Noteworthy News
Research, Publications, Awards & More: At a Glance
April 15, 2021
The article features interviews with former students and colleagues of Boykan – who died peacefully at his home on March 6, 2021 at the age of 89 – including Scott Wheeler PhD ’84, Christian Gentry PhD ’12, John Aylward PhD ’08 and Eric Chasalow.
April 9, 2021
A recent article discusses the role that Harold Shapero and his fellow "Boston School" composers, who created the Brandeis Department of Music, played in establishing Boston as the center of innovative composition in the mid-20th-century.
Harvard Professor and MacArthur Award winner Claire Chase and Grammy Award-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth have joined forces to record Beaudoin’s “Another Woman of Another Kind,” for flute and eight voices on texts by Paul Griffiths.
April 5, 2021
Out of 1,100 applicants, the grants were awarded to 53 outstanding artists who represent the imaginative, diverse, and highly creative field that New Music USA is dedicated to supporting.
March 26, 2021
Brandeis University Professor of Music, emeritus Yehudi Wyner has received the American Academy of Arts and Letters' highest honor for excellence in the arts, awarded to those who have achieved eminence in an entire body of work.
Musicology alumnus Rob Pearson shares the inspiring story of how he changed career paths after spending years as a faculty member, including how gardening helped him develop interests beyond his academic field.
March 12, 2021
Composer and PhD candidate Jeremy Rapaport-Stein will have his new work the under side for vocal quartet and wind ensemble premiered as part of the Young Composers Meeting held by Orkest de Ereprijs (Apeldoorn, NL).
March 8, 2021
Composer and PhD candidate Luke Blackburn was awarded one of five new commissions from prestigious new music ensemble Boston Musica Viva to write a new chamber ensemble work for a future professional premiere.March 1, 2021
Music Theory Online, a flagship journal of the Society for Music Theory, has published Beaudoin’s new article “Gould’s Creaking Chair, Schoenberg’s Metric Clarity.” Quantifying sounds that are normally marginalized, the article connects sound studies, theory, and recording analysis, fusing published observations about Schoenberg’s composition with the audio artifacts of Gould’s corporeality.
February 16, 2021
2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist and current Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon is the latest winner of the biennial commission prize from the Lydian String Quartet, in residence at Brandeis since 1980.
February 15, 2021
PhD candidate in musicology Zen Kuriyama has written a chapter, "‘Resignation’ and Virgil Thomson’s Hymns from the Old South," for the new peer-reviewed publication Christian Sacred Music in the Americas, which offers a cross-section of the most current and outstanding scholarship from an international array of writers.
February 8, 2021
Brandeis alum, violist, oud and voice musician and composer Yonatan (Yoni) Battat has received a new $20,000 fellowship from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) and Jewish Arts Collaborative (JArts).
January 12, 2021
Music Technologist James Praznik produced this concert film of JS Bach's cantata "Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit" using recordings from the Brandeis Chamber Singers (Robert Duff, conductor), Brandeis voice instructors and invited guests.
December 6, 2020
As part of MUS 116: Chamber Music from Page to Stage, violist and PhD candidate in musicology Eric Hollander partnered with SIMS and student artists Erick Amezcua, Evalyn Berleant and Ethan Parcell to create a unique audiovisual experience.
November 30, 2020
Candidates have until January 31, 2021 to apply via Slideroom for the annual prize of $15,000 for the composition of an original work for select instruments to complement an existing work by Henri Lazarof.
November 16, 2020
Composer and PhD candidate Luke Blackburn was named the winner of the seventh annual Costello Commission from the Lyra Society to create a new work for harp, based on his previous work, Menagerie of Spectacular Creatures: Insecta.
Assistant professor in Music and American Studies Paula Musegades has published a pioneering study of how American composer Aaron Copland helped shape the sound of the Hollywood film industry. Learn more from the publisher.
Talia Amar, PhD ’20 in Composition and Theory, has been awarded tenure as a faculty member in composition at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
October 5, 2020
Jennifer Lin ’22 (presently in Taiwan) and Emma Carlson ’24 (presently on the Brandeis campus) collaborate on an enchanting performance of Mondnacht, a song from Schumann's beloved song cycle Liederkreis, Op. 39.
July 16, 2020
Emily Koh, PhD ’17 in Composition and Theory, has been awarded an OPERA America commissioning grant via Boston's Guerilla Opera for the creation and premiere of her first concert-length opera, HER:alive|un|dead: a media opera.
July 15, 2020
The Lydian String Quartet's Judith Eissenberg has partnered with fellow faculty member Susan Dibble (of the Brandeis Department of Theater Arts) to create an audiovisual interpretation of the Allemanda movement from JS Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin.
July 7, 2020
MusicWeb International has posted a glowing review of the 2019 recording of Pietro Vinci's Quattordeci Sonetti Spirituali, performed under the direction of Professor Sarah Mead at Brandeis University's Harlan Chapel by her viol consort, Nota Bene, and a quintet of guest singers that included Brandeis instructor Matthew Anderson.
May 27, 2020
A panel of judges has selected composer Yair Klartag from Tel Aviv as the inaugural winner of the Henri Lazarof International Commission Prize. Klartag will compose an original work for flute, harp and viola.
May 5, 2020
Ben Paulding, music faculty member and director of Fafali: Music and Dance from Ghana, was awarded a 2020 Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship to study at The Gambia Academy of Music and Culture.
April 7, 2020
Inspired by music treatises, the result of the Lydian's inaugural commission prize is paired with “it wasn’t a dream,” performed by soprano Charlotte Mundy, tenor Andrew Fuchs and pianists Michael Brofman and Miori Sugiyama.
March 13, 2020
In support of public health efforts and for the safety of our community, Brandeis has determined that all classes should be moved online for the spring semester. Additionally, all on-campus events have been canceled for the remainder of the academic year. You may read all messages to the Brandeis community and access frequently asked questions by clicking on the headline above.
February 27, 2020
Betsayda Machado, known as the “Voice of Venezuela,” and her high-energy Venezuelan Afro-Soul tambor ensemble visit Brandeis March 2 - 7 for the spring 2020 MusicUnitesUS world music residency.
January 22, 2020
An annual competition for composers is part of the Henri Lazarof Living Legacy at Brandeis, which celebrates the life and impact of Henri Lazarof, the world-renowned composer, conductor, pianist and teacher.
October 31, 2019
Professor Karen Desmond is the recipient of the prestigious Lewis Lockwood Award for 2019 for her book Music and the moderni, 1300-1350: The ars nova in Theory and Practice.