Chamber Music | Summer 2023 by chambermusicamerica

ChamberMusic VOL. 40, NO. 3 SUMMER 2023 $5.95

SPECIAL ADVER T ISI NG SECT ION

CONSER VATORI ES AND SCHO OLS OF M USIC

Tod Machover Yves Dhar on the Promise and Dangers of Artificial Intelligence

Battles His Holographic Alter-Ego, and Finds Himself

ALSO Slipping Into Henry Threadgill’s World Bridging the Gender Gap Miya Masaoka and Nicole Mitchell in Conversation

A Briefof History A.I. and Music

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SUSAN WADSWORTH INTERNATIONAL

Auditions

Young Concert Artists welcomes applications from chamber ensembles

Applyby August 1, 2023

yca.org/auditions

Final Auditions

Saturday, November 11

Zora Quartet

(Winners of the 2015 Auditions) Ad Pages.indd 1 CMA Summer Auditions Ad .indd 2

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P R E S S L E R • O R I O N PW I A NE O • IR S O DS O •L S F OTLR P E OINN A E •N G J OS O N •K•W IR MU O IRL AD L PO A IR A L KM EF R •O MH E NL A AH E G EO M EP N R EE •S A S •J LN EO RD •O N R R IE OK NI IW M IEO IU SS N R • SITA T RIN A P G•SA R • WR A I LK C LIA E H MR E H•A L M G EB E N •A A N NR A D RT H E IO E I ON M N I TP AP •R IR A N CE H ES E LS BA LRE TO R N • PO I NR E ION WEISS•STRI AIROS•VOCAL WI I NS DT S• S AM •W K Y DA II C N R KS D E ON S N • •A N S A HL TM OA NY Y CM K D C •GIC IC L LO •K CO M S NO D PUO N C TS O •A RE SN •R J AH CO P TME O OR B N A FIY RO OS M R • VM C O CG E A LR II S LS TL S•• •K G C AA RO EB NN R S LD IA E CU KL •C C OT K MO P A OR H S ES A R -•P N JE A REF C O •J RO M EEM S R SS O • GIAE BB R IM A E L IO KR AN H O AT N SEG •• JV O E SO SM IE CE M A R OL NY TI GS OT M ES R •Y K A R E N S L A

working with you and our artists to address them.

ARIEL QUARTET•AROD QUARTET•CANTUS•QUATUOR DANEL•GRYPHON TRIO•HAGEN QUARTET•MIRÓ QUARTET•PACIFICA QUARTET

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We strive to offer targeted and effective solutions as we all work together to build towards a brighter future.

FOCUSED ON T H E F UVisitTusU R E online to explore our roster and learn more.is focused on discovering MKI Artists

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the most urgent needs of our field and working with you and our artists to address them. We strive to offer targeted and effective solutions as we all work together to build towards a brighter future. Visit us online to explore our roster and learn more.

MKI Artists is focused on discovering the most urgent needs of our field and working with you and our artists to www.mkiartists.com/future address them. www.mkiartists.com/future

We strive to offer targeted and effective solutions as we all work together to build towards a brighter future.

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ChamberMusic A Publication of Chamber Music America SUMMER 2023, VOLUME 40, NUMBER 3

36 18

SPECIAL SECTION: A.I. 23

What Does It Mean? And How Is It Making These Decisions? Tod Machover considers the history, promise, and dangers of artificial intelligence. BY Rebecca Schmid

Photos: Courtesy of Yves Dhar (Cover), Mário J. Negrão (Nicole Mitchell), Wolfgang Daniel (Threadgill), Bill Cardoni (Trevor Weston)

An annotated timeline of the events and innovations that set the stage for our current technological moment. BY Garrett Schumann

F E AT U R E S 18

The Joy of Slipping With a memoir and new music, Henry Threadgill traces his past and hints at his future. BY Larry Blumenfeld

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Setting New Standards

Three novel programs approach longstanding issues of gender inequity in jazz and classical music head-on. BY Ray Mark Rinaldi

