Musicology + music theory

Unique klezmer + Yiddish song residency features diverse guest artists

Mariefaith Lane — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 22:40:17 +0000

Unique klezmer + Yiddish song residency features diverse guest artists Mariefaith Lane Wed, 10/15/2025 - 16:40

College of Music

Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell and Dmitri Gaskin. Photo by Stefan Loeber.

On Oct. 24-29, the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music will host a unique klezmer and Yiddish song residency featuring singer Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, accordionist and composer Dmitri Gaskin, violinist Zoë Aqua and cellist Raffi Boden—all leading musicians in the international Yiddish music scene.

Organized by Associate Professor of Music Theory Yonatan Malin, the residency will include workshops for the strings, voice and composition areas; guest performances in several classes; a recital featuring Yiddish song, klezmer dances and Central European folk tunes (Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m., Grusin Music Hall); a workshop on the use of black music in Jewish spaces (Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m., S102, Imig Music Building); and a colloquium on klezmer and Transylvanian folk music pedagogy (Oct. 27, 2:30 p.m., S101, Imig Music Building). The concert, workshop and colloquium are all free and open to the public.

Zoë Aqua

“I’m excited for this residency because it will bring in a remarkable group of young musicians who have followed unique musical and personal paths,” says Malin. “Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell is an operatic bass who combines African American traditions with music of Jewish Eastern Europe in a multi-diasporic sound. Zoë Aqua is a klezmer and classical violinist and educator who spent several years studying folk music pedagogy in Transylvania. And Raffi Boden and Dmitri Gaskin also have followed unique paths—Boden is an Oberlin- and Juilliard-trained cellist who has a dynamic freelance career in New York playing experimental chamber music, jazz and klezmer. Gaskin is an accordionist, composer and arranger specializing in klezmer and Polish and Romanian folk music.

Raffi Boden

“All four are multiskilled, multidisciplinary artists who will serve as models and inspiration for our students.”

Adds Malin, “The residency involves so many departments in the College of Music! Anthony Russell will give a workshop and master class for voice majors, Zoë Aqua will lead a workshop for all the string studios and Dmitri Gaskin will give a guest presentation in Associate Professor of Composition Annika Socolofsky’s orchestration class.”

All four guest artists will also perform and present in Malin’s course, “Music in Jewish Cultures”; and in Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology + International Affairs Ben Teitelbaum’s course, “Introduction to Musical Styles and Ideas.” Additionally, Aqua and Boden will lead a rehearsal for the college’s Cross-Genre American Roots String Ensemble, taught by Jazz Studies Lecturer Enion Pelta-Tiller.

Malin concludes, “This residency has been a remarkable opportunity for campuswide collaboration. These interdisciplinary connections reflect the College of Music’s universal musician approach to achieving our mission, supporting our students to become compassionate and engaged world citizens.”

The klezmer + Yiddish song residency is a campus collaboration among the College of Music, the Program in Jewish Studies, Jews of Color: Histories and Futures, the Center for African and African American Studies, the American Music Research Center, the Religious Studies Department and the History Department. In the College of Music, this residency is supported by the Roser Visiting Artist Endowment.

Off

Traditional

White

New innovative graduate degree bridges music research + performance

Mariefaith Lane — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 11:41:31 +0000

New innovative graduate degree bridges music research + performance Mariefaith Lane Wed, 10/08/2025 - 05:41

MarieFaith Lane

This fall, the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music launched a graduate program that reimagines the study and practice of historical music. The new master’s degree in historical performance and research blends rigorous academic scholarship with intensive professional-level performance training, offering students a path found at no other institution in North America.

The program is co-directed by Assistant Professor of Harpsichord + Eugene D. Eaton, Jr., Chair in Baroque Music Performance Lillian Gordis (pictured left) and Assistant Professor of Musicology Saraswathi Shukla (right) who developed a curriculum modeled after European conservatories and universities where hybrid programs have existed for decades. Gordis, who completed such a program in Paris, says it was “a really rewarding degree” that empowered her to develop broadly-based skills in writing, archival research and performance-related scholarship. Our new program offers ��ƷSM��ӰƬ students the opportunity to gain a comparable level of knowledge and skill without traveling abroad: Emphasizing cohesion among university and conservatory coursework, co-taught classes and rigorous skill-building, the program prepares students for scholarly creative works, performance and more.

