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The Score: Music News

2008-2009 

The Music Department had a Welcome Party on the "terrace" on Thursday, August 28th. Faculty, staff and students enjoyed a BBQ meal from Redbones as they caught up on summer activities and met the incoming students. 

Composer Yu-Hui Chang has received an Aaron Copland Award for 2008/9, which provides for a residency at the Copland House in New York State (Copland's former residency).

From Yu-Hui "The piece I'll be writing is a commission from the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble.  This new work will be performed in a program centering on Schubert’s "Trout" Quintet, and to be scored in the same instrumentation – violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, and piano.  It will be premiered in San Francisco in May 2009".

The Aaron Copland Awards were inspired by Copland's exceptional legacy of support for his fellow composers. Based at Copland House, an Official Project of the White House Save America's Treasures program and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, The Aaron Copland Awards composer residencies have earned nationwide recognition and esteem since they began in Fall 1998.

Typically, 6 to 8 gifted, emerging or mid-career American composers each year are invited to reside, one at a time, at Copland House, Aaron Copland's restored, longtime New York home. There, they can focus on their creative work, free from the distractions of daily life and other professional responsibilities. As guests of Copland House for 3 weeks to 2 months, their meals, housekeeping, local transportation, and other needs are provided for.

Additional information is available at: http://www.coplandhouse.org

The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University takes pleasure in announcing commission winners for 2008. 
 
In considering nearly 100 applications in our General and LDS commissioning programs the Endowment granted $85,000 to twelve composers who will write works for the following ensembles and musicians: Claude Baker (Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra & Mark-Andre Hamelin, pianist); Alvin Singleton (Orchestra of the League of Composers); Daniel Asia (Nonet); Michael Gandolfi (Boston Musica Viva); Scott Wheeler (Joshua Gordon, cellist); Steve Mackey (Eighth Blackbird); Seung-Ah Oh, Brandeis University alumna, (Flexible Music); Christopher Rouse (Calder Quartet); Daniel Bradshaw (Ignace Jang, violinist); Christian Asplund (Gamelan Bintang Wahyu); Christian Gentry (Benjamin Sung and Jihye Chang); and Neil Thornock (Kenneth Long, bass clarinetist).

The judging panel included the Endowment's Board of Advisors: Lansing McCloskey, Daniel Gawthrop, Steven Ricks, and David Rakowski.  David Dzubay and John Costa served as guest judges in the deliberations.  Judith Eissenberg, Blaise Magnierre, and Julie Bevan represented the Lydian, Avalon, and Pacifica string quartets.  These three ensembles comprise the Endowment's performing consortium who will premiere the new work in 2010.

2007-08

Miriam Jencks, widow of biochemistry professor William Jencks, donated an 1835 fortepiano to Slosberg; with donations from other friends, the William P. Jencks Early Music Room is now dedicated to the University's extensive collection of early instruments.

Spring colloquia featured composers Samuel Adler, Gustav Ciamaga, and Daron Hagen; and percussionist Michael Lipsey.  

Paul Beaudoin, Ph.D will be Visiting Assistant Professor at Fitchburg State College for the coming academic year.  
In addition to teaching courses in music, Paul will also be teaching several courses that demonstrate the parallels between music and 
the visual arts. Paul will also be teaching a special seminar in 20th Century Analysis at Rhode Island College.

Neal Hampton conducted a performance of "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" (play by Tom Stoppard, music by Andre Previn) at Town Hall in New York City on March 14, 2008. Information at www.bu.edu/cfa/incite/play

Thirty students and members of the Brandeis University Chorus had the chance to perform a memorial service within the grounds of the Dachau concentration camp, located just outside of Munich. Created by the Nazis in the 1930s and liberated by American forces in 1945, Dachau was one of the most widely known concentration camps of the Holocaust. It’s estimated that more than 20,000 prisoners died at the camp, although the total number may never be known.

The Dachau visit was just one stop during a weeklong international tour of Munich and Salzburg, Austria. The trip, under the direction of James Olesen, professor of music, took place from Feb. 17-24 and is believed to be the first international tour of any student music ensemble at the university. 

Scott Brickman, Ph. D '96,  Professor of Music and Education at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, had his Symphony #1 (2006), recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic, released on the CD Masterworks of the New Era vol.12 (ERM-6827). 

Seung-Ah Oh, Ph.D. Composition '05, has been appointed visiting assistant professor of composition at Oberlin Conservatory, 2008-2010. 

John Aylward, Ph.D Composition '08 has been appointed Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at Clark University.  Congratulations, John! 

Jacquelyn Sholes, Ph.D Musicology '08 has accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music History and Literature at Williams College for 2008-09. 