A Brief History of A.I. and Classical Music

Musician Versus Machine

CO LU M N S 36 DUOS:

Miya Masaoka & Nicole Mitchell The koto player and flutist, both composers and educators, talk about how to learn, to lead, and to grow. BY Peter Margasak

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION:

47 C O N S E R V AT O R I E S &

SCHOOLS OF MUSIC D E PA R T M E N TS

5 CMA LETTER:

Deepening Our Connections

BY Kevin Kwan Loucks

How one cellist took on artificial intelligence, did battle with his holographic alter-ego, and found himself. BY Yves Dhar

6 CMA NEWS:

Board Members on the Move

9 AWARDS, IN MEMORIAM, AND SEGUES 10 AMERICAN ENSEMBLE:

Tallā Rouge, Eric Vloeimans & Will Holshouser, ShoutHouse, Duo Sonidos, Beo String Quartet, Ziggy and Miles

82 CMA SCORES: Trevor Weston’s Stars 87 ANGELA ANSWERS:

Teaching by Example

BY Angela Myles Beeching

88 ENDNOTE: Remembering Geoff Nuttall BY Lesley Robertson

ON THE COVER Cellist Yves Dhar models the movements of his holographic duet partner in Automation: Concerto for Human and AI Cellists. SCHOOL SECTION COVER Created by

Red Herring Design and the A.I. art generator Imagine using the prompts chamber music, impact, modern, instrument, string, rhythm, concerto, and resurrection.

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Graduate performance work Graduate performanceopportunities opportunitiestoto work with renowned renownedperformance performancefaculty facultyfrom from New York atat New York City Cityand andstudy studychamber chambermusic music the highest highest level the the levelthrough throughprograms programslike like the Emerson String Quartet Institute, all at Emerson String Quartet Institute, all at one of one of New New York’s York’sflagship flagshipuniversities. universities.

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CMALetter

ChamberMusic

Official publication of Chamber Music America 12 W. 32nd St., New York, NY 10001 (212) 242-2022 www.chambermusicamerica.org

Larry Blumenfeld editorial director Andrew Frank managing editor Steve Futterman research Red Herring Design design Brenden O’Hanlon advertising CHAMBER MUSIC AMERICA

Kevin Kwan Loucks chief executive officer Geysa Castro director of membership services Susan Dadian associate director of grant programs José R. Feliciano director of grant programs Athena A. George director of finance Jenny Ouellette chief operating officer Orchid McRae marketing and communications manager Erica Murase associate director of development CJ Salvani membership services/ accounting associate Ben Schonhorn social media assistant Elva Tang grant programs administrative assistant Ofir Tomer development associate Adriana Vergara grant programs associate Chamber Music (ISSN 1071-1791), the official publication of Chamber Music America, is published quarterly, in Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall by Chamber Music America, 12 West 32nd St., New York, NY 10001. 𝖢2022 Chamber Music America. Chamber Music magazine subscription price for one year ($35.00) is included in membership dues. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send address changes to Chamber Music, 12 West 32nd St., New York, NY 10001. Articles, reviews, and letters reflect the viewpoint of their individual authors; publication by Chamber Music does not imply official endorsement by CMA. Partial support for Chamber Music magazine is provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Deepening Our Connections As the vibrant energy of summer fills the air, this edition of Chamber Music celebrates the spirit of togetherness with a focus on the many strengths of our membership community. It is with great excitement that I share with you some outstanding developments within Chamber Music America’s growing portfolio of activities. First and foremost, we are thrilled to build on our latest initiative, the expansion of our ChamberFest model—an endeavor that brings the essence of CMA’s National Conference to cities beyond the bustling streets of New York. These convenings, thoughtfully curated with local communities in mind, allow us to share the transformative power of chamber music with diverse audiences, fostering connections and creating important touch points with our members. With each new investment, we enrich the cultural tapestry of diverse regions as well as the needs and wants of our national constituency. Speaking of connections, National Conference planning is in full swing, and we have a number of exciting highlights to share. This year, we are particularly thrilled to introduce a brand-new addition: a dedicated day honoring new music composers and creators. In collaboration with our friends at American Composers Forum, BMI, and New Music USA, this opportunity will shine a spotlight on an invaluable segment of the industry while creating a unique platform to expand our perspectives around creative processes. Another area we are rapidly developing in preparation for the Conference is a reimagining of our Annual Awards, to celebrate a wider breadth of achievement in the field. CMA Members will play a critical role in the nominating process of some of our newest award offerings, so please stay tuned as we announce these opportunities, which will culminate at our Awards Ceremony on the final day of the Conference. Furthermore, as our community continues to thrive, we extend a warm and heartfelt welcome to our newest Board members, Nicholas Phan, Daniel Seeff, and Dwight Trible, who are profiled in this issue’s CMA News section. We also welcome the innovative and brilliant Bryan Young to the position of Board Chair, as well as CMA’s new Chief Operating Officer, Jenny Ouellette, a media and communications specialist. Their collective passion, expertise, and dedication to the field are invaluable assets as we move forward together. On behalf of everyone at Chamber Music America, thank you for being an integral part of our community. Your unwavering support fuels our collective mission and emboldens us to dream big as we unlock the potential of everything this great organization has to offer. With gratitude,