“Historically, early music has always been a blend of scholarship and performance,” says Shukla. “Over time, those two branches split apart. What we’re doing is bringing them back together in a way that equips students with the full range of skills they need to succeed in diverse disciplines.”

A rigorous curriculum
Students will take seminars in performance practice, tuning and temperament, basso continuo and archival research. They will also study privately on their instrument, perform in the College of Music’s early music ensemble and complete a master’s thesis. Public performance is a major component of the new master’s degree: Students must present a recital in both the first and second years.

“This is not a program for the faint of heart,” notes Gordis. “Students are expected to perform at a high level, write a substantial thesis and master the core skills of historical performance. It’s almost a double workload, but it prepares students for doctoral study, or a professional performing career or other related career.”

Unlike a conventional performance or musicology degree, the program demands equal commitment to both. Gordis and Shukla emphasize that the workload is intentionally rigorous but designed to be complementary: Research courses inform performance and performance deepens research.

Responding to national trends
The College of Music is introducing the degree at a pivotal moment: Across the country, early music programs are shrinking or closing, leaving fewer opportunities for students who wish to pursue specialized training.

“There’s strong demand from students for this kind of program, but fewer places where they can actually get it,” explains Shukla. “Our program fills that gap while also offering something distinctive: The chance to graduate prepared for both research and performance at the highest levels.”

Gordis adds that young musicians increasingly demand flexibility in their training. “Many students don’t want to be forced to choose between performance and scholarship right after completing their undergraduate degrees,” she shares. “Our new master’s degree keeps both doors open and allows them to build the skill set they need in a complex and changing profession.”

Ensuring broadly-based career options
This forward-thinking approach aligns with the College of Music’s mission to prepare students for careers beyond music performance, embracing an interdisciplinary model that encourages holistic student development and discovery. Specifically, the program reflects the college’s innovative universal musician approach to achieving its mission, preparing students for flexible career options.

The program’s inaugural student—Ray Pragman—establishes the beginning of a new academic community and the future of historical performance education, nationally.

A forward-looking mindset
For Gordis, the program is also about cultivating a mindset. “Historical performance is about curiosity,” she says. “It’s about asking questions, experimenting and building community. We want our students to experience the new program as a space where they can pursue their interests rigorously, but also creatively—and come out prepared for whatever direction they choose.”

Shukla also views the program as developing skills that extend beyond music. “We’re offering students the tools to ask the right questions. That kind of open-mindedness and critical thinking are valuable not just in music but in any field.”

A one-of-a-kind opportunity
By combining research and performance into a single degree, the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music is positioning itself at the forefront of historical music education in North America. The ability to attract international guest artists, invest in tenure-track faculty and foster interdisciplinary collaboration sets the program apart.

Applications for the master’s in historical performance and research are now open.

This fall, the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music launched a new master’s degree in historical performance and research—the first of its kind in North America. Combining rigorous academic training with professional-level performance, the degree prepares students for doctoral study, performance and diverse other music careers.

Off

Traditional

White

Maymester course brings Vienna’s history alive

Mariefaith Lane — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 13:58:12 +0000

Maymester course brings Vienna’s history alive Mariefaith Lane Wed, 07/09/2025 - 07:58

Kathryn Bistodeau

At the Café Landtmann, one of Vienna's classic coffeehouses.

“I was really fortunate to do quite a bit of international travel while I was an undergraduate,” recalls Professor of Musicology Robert Shay. “For me, that literally changed my worldview.” He aims to pass on such transformative experiences to College of Music students by way of his study abroad course—Vienna 1900: Music, Arts & Culture.

Shay taught a similar course earlier in his career, then brought the idea to ��ƷSM��ӰƬ and led his first cohort in 2023. This May, he led a group of upper-level undergrads to Vienna, Austria, to explore and experience its music, history, architecture and visual arts.

