSVP to Valldemosa@uchicago.edu. Space is limited. Libretto (English) PDF “The Lovers of the Valldemosa Monastery” was commissioned by the Grand Opera Theatre in Lodz and the Polish Ministry [...]
This year we are proud to host a number of visitors to the Department. Composer Jan Radzynski, Professor at Ohio State University, is visiting in fall quarter and again in spring, teaching composition lessons while Shulamit Ran and Marta Ptaszynska are on quarter-long leaves. A Yale graduate and old friend to the Department where he [...]
Dear friends and colleagues: I am delighted to be able to share some absolutely wonderful news about Will White, who graduated from the College in 2005 and subsequently served two years as conductor of the University Chamber Orchestra. Will has just won a major conducting audition, and has been offered a position as Assistant Conductor [...]
The 2009-10 Performance Program season showcased the astonishing musical talents and interests of our academically oriented institution and surrounding community. Highlights included concerts and master classes with incomparable musicians (such as Artists-in-Residence eighth blackbird, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Pacifica Quartet), performances of works by graduate student composers, and collaborations with some of [...]
In 2010, CIAO has continued its long standing tradition of synthesizing research and performance through the publication of new scores, collaboration with leading opera companies, and additional research towards future publications and productions. In the 2009-2010 season, the Metropolitan Opera mounted new productions of two operas using scores edited by CIAO – Verdi’s Attila (ed. [...]
Under the leadership of artists-in-residence David Douglass and Ellen Hargis, Co-Directors of the Newberry Consort, the Early Music Ensemble continued another successful year of early music performance culminating in the Spring concert Music Divine: English Music from Henry to Elizabeth. This exciting concert featured sacred and secular music for voices, viols, recorders, and harpsichord. The [...]
Just west of Regenstein, construction on Mansueto Library is currently centered on assembly of the glass dome. All portions of the dome, including the steel and aluminum frame pieces and the glass segments, have been built by Seele GmbH in Gersthofen, Germany and are gradually being shipped to Chicago over the next several weeks. The [...]
The Midwest Graduate Music Consortium (MGMC) is a collaborative venture organized by students from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This past academic year, the annual MGMC conference was held here at the University of Chicago, on April 16.
The University of Chicago Presents (UCP), the University’s professional music presenting organization, announces its 2010/11 Season, entitled “Musical Explorations,” inviting audiences, both new and seasoned, to discover exciting artists and revel in new music from favorite artists. Building upon 65 years of excellence in the cultural life of Chicago, UCP’s upcoming 2010/11 season promises many [...]
The 2008-09 Performance Program season offered the variety, quality and inventive musicianship audiences and performers alike have come to expect from the Department of Music. This year presented many distinctive opportunities and gainful collaborations, including concerts and master classes with world-renowned musicians (such as Artists-in-Residence including eighth blackbird, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the [...]
December 2008 saw the publication of the critical edition of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, edited by the Center’s coordinator, Patricia Brauner. Barbiere is the second volume of Works of Gioachino Rossini, published by Bärenreiter-Verlag under the general editorship of Philip Gossett. In the substantial volume of Critical Commentary accompanying the score there is an [...]
A letter from Contempo’s Artistic Director Shulamit Ran When it comes to curating Contempo’s five-concert season, I find that each season poses its own unique set of challenges and opportunities. The 2008-09 season, Contempo’s forty-fourth, was no exception. The season begun on October 4, 2008 with Messiaen: Spheres of influence, part of the major Messiaen [...]
This unique exhibit, which marks the 200-year observance of Joseph Haydn’s death (1732-1809), is on view throughout Autumn Quarter in the first floor lobby of the Regenstein Library. The aim of the exhibit, which was assembled by the Haydn Festspiele in Eisenstadt, Austria, is to intensify awareness of the composer in Europe and the United [...]
Newberry Consort artists-in-residence David Douglass and Ellen Hargis worked through more material from the Howard Mayer Brown collection at the Newberry Library this year, and toured with the wild Renaissance band Piffaro!, singling out music for Carnival in several concerts. This theme underscored their musical plan for the Early Music Ensemble as well, as the [...]
The Midwest Graduate Music Consortium (MGMC) is a collaborative venture organized by students from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. MGMC holds an annual conference and new music concert, allowing graduate students from across the continent, representing various sub-disciplines of music, to come together and share ideas on [...]
The University of Chicago Presents’ 2008/2009 season launched to great acclaim with the 10-day Olivier Messiaen Music Festival, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the French composer’s birth. The first undertaking of this type by the University’s 65-year-old music presenter, the Festival featured a lineup of renowned Messiaen scholars and musicians, as well as [...]