Kevin Kwan Loucks Chief Executive Officer 5

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CMANews

chair Bryan Young president Jennifer Grim vice presidents Mimi Hwang Oliver Ragsdale, Jr. secretary John Zion treasurer Jennie Oh Brown chief executive officer Kevin Kwan Loucks Dawn Berry-Walker Jenny Bilfield Noah DeGarmo Aaron P. Dworkin Janet Green Jennifer Grim Natalie Haas Juliana Han Julian Hernandez Calvin Lee Adriana Linares Karim Nagi Jennie Oh Brown Nicholas Phan James E. Rocco Sophia Contreras Schwartz Daniel Seeff Wendy Sharp Christopher Shih Helen Sung Samuel Torres Dwight Trible Melissa White Pat Zagelow Jeffrey Zeigler

Board Members on the Move CMA welcomes three new board members and appoints bassoonist Bryan Young to the role of Board Chair. CMA is deeply grateful for the time, talents, and expertise of trumpeter/composer Etienne Charles, retired financial analyst John Bierbusse, and bassoonist and nonprofit leader Lecolion Washington, who completed their terms on CMA’s board of directors on June 30. As of July 1, Bryan Young, bassoonist and founding member of the Poulenc Trio, will succeed cellist and educator Mimi Hwang as board chair; Hwang will move to the role of vice president. Jennie Oh Brown, flutist and executive/artistic director of Picosa and executive director of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, will succeed Lecolion Washington as board treasurer. The newly elected members of the CMA board as of July 1 are Nicholas Phan, tenor and artistic director of the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, and Dwight Trible, vocalist and executive director of The World Stage. Additionally, Daniel Seeff, guitarist, bassist, and West Coast director of The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, was appointed to the board in a special election in March of this year. CMA welcomes the new directors, whose profiles follow.

Nicholas Phan

Tenor Nicholas Phan has earned considerable renown as an opera singer: he’s sung with many of the world’s leading orchestras, toured through the great European concert halls, appeared on top-tier festival stages, and been conducted by the likes of Marin Alsop, Pierre Boulez, and Zubin Mehta. But after years of jetting from one opera gig to the next, he found that he was missing the music that inspired him most: vocal chamber music and art song. “The thing that really got me into singing was the music—and really chamber music and art song in particular,” he explains. “They have this very special combination of music and poetry that really gets at these core aspects of what it is to be human.” Finding opportunities to perform art song recitals, however, was another story. In Chicago, where Phan had sung often on opera stages, “the landscape was quite barren for art song and vocal recitals.” He set about trying to build a bigger space for these more intimate performances, joining forces with the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago in 2010. C.A.I.C. started out as little more than a house concert series, but has grown considerably in its seventeen years of existence. Maybe more importantly, says Phan, the organization has helped foster a wider awareness of, and appreciation for, art song and vocal chamber music. “There have been some other wonderful smaller institutions that have also

Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

CHAMBER MUSIC AMERICA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

SUMMER 2023

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Photo: Forestt Strong LaFave

Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

Daniel Seeff

sprung up,” he says. “It’s been validating, because it makes it feel like the work that we’ve been doing has had the effect of getting the zeitgeist going a little bit.” Phan’s return to more intimate vocal performance has reaped personal rewards, too: two of his recordings of art songs, 2017’s Clairières and 2020’s Gods and Monsters, earned Grammy nominations for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. For him, art song and vocal chamber music have a special resonance today. “In a time in which we’re all sort of having these very fraught conversations and very tense conversations about identity, song is one of the ultimate expressions of identity.” When he’s not serving as artistic director of C.A.I.C., teaching, or singing, Phan is at work on “Bach 52,” an ambitious video series framed around the question: “is the music of Bach for everyone?” The slickly produced series, which has thus far hosted pianist Jeremy Denk, musicologist Ellen Exner, and oboist Debra Nagy, grew in part out of Phan’s particular experience of singing Bach’s church music, much of it featuring “really dogmatic Lutheran texts.” “The question provokes a lot of intense responses,” Phan explains. “Most commonly people want to attack the question by saying that’s it’s ridiculous, or that it’s a bad question. But that actually makes me feel like it’s the right question to be asking, because it means that there’s a lot of pathways for people to explore.”

For nearly thirty years, Daniel Seeff has worked behind the scenes at the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, one of the world’s premiere nonprofit jazz education organizations. Seeff got his start as a humble intern for the organization, then known as the Thelonious Monk Institute, in 1994; today, he serves as its West Coast Director. Since its founding in 1986, the Herbie Hancock Institute has continually expanded its programming and reach, including: a two-year college training program based at U.C.L.A.’s Herb Alpert School of Music, which Seeff directs; the planning and promotion of U.N.E.S.C.O.’s International Jazz Day; various educational programs in public schools; and its annual international jazz competition, widely considered to be the most influential event of its kind for young jazz artists. An accomplished musician himself, Seeff’s path into jazz was more roundabout than most. After picking up the guitar at age 14, he took up electric bass at 17; upright bass came later, at around age 30. (He has taken private lessons

with jazz legend Ron Carter for more than a decade.) After arriving in Los Angeles in his twenties, Seeff found his way into a number of bands of various genres and spent months on the road. Those gigs led to something like a “big break”: he was introduced to the Grammy-winning producer DJ Khalil, for whom he became a go-to collaborator. Khalil went on to work on recordings by the like of Kanye West, Drake, and Eminem, which led to more high-profile session gigs for Seeff. Seeff has since earned performance and co-writing credits on a number of awardwinning and chart-topping albums by artists in the pop and hip-hop spheres. A throughline connecting all of Seeff’s work is his love of hip-hop, and his particular passion for the genre’s overlap and intersections with jazz. In addition to helping run the Hancock’s Institute’s Bebop to Hip-Hop program, Seeff hosts the weekly radio show “ExcursionsRadio” on KJAZZ 88.1, where he plays jazz tunes back-to-back with the hip-hop productions that interpolate (or “sample”) them. He says that, apart from 7

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CMANews

a simple love of the music, underscoring the connections between the genres has the potential to draw in new—and younger—listeners. “I often find myself listening to music that I know would take some time for a non-jazz listener to be able to absorb,” he says. “And I’ll think, there has to be a way to get more people into this. This is such incredible music. But it can be a difficult code to crack. Anything that helps someone get there is great, and hip-hop can do that.”