“We’re focusing on this idea that modernism in the arts burst on the scene around 1900 in Vienna—in some ways reflecting and maybe anticipating the crisis that was happening in Europe at the time, leading up to World War I,” Shay says. “I think it’s a very interesting course. There are certainly fun aspects, but we deal with some challenging topics as well.”

At the Vienna State Opera following a performance
of Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold.”

The Maymester course—offered in partnership with ��ƷSM��ӰƬ Education Abroad—included visiting museums showcasing works of Gustav Klimt, walking the Ringstrasse to admire Otto Wagner’s architecture, and enjoying a violin concerto by Erich Wolfgang Korngold featuring violinist Renaud Capuçon and the Vienna Symphony. Outside of academics, the class also enjoyed a traditional Viennese cafe and a meal at a winery.

“I’m impressed that the students were really into the interdisciplinary aspect of the course,” Shay shares. “I told them that, as a musicologist, my research is in the 17th century—but this is just a topic that I love and I view myself as kind of the senior student in our group. It’s an opportunity for me to keep learning about this topic every time I lead the course.”

Part of that interdisciplinary appreciation also derived from the mix of degree paths represented by the 11 course participants including BA, BM and BME music majors, three music minors and double majors in colleges across campus.

“Each group has its own chemistry,” Shay reflects. “This year, there were a small number of students who knew enough about what they were getting into—and who were fans of some of the artwork we experienced—that they were able to help lead us all in an enthusiastic direction.”

The group’s enthusiasm culminated at the Vienna State Opera where they experienced a performance of Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold.”

“We were all, I think, very excited at the end of the opera,” adds Shay. “It was a sold-out house—2,500 people—and as we were starting to leave, the audience kept clapping, bringing the cast out for its fifth bow, that kind of thing.

“Wagner, even though he died in the 1880s, was a big influence over this period—a controversial influence as well. I think the students really understood that, wow, this is something that’s special to be here for.”

Leopold Museum; the guide is explaining Gustav Klimt's "Death and Life."

This May, Professor of Musicology Robert Shay led a group of upper-level undergrads to Vienna, Austria, for a study abroad course titled Vienna 1900: Music, Arts & Culture. Discover where they went, what they learned and how the experience expanded their worldview!

Off

Traditional

White

Gems of the AMRC collections: Sister Mary Dominic Ray

Mariefaith Lane — Tue, 20 May 2025 15:32:17 +0000

Gems of the AMRC collections: Sister Mary Dominic Ray Mariefaith Lane Tue, 05/20/2025 - 09:32

Kathryn Bistodeau

Sister Mary Dominic Ray.

When Taylor Howard, a first-year PhD student in ethnomusicology, dove into the Sister Mary Dominic Ray Collection, she was expecting to find the nun’s biography, books she annotated or articles she wrote. Instead, she unlocked a highly varied collection of documents that left Sister Mary—who founded our American Music Research Center (AMRC)—a mystery.

“She founded the center at Dominican College [now Dominican University of California] in 1967,” Howard says. “She took sole control for the first 20 years and her focus was on California mission music.”

Sister Mary had a connection to music through her background as a trained concert pianist. She studied in Europe, and traveled and competed across America.

“She gradually transitioned to the collecting of sacred music,” adds Howard. “She had about seven years as a concert pianist and then went on to teach at Dominican College—initially only as faculty—and then she joined the order of the Dominican Sisters in 1947.”

A map of the California missions.

Sister Mary’s collection is now housed with the AMRC in Norlin Library. It holds various media detailing facets of American music that Sister Mary found fascinating including California mission music—sacred music from the Spanish colonies in a region known as “upper California,” or the modern-day West Coast of the United States, in the 18th and 19th centuries. MORE

When Taylor Howard dove into the Sister Mary Dominic Ray Collection, she was expecting to find the nun’s biography, books she annotated or articles she wrote. Instead, she unlocked a highly varied collection of documents that left Sister Mary—who founded our American Music Research Center—a mystery.

Off

Traditional

White

Graduating DMA student shares College of Music experience, future plans

Anonymous — Thu, 02 May 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Graduating DMA student shares College of Music experience, future plans Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/02/2024 - 00:00

Adam Goldstein

When Joy Yamaguchi graduates from the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ’s College of Music next week with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree (violin performance + Music Theory Certificate), the work she started here will continue well beyond her official stint as a student.

