Daniel Lazour, a recent graduate of Columbia College who finished his degree in music this past December, is among the recipients of the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater, administered by the Academy of Arts and Letters, for the musical We Live in Cairo, which he wrote with his brother, Patrick Lazour. We Live in Cairo "tells the story of six student revolutionaries coming of age in today's Middle East, who confront the past in their search for freedom. Young men and women, armed with laptops and cameras, guitars and spray paint cans, inspire millions to take to the streets of Cairo to overthrow their president, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak."

For more information, please see Playbill's announcement: http://www.playbill.com/article/hadestown-a-modern-day-twist-on-the-orph... Congratulations, Daniel!

Matthew Morrison (Ph.D, Historical Musicology, 2014) has been appointed a tenure-track Assistant Professor, Recorded Sound in the Tisch School of the Arts (Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music) at New York University. Since 2014 he has been an Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow in the Institute. Congratulations Matthew! https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/clive-davis-institute/918859097 Check out Matthew's website here: http://madmoimpresario.com/

The Department warmly congratulates Prof. Ana Maria Ochoa (Ethnomusicology), whose new book Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth Century Colombia (Duke University Press, 2014) has been co-awarded the prestigious Alan Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology.

The Merriam Prize recognizes "the most distinguished, published English-language monograph in the field of ethnomusicology" of the prior two year period.

Tina Frühauf, along with her co-editor Lily E. Hirsch, won the American Musicological Society's Ruth A. Solie award this year for their edited volume, Dislocated Memories: Jews, Music, and Postwar German Culture (Oxford University Press, 2014). Solie Committee Chair Professor Colleen Reardon (UC Irvine) described the volume at the award presentation:

"The Solie award winner this year tackles themes of transnationalism, displacement, and memory by examining the fascinating and often problematic relationship between Jewish music and German culture in the shadow of the Holocaust. An introduction that leads naturally into a survey of postwar writings on Jewish music, and an illuminating postscript on the “represence” of Jewish music in Germany frame a collection of essays that elegantly mirror the theme of the volume by traveling backwards and forwards in time, by exploring music in the camps and outside its borders, and by tackling such difficult topics as the discourse of avoidance and narratives of survival."

At Columbia, Dr. Frühauf teaches Jewish Music of New York (MUSI V2030) and Masterpieces of Western Music (Music Humanities).

Professor Georg Friedrich Haas' new opera, Morgen und Abend, premiered at Covent Garden on Friday, November 13. Professor Haas' new work received a very positive review from the New York Times. Read the review here.

Congratulations to Prof. Haas!

We are proud to announce that Dr. Courtney Bryan (2014, DMA Music Composition) has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Music at Tulane University's Newcomb Department of Music beginning in Fall 2016, after she completes a second appointment as Postdoctorate Research Associate at Princeton University's Department of African-American Studies (2015-16). During this academic year, she will research the music of Alice Coltrane, write a commissioned piece for the ensemble, Duo Noire, and continue working on various compositions and performances. Congratulations, Dr. Bryan! http://www.courtneybryan.com