Dwight Trible began his singing career in his native Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was an original member of the locally influential R&B outfit Pure Essence. But his arrival in Los Angeles, in the late 1970s, set him on the more expansive path that he follows to this day. It was there that he met the pianist Horace Tapscott, founder of the long-running Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and an influential figure in L.A.’s improvised

music community. Tapscott opened doors for Trible, both creatively and professionally. “My concepts regarding music changed a great deal,” says Trible. “I began to see all sorts of possibilities within the music.” Through Tapscott, Trible began a long association with the drummer Billy Higgins, well-known for his early tenure in the band of free-jazz icon Ornette Coleman and for later work alongside Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan, Bobbie Hutcherson, and countless others. Higgins, in collaboration with the poet Kamau Daáood, had launched a performance gallery in South Los Angeles with a focus on youth mentorship, and Trible became a member of the collective’s inner circle. The gallery, which adopted the name The World Stage, hosted workshops by many of the leading jazz artists of the day. Trible, a natural and largely selftaught improviser, developed connections with many of them, embarking on

significant collaborations with the likes of Hutcherson, Pharoah Sanders, and Charlies Lloyd. In the years since, he’s released ten records as a leader and performed alongside singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte, pianist/composer Billy Childs, singer and actor Della Reese, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and modern crossover-jazz star Kamasi Washington. Trible maintained his connection to The World Stage all along, becoming its executive director in 2013. Today, the organization’s programming includes a weekly jam session, low-cost performances, drum and vocal workshops, and other collaborative presentations, many of which are livestreamed. Trible says that The World Stage fills a unique and crucial niche in its corner of Los Angeles. “In Black South Los Angeles, there is no other venue that was really about the showcasing and presenting of progressive music,” he says. “If you are looking for this kind of expression, you can come to The World Stage and you can get it, virtually free of charge.”

Photo: Becky Yee Photography

Dwight Trible

SUMMER 2023

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Awards

Segues

The winners of Concert Artists Guild’s 2023 Victor Elmaleh Competition, held this past May, are: double bassist Nina Bernat; violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious; the Abeo and Dior string quartets; and the Best Friends Duo, a violin and guitar duo.

Trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire has been named artistic director of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at U.C.L.A. Akinmusire is himself a graduate of the Institute, and was the winner of its International Trumpet Competition in 2007.

The Sphinx Organization has announced the recipients of its 2024 Medals of Excellence. They are conductor Kalena Bovell, cellist Sterling Elliot, and tenor David Portillo.

In Memoriam Robert Black, bassist, founding member of Bang on a Can Peter Brötzmann, saxophonist Astrud Gilberto, vocalist Menahem Pressler, pianist, Beaux Arts Trio, recipient of CMA’s 1995 Richard J. Bogolmony National Service Award Kaija Saariaho, composer

Photo: Becky Yee Photography

Robert Sherman, longtime WQXR classical radio host

SFJAZZ has a new leader for the first time since its founding by Randall Kline in 1983: the composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who will step into the newly created role of executive artistic director this September. Flutist and CMA board member Jennie Oh Brown was appointed executive director of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras in May.

The violinist Midori will become the new artistic director of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute’s piano and strings program in fall of this year. She succeeds Miriam Fried, who has held the post since 1994. The saxophonist, flutist, and composer Anna Webber has been appointed co-chair of New England Conservatory’s jazz studies department, beginning in the Fall 2023 term.

Chris Williams has been named president and CEO of the American Pianists Association, effective July 2023. Williams previously served as executive vice president of Concerts Artist Guild.

Sarah Curran, who has served as UChicago Presents’ interim executive director for the last year, has officially been appointed to the role of executive director, effective June 1. The Formosa Quartet will be Eastern Michigan University’s McAndless Distinguished Professors for the 2023-23 academic year. Composer John Bailey Holland has been named dean of Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, effective September 1. Holland, who currently leads Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music, will succeed Toni-Marie Montgomery in the position.