“I’m looking forward to further developing the projects I started through my research here at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ,” says Yamaguchi. “Completing this degree has helped me realize my strength and solidify my focus as a multifaceted artist.”

Yamaguchi came to ��ƷSM��ӰƬ as a doctoral student with credentials as an accomplished teacher, performer and entrepreneur. She started playing violin at age 8 (she describes her musical roots as being a “Suzuki violin kid”), and went on to earn a bachelor’s in music from the University of Minnesota and a master’s from Florida State University.

Our College of Music offered Yamaguchi opportunities to expand her already refined approach as a musician, educator and artist. Thanks in part to the mentorship of top-notch faculty and the availability of top-tier academic resources, Yamaguchi has deepened her connection to music—and to the history of the art form.

Her time at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ saw Yamaguchi researching and creating a new edition of two violin sonatas by Nobu Kōda, a Japanese composer of the Meiji era whose works were historically excluded from the classical canon, due in part to the fact that she was a woman.

The DMA program also offered Yamaguchi the chance to create a new curriculum for beginning string students. This curriculum, which focuses on teaching music theory through composition and improvisation, wasn’t just theoretical: Yamaguchi had the chance to put the system into practice with students at El Sistema Colorado.

In addition, Yamaguchi—who’s also the inaugural recipient of the András Szentkirályi Memorial Scholarship—found opportunities to present her research, insights and innovations to an audience beyond our campus. In 2023, she presented during the National American String Teachers Association’s annual conference, specifically detailing research that drew connections between bell hooks’ pedagogical framework and music education.

All of these accomplishments align with the mission that Yamaguchi had in mind when she decided to pursue her doctoral work at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ. “I was looking for a program that would allow me to gain hands-on teaching experience and explore my interdisciplinary research interests,” she says.

“I was very fortunate to have a graduate teaching assistantship throughout my degree,” she adds, explaining that the assistantship allowed her to interact firsthand with students, and to learn the ins and outs of the academic world. “I taught lessons to undergraduate and graduate students, assisted with music theory courses and grew my understanding of the inner workings of academia.”

All of this valuable experience is set to pay off in very practical ways. This spring, for example, Yamaguchi will head directly from Boulder to Wisconsin where she’ll manage this year’s Blackbird Creative Lab, a prestigious musical immersion event hosted by Grammy Award-winning musicians—surely only the first of many ways that she’ll carry what she learned at our College of Music into the wider world.

“The DMA challenged me in ways that were expected and unexpected,” she concludes. “Throughout, I’ve been very grateful for the community of teachers and colleagues who have supported me. The relationships I’ve formed at CU will continue.”

Congratulations, Joy—and to all our fantastic 2024 graduates!

When Joy Yamaguchi graduates from our College of Music next week with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, the work she started here will continue. “Completing this degree has helped me realize my strength and solidify my focus as a multifaceted artist,” she shares.

Off

Traditional

White

College of Music announces new music theory faculty member

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:51:37 +0000

College of Music announces new music theory faculty member Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/05/2024 - 09:51

Sabine Kortals Stein

Photo credit: Rosen-Jones Photography

The ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music is thrilled to announce that Assistant Professor of Music Theory Leah Frederick will join the College of Music this fall.

“Although we’re sad that Steve Bruns is retiring, we’re very excited to have Leah Frederick join the music theory area,” says Professor of Music Theory Keith Waters, who chaired the search committee. “Leah has taught in some of the highest-ranking music programs including those at Indiana University, Oberlin College and Conservatory and—most recently—the University of Michigan.”

At Oberlin, Frederick was involved in the redesign and launch of its new undergraduate music theory curriculum. While at Indiana University, she served as editor of the Indiana Theory Review and was awarded the Wennerstrom AI Fellowship for outstanding teaching.

Continues Waters, “Along with tremendous teaching expertise, she’s a practicing violist and a rising star in the music theory world. She will be a tremendous asset across the College of Music—including our Master of Music program in music theory where our graduates have gone on to join the faculties and teach at the Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Harvard University, Wake Forest University and elsewhere.”

