Faculty Appointments: Tyondai Braxton & Nathalie Joachim
Jul 8, 2022
The Department of Music at Princeton University is thrilled to announce the addition of Grammy-nominated flutist, composer, and vocalist Nathalie Joachim and American composer and musician Tyondai Braxton to the faculty.
Book Announcement: Prof. Simon Morrison
Nov 20, 2021
Congratulations to Prof. Simon Morrison, whose new book, Roxy Music’s Avalon, is soon to be published by Bloomsbury and is now available for pre-order. About Roxy Music’s Avalon: Having designed Roxy Music as an haute couture suit hand-stitched of punk and progressive music, Bryan Ferry redesigned it. He made Roxy Music ever dreamier and mellower-reaching back to sadly …
Jazz Director Rudresh Mahanthappa DownBeat Critics Poll Winner
Jul 14, 2021
Congratulations to Director of Jazz, Rudresh Mahanthappa, who has again been selected the Alto Saxophone winner in the DownBeat International Critics Poll. The August issue of DownBeat, which arrives on newsstands in mid July, includes features on the winning artists as well the complete results for all of the categories, listing hundreds of artists who …
Donnacha Dennehy Awarded 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship
Apr 29, 2021
Congratulations to Prof. Donnacha Dennehy, recipient of a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship! Prof. Dennehy is one of 184 recipients, chosen from a pool of almost 3,000 applicant scholars, artists, writers, and scientists, selected for his impressive prior achievement and exceptional promise. Prof. Dennehy is one of six Princeton faculty members, and three graduate students, to receive …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Michael Pratt Receives President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching
Jun 4, 2019
Full story by Karin Dienst, Office of Communications, available here. Michael Pratt, conductor of the Princeton University Orchestra and director of the Program in Music Performance, is one of four recipients of this year’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. Awarded at the Commencement ceremonies, this recognition was established in 1991 through a gift by Princeton alumni Lloyd Cotsen of the Class …
Two premieres in LA
May 31, 2019
Two Department of Music affiliated composers will have their works premiered this weekend as part of the LA Philharmonic’s Noon to Midnight program: Professor Donnacha Dennehy’s new work commissioned by the LA Philharmonic, Overcasting, will be conducted by John Adams in the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Our Edward T. Cone Performers-in-Residence, Sō Percussion, will present a program in …
Jeff Snyder Featured in Princeton Echo
Apr 12, 2019
Check out this cover story on Jeff Snyder, Director of Electronic Music and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (“PLOrk”) in this month’s issue of Princeton Echo! PLOrk presents its annual, free concert on Friday, April 20 at 8PM in Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall in a program that features electronically processed tap dance, live-coded orchestral sounds, trombones equipped with custom electronics to provide …
Professor Juri Seo Receives Goethe Award
Apr 8, 2019
Princeton University faculty composer Juri Seo has been awarded the 2019 Goethe Award, given by the Goethe Institut at the Tongyeong International Music Festival. Professor Seo’s composition Respiri – in memory of Jonathan Harvey was selected as the most convincing work at the festival’s Asian Composers Showcase, and the prize includes a monetary award, a commission for a new …
Professor Simon Morrison Inaugurates TLS Grace Notes Series
Mar 22, 2019
Simon Morrison, Professor of Music and Slavic Languages and Literatures, has authored the first article in The Times Literary Supplement (TLS) Grace Notes series. This new TLS Online series celebrates pioneering composers and musicians, and assess the enduring impact of their work. Professor Morrison’s article, “Tchaikovsky: Polestar of the music of the future,” considers the mix of conservatism and …
Composer Juri Seo’s Lost Songs Find Their Voices in Princeton
Jan 2, 2019
Published by Susan Van Dongen / U.S. 1 News From a profile in U.S.1 News: In the notes for her newest composition “Lost Songs,” Juri Seo, the composer and Princeton University composition faculty member writes, “We live in cycles, with birth and death being the primary conditions of our existence. The simple act of breathing encapsulates …
Jeff Snyder’s Album on Pop Matters’ “20 Best Americana Albums of 2018”
Dec 14, 2018
Jeff Snyder’s album, “The Best of Your Lies” has been included in Pop Matter’s “20 Best American Albums of 2018.” The album features many Princeton-affiliated individuals, including Annika Socolofsky, Mike Mulshine, Pascal Le Boeuf, Dan Trueman, Cleek Schrey, Henry Valoris, Pamela Stein-Lynde, Noah Fishman, Jeffrey Kuan, Caroline Shaw, Ruth Ochs, and Quinn Collins, as well as …
Two Premieres Last Weekend
Dec 4, 2018
December 1-2, 2018 was a big weekend for composition at the Department of Music, holding two world premiere performances. Faculty composer Donnacha Dennehy‘s Strange Folk was premiered by Quartet 212 (consisting of principal members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) as part of the Opening Celebration of Gustavo Dudamel’s residency at Princeton University Concerts*. Graduate student Natalie Dietterich saw the premiere of light, beloved, a …
Jeff Snyder Releases Three New Albums
Nov 6, 2018
It is an exciting fall season for our Director of Electronic Music and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Jeff Snyder. This Friday, November 9, Snyder will release “Concerning the Nature of Things.” This new album of original compositions blends influences from medieval polyphony, algorithmically-generated Brazilian rhythms, and experimental noise music and features unusual electronic instruments that Snyder invented …
Elizabeth Margulis to Join Faculty in Fall 2019
Oct 26, 2018
The Princeton University Department of Music is thrilled to announce the addition of Elizabeth Margulis to the faculty beginning Fall 2019. Professor Margulis, currently a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Music Cognition Lab at the University of Arkansas, is renowned for her fusion of music and cognitive science. Her contributions to this exciting field …
Princeton Musicians Come Together in New Record
Oct 22, 2018
Underwolf Records, co-directed by Princeton University graduate composers Noah Kaplan and Chris Douthitt, as well as Princeton Sound Kitchen performer Rosie Kaplan, has released a new album. “Rauschenberg Was Weeping” includes works by Rinde Eckert (frequent visiting lecturer in the Department of Music and the Lewis Center for the Arts) and graduate composer Quinn Collins, …
Jazz at Princeton University Honored in Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll
Jul 16, 2018
Congratulations to Director of Jazz Rudresh Mahanthappa and Jazz Piano instructor Kris Davis, who have both been recognized in this year’s Downbeat Magazine’s International Critics’ Poll awards! Mahanthappa won Alto Saxophonist of the Year for the seventh time in the last eight years. Davis was a winner in the Rising Star: Jazz Artist category. For a full list of …
Iarla Ó Lionáird Wins Gold at New York Radio Festival 2018
Jul 13, 2018
The Athena Media radio episode Vocal Chords: ‘Iarla Ó Lionáird in conversation with Peggy Seeger’ has won Gold in the Biography/Profile category at the New York Radio Festival 2018. The series explores the journey of the human voice in song, as Global Scholar Ó Lionáird meets and records with outstanding singers and discovers their motivation, influences and their life’s relationship with …