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AmericanEnsemble

The Little Viola Duo That Could

concerts a year. The duo performed June 20 in Weill Recital Hall at New York’s Carnegie Hall, as part of a program titled “Progressive Musicians & Sound Espressivo,” and will be featured on an upcoming recording to be released by the American Viola Society. “We’re a little surprised,” Cheregosha said of the pair’s success. “We’re just a little viola duo.” www.tallarouge.com ■ BY KYLE MacMILLAN Violists Lauren Spaulding (left) and Aria Cheregosha (right)

Photo: Courtesy of Tallā Rouge

Though not nearly as common as string quartets or piano trios, duos—for violin and cello, violin and viola, or two violins—are sprinkled through the chamber music repertoire. Viola duos, on the other hand, are almost unheard of. TALLĀ ROUGE—its name is a Farsi-French phrase that means “the red gold”—is on a mission to make the combination more popular, and it seems to be working. The Washington, D.C.-based twosome, made up of Aria Cheregosha and Lauren Spaulding, was born from the isolation of the pandemic. The two musicians met through a musical collaboration on Instagram; they were holed up in Colorado, unable to publicly perform. To pass the time, they decided to play through some of the few works that do exist for viola duo, including Frank Bridge’s Lament for Two Violas (1911-12), and even began arranging specifically for this combination. Cheregosha was finishing her master’s degree online at the Juilliard School, and the two played for her teacher, the late Roger Tapping, then violist of the famed Juilliard Quartet, who offered support and guidance. “We just had a lot of fun and wanted to keep it going,” Cheregosha said. As rare as a viola duo is in itself, the two have added another dimension to their pairing that sets it apart yet more. They emphasize music that draws on their contrasting ethnic heritages—Spaulding is of Cajun descent, and Cheregosha is Persian-American. The latter’s father fled Iran right before the 1979 Islamic Revolution; due to continuing political difficulties there, she has never been able to meet her extended family or to delve firsthand into the country’s culture. “Tallā Rouge has become an amazing way for me to connect with West Asian composers and music, and to explore my Persian heritage,” Cheregosha said. Spaulding’s grandfather was born in the town of Duson, in a culturally French region of Louisiana, and was a big fan of Cajun music. Her grandmother spent most of her childhood on a houseboat on the Johnson Bayou, about twenty miles from Port Arthur, Texas. “Tallā Rouge has given me a way to step outside of my classical box and authentically connect Beethoven with my story,” she said, “and with the fiddle, jazz, and ragtime cultures surrounding my heritage.” During a 2023-24 residency at Dumbarton Oaks, a Harvard Universityadministered research institute in Washington, D.C., the two will further explore both traditions, taking particular advantage of the institute’s strong Byzantine-era library holdings to research historical West Asian music. Both musicians have musical pursuits that take them in other directions. Cheregosha performs as a guest artist with such groups as the nine-member Frisson Ensemble and A Far Cry, a Boston-based conductor-less chamber orchestra, and Spaulding serves as violist for the Thalea String Quartet, which is currently in residence at the University of Maryland. But they make as much time as possible for Tallā Rouge, which presents twenty or so SUMM ER 2023

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Trumpeter Eric Vloeimans (left) and accordionist Will Holshouser (right)

Scripting Their Own Tradition

Photo: Reuben Radding

Photo: Courtesy of Tallā Rouge

AmericanEnsemble

When listeners first learn about the trumpet and accordion duo ERIC VLOEIMANS AND WILL HOLSHOUSER, “there’s a little bit of puzzlement,” says Holshouser, the accordionist. “But once they hear us, they get it. Sonically, it works because we have a full range of sounds.” The musicians met a few years ago in Manhattan and, after a jam session in a midtown studio, decided to form a duo. They compose their own music, which draws upon folk music from the Balkans and Mexico, as well as jazz, classical, blues, Cajun, klezmer, and sacred harp music. The unusual pairing of trumpet and accordion isn’t the biggest factor in their musical kinship, according to Vloeimans, who is confident that if Will had played another instrument their collaboration would have worked out just as well. Vloeimans, who grew up playing classical music and jazz in the Netherlands, said that the ways in which musicians communicate and the ideas they bring to a collaboration are ultimately more significant than any specific instrumentation. For Vloeimans, such communication benefits from an open mind. “I see music as a big holistic thing where everything belongs to each other. I can’t think only in terms of jazz, classical, or world music, because with too much definition you can put yourself in a musical prison. Music is a very open universe to me where everything can happen with all styles mixed up,” he said. “Sometimes we learn from trumpet and accordion traditions, whether it’s Balkan music or classical music or Mexican music,” said Holshouser, who is from Cambridge, Mass., and has a background in American folk