“I’m delighted to join the theory faculty at the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ’s College of Music,” says Frederick, who specializes in mathematical approaches to music theory.

“One of the reasons that I was drawn to the field of music theory is the fact that it offers us so many different ways to think about and engage with music. I believe that music is an ideal medium through which students can embrace curiosity and learn to effectively communicate their own perspectives and ideas—skills that are essential to the College of Music’s mission to develop universal musicians.

“I look forward to growing with and learning from the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music community in pursuit of this goal.”

Frederick earned a PhD in music theory from Indiana University as well as a BS in mathematics and a BMA in viola performance from Pennsylvania State University. Her scholarship examines ways in which musical objects can be represented with mathematical structures—particularly the interpretive nature of this mapping. Her current project uses transformational theory to study relationships between patterns in instrumental spaces (i.e., the layout of notes on an instrument) and the corresponding pitch relationships they produce.

Frederick’s recently published work employs geometric and transformational techniques to examine the properties of diatonic versus chromatic musical space. Her writing on voice leading in mod-7 space appears in the Journal of Music Theory and Music Theory Spectrum; her dissertation on this topic was awarded the Society for Music Theory’s 2020 SMT-40 Dissertation Fellowship and Indiana University’s 2018-20 Dean’s Dissertation Prize. A related conference paper received Music Theory Midwest’s 2018 Arthur J. Komar Award.

Frederick currently serves as co-chair of the Society for Music Theory’s Mathematics of Music Interest Group, on the Executive Board for the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music and on the Editorial Board for Music Theory Online.

Welcome!

Assistant Professor of Music Theory Leah Frederick will join the College of Music in fall 2024.

Off

Traditional

White

Remembering Fauré—a century later

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Remembering Fauré—a century later Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/13/2024 - 00:00

Marc Shulgold , Sabine Kortals Stein

Professor of Musicology Carlo Caballero remembers when he fell in love with the music of Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924): “It was when I heard his ‘Requiem’ as an undergrad at Pomona College [in southern California].

“I was so taken by the harmonies and I started looking at scores. I didn’t realize then that my career would become centered on Fauré.”

Pursuing a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, Caballero’s graduate dissertation was on Fauré. From there, his love and admiration for the Frenchman’s music continued to grow. He’s since written books about Fauré and edited critical editions of the composer’s two piano quintets for “The Complete Works of Gabriel Fauré.” Yes, he’s also published studies on ballet music of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, and social continuities in French music from the 18^th to the 20^th centuries. But one composer remains close to his heart and his academic pursuits. Particularly these days.

This year marks a milestone for Caballero who—along with his academic partner Stephen Rumph, professor of music history at the University of Washington—will co-host the Fauré Centennial Festival in Boulder, Feb. 27-March 3. All festival events comprising this major, global gathering of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ faculty and student musicians alongside panelists from France, Canada, Israel, Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States are free and open to the public although registration is appreciated from those who plan to attend the conference.

Self-caricature by Gabriel Fauré—under his signature at the end of a letter to Elizabeth Swinton—circa 1898. Private archive, with permission.

Before enumerating the impressive number of papers to be presented, concerts to be held and new works to be premiered, Caballero shares how the whole project began. “I visited Stephen in Seattle in the summer of 2021,” he recalls. The two men had worked together previously, co-editing “Fauré Studies” for Cambridge University Press. “We were strolling on the beach—talking about how 2024 was the 100^th anniversary of Fauré’s death—and Stephen said, ‘Why don’t we do a festival?’ That’s how it all started.”

In retrospect, Caballero points out, Rumph’s casual suggestion proved advantageous. Getting the ball rolling, and planning and sending out all the invitations and calls for papers so early, resulted in strong interest and a healthy number of acceptances.

There was much to do in the months that followed: Grants to write and submit, campus facilities to secure and—here’s a surprise—composers to commission. “The four festival recitals [including a Faculty Tuesdays recital on Feb. 27] will offer a kaleidoscopic experience, not just a look back,” Caballero explains. In addition to chamber music by Fauré in diverse instrumentations, the festival will feature works by his contemporaries—like Maurice Ravel, Mel Bonis and Cécile Chaminade—as well as nine new commissions by both professional composers and students.

