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!

Last week, the ASCAP Foundation named Sky Macklay (DMA, Composition) as a recipient of their Morton Gould Young Composer Award. Read the ASCAP Foundation's announcement here. Congratulations, Sky!

Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (faculty & director, Music Performance Program) recently visited Quest University in Squamish BC, upon an invitation from its current faculty member and Columbia graduate, Andrew Haringer (PhD, Historical Musicology, 2012). Baczewska presented a sold-out lecture recital 'Goldberg Variations in Context', an in-class lecture demonstration on Chopin and nationalism, and performed Schubert's Fantasie in F minor with Haringer in his seminar on Romanticism. Three days later Baczewska appeared at University of Connecticut's Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts, in a recital with violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv, featuring Bartok's Roumanian Dances, Beethoven's 'Kreutzer' Sonata, and Sonata in A major by Franck. She is currently preparing for a performance of Toys, a piano work by Peter Susser (faculty & director of undergraduate musicianship).

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

University Provost John Coatsworth and Professor Walter Frisch, who is teaching Music Humanities in Paris this semester, were among the guests at a reception on March 4 at the Musée d'Orsay for Columbia trustees, and for faculty, alumni, and staff of the Global Center at Reid Hall.

Congratulations to Jenny Payne (BC 2016), a neuroscience and ethnomusicology major, for being awarded the prestigious Luce Scholarship! The Luce Scholars Program provides professional placement, in addition to language study and stipends, in Asia for American college seniors, graduate students, and young professionals. The program's goal is to "enhance the understanding of Asia among potential leaders in American society." Jenny gave an interview to the Columbia Spectator, in which she outlines her personal and professional journey and goals: read it here.

Congratulations to Vince Cherico, associate in jazz drums at Columbia's Music Performance Program for your amazing GRAMMY win! On February 8, 2015 at the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards in Los Angeles, The Offense of the Drum, the fourth album from Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, won the GRAMMY Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

Professor Ellie Hisama's 1993 paper "Postcolonialism on the make: the music of John Mellencamp, David Bowie and John Zorn" has been quoted in two recent articles on David Bowie (following Bowie's death on January 10 of this year):

"For Bowie, the Thin White Duke, inspiration was black" (Economic Times)

Ruth Tam, "How David Bowie's 'China Girl' used racism to fight racism" (Washington Post)