music and jazz. But sometimes, he adds, they enjoy working with material not usually associated with their two instruments and creating imaginative transpositions. Examples of such include a reimagining of Prince’s “Slow Love,” included on their 2018 album Eric & Will. Their most recent album, Two for the Road (2022), features a cover of “Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie, a tribute to Louis Armstrong (“To Louis”), and “Deep Gap,” dedicated to bluegrass guitarist and singer Doc Watson. Improvisation is integral to the duo’s music-making: Two for the Road includes five improvisations, or, as listed on the release, “Innermissions.” “Melancholy is one of our favorite modes,” says Holshouser, acknowledging the soulful, pensive feel of many of their compositions. That mode contrasts with more upbeat compositions, such as “Balkan Spirits.” Whether in a mournful or gregarious mode, the duo conveys a deeply expressive and varied sonic palette. Accordion and trumpet are not strange bedfellows in genres such as Mexican and Balkan folk music, but are certainly scarce in the U.S.—a Google search reveals a busker who plays both instruments simultaneously and a Pauline Oliveros trio for accordion, trumpet, and string bass. That “fresh format,” as Holshouser calls it, feel liberating to him. “What is special about this duo for us is the amount of freedom,” he said. “We don’t have to compete with all the great accordion and trumpet duos of the past hundred years.” ericandwill.info ■ BY VIVIEN SCHWEITZER 11

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Building A Bigger House

Since all ShoutHouse members have careers of their own, the group maintains a limited schedule, averaging three to four performances a year since the pandemic. But it has made the most of those dates, with appearances at such marquee venues as National Sawdust and (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York and the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington, D.C. Unlike a string quartet or brass quintet, there was no existing music for ShoutHouse, because its makeup is so unusual. Healy has been happy to fill that void, creating hours of a cross-genre kind of repertoire he first envisioned in college. “When I’m writing ShoutHouse music, it’s my truest self in a lot of ways,” he said. Other members of the group, such as keyboardist and percussionist Jesse Greenberg, have contributed compositions and arrangements, as has Australian composer Jack Frerer, whom Healy met when they were both students at the Juilliard School. ShoutHouse is following a model closer to that of a rock or pop band. The group’s songs all feature a vibrant, encompassing sound marked by an insistent beat, luminous electronics, distinctive, often hip hop-driven vocals, and perhaps a jazzy sax or delicate piano solo. Underlying and supporting everything is a richly layered tapestry of strings and woodwinds. “It’s different from a classical new music group,” Healy said, “in that we’re trying to have a sound that’s consistent more so than trying to make it eclectic.” shouthousemusic.com ■ BY KYLE MacMILLAN

Photo: Brandon Ilaw

Brooklyn composer Will Healy is perfectly capable of writing music in traditional forms, such as the piano quartet that he’s working on for Midsummer’s Music, the Wisconsin festival. But as the founder and artistic director of SHOUTHOUSE, a genre-blurring collective of hip-hop, jazz, and classical musicians, he likes to shake things up, overturning conventional notions of what chamber music can be. One review of the ensemble’s 2019 debut album, Cityscapes, on New Amsterdam Records, described the group’s sound as a “lavishly orchestrated, absolutely unique blend of post-rock, art-rock and indie classical pageantry.” That sounds about right. While at Vassar College, Healy played trumpet in an Afrobeat hip-hop band, Yes Noyes. ShoutHouse came together sometime around 2014 with members of that group plus some of Healy’s classical friends—musicians and singers who are now in their late 20s and early 30s. “I decided that I wanted to create one group that was all my favorite people in one place,” he said. The group’s flexible roster swings from six to fourteen performers, depending upon the project, but it has a core of ten regulars, including rappers Nuri Hazzard and spiritchild, singer Hannah Zazzaro, violinist Megan Atchley, and violinist/violist Caeli Smith. Healy drew inspiration from groups like Mother Falcon, a symphonic rock band, and Alarm Will Sound, a 20-member contemporary ensemble, not to mention classic rock bands with what he called an “epic, big-band sound.”