“It was Stephen’s idea to connect these new works to the legacy of Fauré, but in the composers’ own style,” says Caballero, who further notes that 16 academic papers will be presented as part of the festival, including one of his own—“The Smith’s Harmonic Forge: Voice-Leading in the First Movement of Fauré’s Second Piano Quartet.”

Caballero is optimistic that the Fauré Centennial Festival will continue to raise appreciation of Fauré’s music. For him, the attraction is singular: “My academic career is fueled by the beauty of his music.”

The Fauré Centennial Festival—held on campus at the Imig Music Building and Macky Auditorium, and at Boulder’s First Congregational Church—is supported by the Dr. C. W. Bixler Family Foundation, the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music, the Center for Humanities & the Arts and the Research & Innovation Office.

This year marks a milestone for Professor of Musicology Carlo Caballero who—along with his academic partner Stephen Rumph, professor of music history at the University of Washington—will co-host the Fauré Centennial Festival in Boulder, Feb. 27-March 3.

Off

Traditional

White

Upholding the impact and legacy of composer George Crumb

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Upholding the impact and legacy of composer George Crumb Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/06/2024 - 00:00

Marc Shulgold

Photo: Bruns and Crumb at a recording session of “Metamorphoses, Book II” at Swarthmore College in 2021.

Writing music can be a lonely occupation—very private, very demanding. So it’s no surprise that most composers come across as intimidating individuals. Not so with an affable gentleman like George Crumb, although you’d never expect it from listening to his complex, often transcendent music.

“My mom connected with him,” recalls ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music Associate Professor of Music Theory Steven Bruns, who will retire in May. “She always said George seemed like a nice fellow from down the street.” Anyone who spent some time with the late composer (including this writer) walked away amazed at how instantly likable he was. Yet, as Bruns is well aware, when Crumb died on Feb. 6, 2022, at age 92, the world lost one of its most brilliant and influential music makers.

Bruns and Crumb each served as faculty members at the College of Music—Crumb, from 1959 to 1964 and Bruns from 1987 to his pending retirement. But they shared more than that: A close, long-lasting professional relationship and a deep friendship that began in 1992. “I first met George in Prague, where I was lecturing on his music at a week-long Crumb Festival,” Bruns recounts, “I wrote my dissertation on Mahler and later published an article that traced the many connections between his music and Crumb’s. George wrote to express his delight with my perspective.

“That whole experience changed my life. I continued to write about Crumb’s music and eventually became his archivist.”

In fact, the professor’s work continued to involve more than organizing Crumb’s papers and manuscripts. “I’ve had access to an amazing amount of material,” Bruns says. “I was able to scan so much—his sketches, his letters, photographs, almost everything.” He’s still working on this massive project and there’s more: Bridge Records, the label run by Crumb’s devoted friends David and Becky Starobin, recently released the complete works of the composer on 22 CDs—Bruns was a key participant, attending recording sessions and writing liner notes.

You’d think that digging through Crumb’s library of papers and collaborating with the Starobins on the Bridge recordings would keep the professor busy enough in his upcoming retirement. Well, guess again. Bruns has also been involved in a film project about the late composer.

“The film is built around a concert that was held in May 2022 of Crumb’s ‘Ancient Voices of Children’ [1970], three months after George died,” explains Bruns. Among the performers at this program by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York were soprano Tony Arnold, pianist Gilbert Kalish and percussionist Daniel Druckman. “That performance is the point of departure for a one-hour documentary that will include various interviews,” adds Bruns. “I’m one of the talking heads.” Directed by Tristan Cook, “Ancient Voices: A Film for George Crumb” will have its world premiere at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, in late March.

The point of the film—and the theme of his continuing post-academic labors on behalf of the late composer—is simple: “I want to tell people who he was, to keep his music alive.”

That goal may sound puzzling, knowing how brilliant a composer Crumb was, knowing the praise his works consistently received, the well-attended performances in concert halls around the world and the awards he won—the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 and a Grammy in 2001, among many other honors. But that’s no guarantee of a permanent place in the consciousness of a fickle public.

