The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded 175 Fellowships this year, three of whom are Composition DMA alumni from our very own department:
Edmund Campion (DMA, Composition, 1993)
Anthony Cheung (DMA, Composition, 2010)
Bryan Jacobs (DMA, Composition, 2015)
Congratulations to all three composers on their well-deserved fellowships!
On April 7, Professor Zosha Di Castri's piece "Near Mute Force," a setting of an adapted text by Rivka Galchen, for two sopranos, viola, piano, and drumset, commissioned by the Women's Musical Club of Toronto, will be premiered in Dannthology, a concert featuring violist Steven Dann taking place in Toronto. Read the Toronto Star's write-up about the upcoming concert here.
Hearing is Believing
Musicianship and ear training at Columbia are the focus of a newly-mounted exhibition in the Music & Arts Library. On display are original student and faculty work, as well as textbooks, training manuals, and compositions from around the world that are used to enhance and inspire the musical imagination. Curated by Professor Peter M. Susser, DMA, Director of Undergraduate Musicianship at Columbia University, the exhibit will be on display in the Library through graduation 2016.
Courtney Bryan (DMA Composition 2014) will be participating in a number of performances this spring. More detailed information below -- if you're in the area, check these concerts out!
Friday, March 25, 10:30am/11:45am
Relation: A Performance Residency by Vijay Iyer
I. "Songs of Laughing, Smiling, and Crying" for solo piano and recorded sound
II. Courtney Bryan and Brandee Younger, originals and music of Alice Coltrane
The MET Breuer Lobby Gallery of The Metropolitan Museum of New York
http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/vijay-iyer-met-br...
Friday, March 25, 7:30pm
Counterpoint: Classical Music and Nina Simone
Courtney Bryan and Eun Lee
Online concert and discussion
Fundraiser for #SingHerName concert, see link:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/singhername#/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1564305780564073/
Thursday, March 31, 8:00pm event (with 7:00pm reception)
HER (in honor of): a performance and discussion
Paul Robeson Center for the Arts
102 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
HER (in honor of): a performance and discussion, co-sponsored by the Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton University Department of African American Studies and Princeton University Department of Music, will include a live performance byHER (in honor of) -- vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles, harpist Brandee Younger, pianist Courtney Bryan, bassist Mimi Jones, and drummer Kimberly Thompson -- and a discussion with the musicians on the history of women in jazz and related contemporary issues, to be moderated by journalist, Rajul Punjabi.
http://artscouncilofprinceton.org/
Thursday, April 7 and Friday, April 8 at 7:30pm/9:00pm
(Courtney will perform April 8 at 9:00pm, "A Presence" for solo piano and recorded sound)
Fromm Players at Harvard University
Creative Music Convergences, curated by Vijay Iyer
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, Department of Music
Harvard University, Cambridge MA
FREE and OPEN TO ALL! No tickets required. First come, first seated.
http://frommfoundation.fas.harvard.edu/fromm-players-at-harvard
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/
Professor Zosha Di Castri and pianist Julia Den Boer have won the 2016 Yvar Mikhashoff Trust competition, whose goal is "to encourage the composition and performance of new works for solo piano reflecting and continuing the legacy of the distinguished American pianist, Yvar Mikhashoff" (http://www.mikhashofftrust.org/).
Professor Di Castri will be collaborating with Dr. Den Boer next year to write a new work for solo piano that will be premiered at the Banff Center for the Arts. Congratulations, Professor Di Castri!
The Department of Music at Columbia is pleased to announce the publication of our 2015-16 Newsletter, which documents the extraordinary range of activities and accomplishments in our community over the last year.
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