Richard Beaudoin was commissioned to write a one-act opera by the Staatstheater in Kassel, Germany. The work, entitled 'Himmelfahrt', is based on a poem by Heinrich Heine. The opera was produced alongside Ullmann's 'Der Kaiser von Atlantis', and ran for 6 performances in April 2008. Photographs of the production can be seen here. One of Germany's leading sopranos, Annette Dasch, offered a glimpse of Mr. Beaudoin's in-progress song-cycle during her Liederabend at the Heidelberger-Frühling on 2 April 2008. She sang "Wir wollen Abschied nehmen unter diesem Baum," and was accompanied by pianist Ulrich Naudé. Mr. Beaudoin's article "Anonymous Sources: Finnissy Analysis and the opening of Chapter 8 of The History of Photography in Sound" has appeared in the latest edition of Perspectives of New Music (Vol. 45/2). Rick will take a full-time teaching position in composition and music theory at Harvard University beginning in Fall 2008.

Two recent graduates of the Brandeis Music Department, Grace Allendorf '04 and Megan Bisceglia '07, have successfully taken the next step in their music careers, having been accepted to graduate study in voice performance. Grace has been accepted at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, and Megan has been accepted at both the Longy School and at Ca. State University, Fullerton, CA.

Professor Yu-Hui Chang's Mountain is Mountain, a concerto for flute and string orchestra, was premiered in January by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra with Tod Brody, flute and piccolo soloist. It received four performances in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Palo Alto. 

Yu-Hui Chang also composed the music for the Brandeis Theater Company's production of The Orphan of Zhao, co-directed by Eric Hill and Naya Chang.

Percussionist Michael Lipsey, faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music, gave a colloquium for music students at Brandeis on November 30. He demonstrated his collection of hand drums, talked about writing for hand drums, and performed selections from his CD on Capstone Records so long, thanks ... including pieces by Eric Moe, Dominic Donato, Jason Eckardt, and Professor David Rakowski. His performances of Rakowski's Mr. Trampoline Man and Framer's Intent at the colloquium can be viewed on YouTube. URLs:

Michael Lipsey: http://www.lipseypercussion.com/
Mr. Trampoline Man
Framer's Intent

Spring colloquia for composers included Samuel Adler, Gustav Ciamaga, and Daron Hagen.

Eric Chasalow's Puzzle Master was performed at Grinnell College in February. The premiere was in May 2007 at Brandeis.

Composer Seung-Ah Oh, Ph.D'05, was awarded third prize in the 2007 Lutoslawski International Composers’ Competition for her string quartet, "Crossing" (2006). Sponsored by the Witold Lutoslawski Society (Poland), the competition is open to composers of all nationalities and ages. The prize includes an award of 1250 euros.

On Nov. 14,  students in Professor James Olesen's MUS 113a: Introduction to Conducting course were special guests at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's closed rehearsal of Elliott Carter's "Horn Concerto" conducted by James Levine. The concerto, commissioned by the BSO for their principal horn James Sommerville, will have its world premiere on Thursday, Nov. 15. Students also met briefly with Elliott Carter, thanks to the good graces of Larry Wolfe, assistant principal bassist and husband of Vocal Instructor Pamela Wolfe.

Peter Lieberson, Ph.D '84, won the 2008 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for "Neruda Songs." The song cycle, based on five love poems by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, was chosen for the $200,000 prize among 140 entries from around the world. "Neruda Songs" was composed for Peter's late wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and was performed by her with the Los Angeles and Boston Symphony Orchestras in 2006. A live BSO performance has been released on CD by Nonsuch. Read NewMusicBox's recent interview with Peter.

Some of Davy Rakowski's compositions can now be seen and heard on his YouTube channel.

Jeff Roberts, Ph.D '08, has been invited to present a paper at the International Society for Improvised Music's 2007 Conference held in Chicago in December. His paper will discuss relationships between traditional guqin music and guqin master Li Xiangting's method of improvisation on guqin. This will include a discussion of the concept of "Yi Jing" (immediate impression made by a work of Chinese art) and how Li uses "Yi Jing" impressions from Tang, Yuan and Song Dynasty poetry to shape his improvisations. Jeff will also perform a guqin improvisation as part of the presentation.   

Jacquelyn Sholes, Ph.D'08, received the 2007 Karl Geiringer Scholarship on Brahms Studies. The title of her dissertation, which she will be completing this year, is "'Transcendence,' 'Loss,' and 'Reminiscence': Brahms' Early Finales in the Contexts of Form, Narrative, and Historicism."

Peter McMurray, MFA'08, has been awarded a Barlow Endowment for Composition commission to compose a work for the Willow Flute Ensemble. He is one of only 10 composers from a group of 135 applicants to receive this prestigious award in 2007.

A Welcome Back Party was held for faculty and students on August 29.

Kate Housman '07 has been appointed Registrar for the Cape Cod Conservatory. A fine horn player, Kate has also been appointed fourth horn in the New England Philharmonic Orchestra.

Professor Joshua Gordon and pianist Randall Hodgkinson have a new CD out "Leo Ornstein: Complete Works for Cello and Piano," that has been getting rave reviews. Quoting from the Sept. 16, 2007 New York Times: "On a fine new disc from New World Records the value of his (Ornstein) powerful works for cello and piano is revealed by the pianist Randall Hodgkinson and cellist Joshua Gordon, admirable chamber musicians who play with passion and sensitivity....these exemplary performances should ensure that Ornstein's cello works will enjoy some of the limelight the composer shunned for so long."