“George was extremely self-critical and very humble. He never engaged in catty talk about his composer colleagues,” adds Bruns. In other words, he kept a low profile and was hardly the self-marketing sort. So, what does the future hold for his music now that he’s gone? Where does one look for Crumb’s works and what role will Bruns play in that search?

“I’ll do all I can to invite new listeners into the sound world of George Crumb,” Bruns replies. He’s working on a book about the composer, hoping to educate a wider audience about the impact of the man’s music. Meanwhile, the collected compositions are not gathering dust, he reports. “There are at least a half-dozen works that are solidly in the repertoire. In addition to regular concert performances, there are multiple recordings of nearly every composition. For example, more than 20 pianists have released recordings of ‘Makrokosmos, Volumes I & II’ [1972 and 1973]. A good starter piece is ‘Vox Balaenae’ [‘Voice of the Whale’], Crumb’s dream-like trio for flute, cello and piano.”

Those who experience Crumb’s music are in for an amazing surprise, Bruns promises. “Every piece creates a powerful connection with an audience.”

Associate Professor of Music Theory Steven Bruns and the late, renowned composer George Crumb shared a close, long-lasting professional relationship and a deep friendship that began in 1992. As Bruns nears retirement this spring, he reflects on his role as Crumb’s archivist and biographer.

Off

Traditional

White

Alumnus Dylan Fixmer—composer with a cause

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Alumnus Dylan Fixmer—composer with a cause Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/29/2023 - 00:00

Marc Shulgold

Not one to mince words, College of Music alumnus Dylan Fixmer gets right to the point: “I want music to have a purpose,” he says. But finding his purpose didn’t come right away.

Fixmer earned a bachelor’s degree in music education in 2010 and went straight into teaching. Which was fine. Still, he admits, “I’d been composing my whole life. I was always noodling on some sort of piece.

“Five years ago, my mom showed my wife [alumna Sarah Off] and me a song I’d written many years ago. I guess I’ve always been a composer.”

But first things first: With an undergrad diploma from ��ƷSM��ӰƬ in hand, he spent a decade teaching in small Colorado towns such as Hotchkiss and Rifle, also serving as a counselor at the YMCA of the Rockies. Along the way, he earned a master’s in music education from Indiana University. Truth be told, Fixmer got his biggest kick out of time spent in Hotchkiss, population 875.

“I put together a little 8^th-grade jazz band,” he reminisces, somehow managing to keep a straight face as he listed the instrumentation: “We had two tubas, a bass clarinet and drums. I played piano and there were some other instruments. But the best part was, they played my compositions.”

Are we starting to see a pattern here? Fixmer, 35, recalls that, yes, while pursuing his degree at our College of Music, he studied composition and theory with noted Professor of Composition Carter Pann. Even as he pursued his graduate degree in music education and found work in the classroom, life as a composer continued to beckon. “I was always going through textbooks on composing,” says Fixmer, exemplifying the college’s universal musician mission. “I wanted to expand my vocabulary.”

And so it came to pass, in a big and meaningful way. Fixmer not only found life as a composer, but he found a way of writing music with a purpose. “I’m not sure I’d ever want to write a piece of absolute music,” he admits, referring to a composition that is simply a collection of melodies with no storyline or subtext. Instead, Fixmer creates for a reason.

Consider his Violin Concerto, premiered by the Greeley Philharmonic in September 2022—in partnership with the Greeley Family House and other homelessness assistance organizations to increase support for the unhoused. This work has such an extraordinary backstory that it deserves a movie treatment. Off performed the premiere on an instrument once owned by Terri Sternberg—an accomplished musician who had fallen on hard times, became homeless and died in 2013. Learning her story propelled Fixmer to create a heartfelt concerto that generated critical raves, a radio broadcast on Colorado Public Radio and eventually helped bring attention to the cause of homelessness as far away as London and Paris.

His deep concern about people goes beyond writing a thoughtful piece of music, he stresses. “In Greeley, I’m on a homelessness task force. That’s part of my desire in identifying topics to write about—ones that focus on human connections.”

