Congratulations, Class of 2020!
Jun 1, 2020
In a virtual Class Day ceremony this afternoon, students, faculty, and staff joined together over Zoom to honor and send off the remarkable students in the Class of 2020. The proceedings featured tributes from faculty members, excerpts from senior theses and recitals, and the presentation of awards. Department Chair Professor Wendy Heller noted: “In the …
Rudresh Mahanthappa: JazzTimes Cover Feature
May 27, 2020
JazzTimes has published a cover feature profile about Rudresh Mahanthappa, Director of Jazz Studies, in the publication’s June issue. Read the article online here!
Essay by Simon Morrison: The Sounds of Solace
May 8, 2020
Published in the May 13, 2020 issue of Princeton Alumni Weekly. At midnight on March 27, Bob Dylan released a previously unknown 17-minute song about the assassination of JFK. We don’t know when he wrote it, but its release is apropos. In recalling a past national trauma amid the present pandemic, Dylan offers us the opportunity to …
Student Awards: Maya Stepansky & Pascal Le Boeuf
May 5, 2020
Congratulations to sophomore drummer Maya Stepansky and graduate student composer Pascal Le Boeuf: Maya was selected as the Undergraduate College Winner of DownBeat Magazine’s 43rd Annual Student Awards in the Blues/Pop/Rock Soloist category. The complete list of winners will be published in the publication’s June issue. An excerpt from the announcement reads: “Maya Stepansky, winner of the …
Continuing Studio Instruction During COVID-19
May 4, 2020
“When I first heard about the university transitioning to online lessons, my first thought was that this would be the end of music making for me at Princeton,” said Yang Song, a senior clarinetist in the Program in Music Performance. Figuring out how to translate the Department of Music’s robust performance curriculum into an online platform …
Undergraduate Concentration Requirements Revised
Apr 15, 2020
The Department of Music is excited to announce revisions to the curriculum for Music Majors—the first such curricular change since the late 1990s. To see the comprehensive new curriculum, please click here. Developed by a subcommittee led by Professor Dan Trueman, the new program offers students more flexibility within their course selection, and exposure to a …
Professor Emeritus Claudio Spies Dies at 95
Apr 10, 2020
Claudio Spies, Professor of Music Emeritus at Princeton University, died peacefully at his home in Sonoma, California, on April 2. He was 95. Composer, conductor, music theorist and author, Spies was born on March 26, 1925, in Santiago, Chile, of German-Jewish parents. “I’d had dreams . . . of composing ever since I was a kid, because …
Anna Pidgorna: Juno Award Nomination
Jan 28, 2020
Congratulations to graduate student composer Anna Pidgorna, whose composition is featured on an album just nominated for a 2020 Juno Award — the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy Awards. Her work, “The Child, Bringer of Light” is included on violist Marina Thibeault’s album “Elles,” which is nominated for Classical Album of the Year in the Solo …
Announcing the 2019-2020 Concerto Competition Winners
Jan 23, 2020
Congratulations to the winners of the 2019-2020 Princeton University Orchestra Concerto Competition: Violinists Fumika Mizuno ’21: Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto Op. 14 Hana Mundiya ’20: W.A. Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216 Vocalist Allison Spann ’20: Excerpt from David del Tredici’s Final Alice Pianist Vian Wagatsuma ’23: W. A. Mozart’s Piano …
Ruth Ochs Receives Community Engagement Award
Jan 21, 2020
by Emily Eyestone, Pace Center for Civic EngagementReposted from the John H. Pace Jr ’39 Center for Civic Engagement For Ruth Ochs, music has always been a connective force; a force she has used to build community on an off Princeton’s campus. In recognition of this work, Dr. Ochs, conductor of the Princeton University Sinfonia, associate …
PRISM Quartet’s New Album Features Princeton Composers
Dec 13, 2019
The PRISM Quartet‘s latest album, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, takes its name from a new work of the same name by Princeton faculty composer Steve Mackey. The album also includes new works by former graduate student composers Emma O’Halloran and Julia Wolfe. The three Princeton composers, as well as composers Anna Weesner and Kristin Kuster, were commissioned by the PRISM Quartet to write …
Iarla Ó Lionáird Receives RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award
Oct 28, 2019
Congratulations to Iarla Ó Lionáird, Global Scholar and Visiting Lecturer in Music and the Humanities, who was awarded Best Folk Singer by the 2019 RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards. The awards offer support and recognition to Irish folk musicians and an opportunity to showcase their work on a national platform while celebrating the historical and cultural significance the music holds in Ireland. Iarla Ó Lionáird …
Book Announcement: Prof. Simon Morrison
Aug 27, 2019
Congratulations to Prof. Simon Morrison, whose “incredibly rich” (The New York Times) history of the Bolshoi Ballet, Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today, has now been released in a revised French edition as a Belfond publication. Simultaneously, the second edition of Prof. Morrison’s book Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement has …
Peter Westergaard and Music Performance at Princeton
Aug 23, 2019
Recently, we witnessed the sad passing of Peter Talbot Westergaard — Princeton’s William Shubael Conant Professor of Music, Emeritus — at age 88. He was the most influential musical artist of my life, and my close friend. My purpose here is to share some tales of the “old days”, when the Music Department was a …