Those connections now include some of Fixmer’s neighbors in Northern Colorado. Recently, another of his orchestral works was premiered by the Greeley Philharmonic where he now serves as composer-in-residence and where he’s created an impactful education outreach program. His “Seven Symphonic Portraits: A Weld County Reflection”—commissioned by the Greeley Philharmonic and the Weld Community Foundation—was unveiled in October at the Union Colony Civic Center. “It’s for the people of Weld County,” he says, “to describe the experience of living here, of what brings people to this county.”

There’s not enough space to cover all that the JW Pepper Editor’s Choice Award recipient has to offer. No space to discuss his children’s Spanish-language opera, “Clara y los Cuarto Caminos” (“Clara and the Four Ways”). Nor to get around to his side career in a guitar-fiddle duo with his wife, appearing at folk festivals playing bluegrass and traditional foot-tapping Irish tunes. No time to write about a commissioned work aimed at increasing interest in mental illness.

Once again, Fixmer—with recent commissions and premieres under his belt from UC Health, Opera Guanajuato and the Crested Butte Music Festival, among others—doesn’t mince words. “I don’t want to be typecast,” he says.

Alumnus Dylan Fixmer’s variegated and prolific career aims to inspire empathy and advance community engagement.

Off

Traditional

White

A harmonious blend of music + film: November residency with Alicia Svigals, Donald Sosin

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 02:39:07 +0000

A harmonious blend of music + film: November residency with Alicia Svigals, Donald Sosin Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/02/2023 - 20:39

College of Music

In a collaboration among the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ College of Music and Program in Jewish Studies—as well as the Boulder Jewish Film Festival, Boulder Jewish Community Center and Congregation Har HaShem—renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin will present a “cine-concert” as part of a three-day residency, Nov. 7-9.

A “cine-concert” is a unique experience where a silent film comes to life with live music, all composed and performed by Svigals and Sosin. This main residency event—“The Man Without A World”—will be held Thursday, Nov. 9, at 6:30 p.m. at the Dairy Arts Center.

The residency includes two additional public events:

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m.: Community klezmer workshop with Svigals at Congregation Har HaShem.
Wednesday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m.: ��ƷSM��ӰƬ SoundWorks will present Svigals and Sosin on a program including two of Svigals’ works arranged by composition alumnus Max Wolpert, and featuring an ensemble of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ string players directed by graduate student Enion Pelta-Tiller … and more.

As part of their residency, Svigals and Sosin will further present lectures, demonstrations and workshops for our string studios and composition seminar, and the Music in Jewish Cultures and Musical Styles & Ideas courses.

Svigals is returning to Boulder following several previous visits, including a 2017 screening of the silent film “The Yellow Ticket” with live music composed and performed by herself and pianist Marily Lerner; and the 2019 Archive Transformed residency, which included performances with Associate Professor of Music Theory Yonatan Malin and jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer, led by the late Professor of History and Jewish Studies David Shneer.

Violinist/composer Svigals is the world’s leading klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics. She has performed with and written for violinist Itzhak Perlman and has worked with the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Debbie Friedman and Chava Albershteyn. Her newest CD—“Beregovski Suite: Klezmer Reimagined” with jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer—is an original take on long-lost Jewish music from Ukraine.

Pianist/composer Sosin received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Denver Silent Film Festival and the Best Original Film Score award from the 2022 Mystic Film Festival. He has performed his scores for silent films—often with his wife, singer/percussionist Joanna Seaton—at Lincoln Center, MoMA, BAM and the National Gallery; and at major film festivals in New York, San Francisco, Telluride, Hollywood, Yorkshire, Pordenone, Bologna, Shanghai, Bangkok, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow and Jecheon, South Korea … as well as many college campuses. Sosin has worked with Alexander Payne, Isabella Rossellini, Dick Hyman, Jonathan Tunick, Comden and Green, Martin Charnin, Mitch Leigh and Cy Coleman, and has played for Mikhael Baryshnikov, Mary Travers, Marni Nixon, Howie Mandel, Geula Gill and others.

Supported by the Roser Visiting Artist Program and the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts.

In a campus and community collaboration, we’re looking forward to an exciting residency featuring two outstanding artists–renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin.

Off

Traditional

White