Members of ShoutHouse

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Changing the Chamber Ecosystem Guitar and violin are not a new combination for chamber music, William Knuth points out. A violinist, he is half of DUO SONIDOS, along with guitarist Adam Levin. The two musicians focus on novel arrangements and newly commissioned works. “And because the guitar is rooted in Latin and Iberian cultures, we’ve emphasized those in our repertoire,” says Knuth. “For years, these cultures have been left out of the profession. So, it’s only in the last few years that we’ve come into our own, just as the chamber music scene was changing by pushing for a more diverse repertoire and programming. That’s exciting for us.” Knuth, who is based in Syracuse, N.Y., and Levin, who lives in Boston, first met in 2006 in a New England Conservatory of Music chamber music class when they were randomly paired as a duo. They’ve been playing together ever since. After performing mostly traditional works and some 20th-century pieces for a couple of years, they sought fresh inspiration. “We realized that the base of music for us was drying up, and we needed to establish ourselves as a duo by creating new repertoire,” says Levin. By then, they each had received Fulbright scholarships, Levin to research contemporary Spanish-guitar music in Madrid and Knuth, to study at Vienna’s Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien. For the next three years, the duo toured around Spain commissioning new works, with a particular focus on Spanish composers. In 2010, Duo Sonidos released its debut recording, featuring the premiere of a commission by Eduardo Morales-Caso and other composers from Cuba, Spain,

Photo: Courtesy of Duo Sonidos

Photo: Brandon Ilaw

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and Argentina. That year they also won first prize at the Luys Milan International Chamber Music Competition in Valencia, Spain. The duo put out its second CD in 2019, Wild Dance, the first of three volumes of guitarist/arranger Gregg Nestor’s complete collection of violin-and-guitar arrangements. Duo Sonidos’s next album, due in 2024, will explore the fertile tradition of Brazilian classical-guitar music, from Villa-Lobos to today, with commissioned works by composers including João Luiz, Clarice Assad, and Egberto Gismonti. As Duo Sonidos has gained a wider audience, the two have grown closer. “We’ve matured as a duo, given the intimacy from knowing each other so well,” says Knuth. “I’ve adjusted my playing so I don’t overpower Adam, which has challenged my bowing technique exploring the instrument’s softer colors.” As Levin explains, “I’ve become a better listener to how Will inflects and articulates the music. It allows me to create a cushioned platform for him to freely express with greater imagination.” The duo is committed to “expanding the repertoire and broadening the definition of chamber music,” says Knuth. “That’ll change the ecosystem for violin-and-guitar duos,” adds Levin. “There’s so much delightful music that needs to be heard. People need to be curious and open to other musical traditions and combinations. Every time someone writes a new piece, it may inspire other composers to introduce different sounds, rhythms, and soundscapes, helping the chamber music world continue to progress and evolve.” duosonidos.com ■ BY CLAIRE SYKES

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Jason Neukom (violin), Sean Neukom (viola), Andrew Giordano (violin), and Ryan Ash (cello).

Magical (and Troubling) Mystery Tours

Following the BEO STRING QUARTET feels more like keeping tabs on a rock band than a traditional chamber music group. In 2021, on the heels of its Heart Sleeve Triptych, the Pittsburghbased ensemble released Ghosts Revisited, a 36-minute album of original music by violist Sean Neukom that fuses alternative metal and indie rock with minimalism and neo-romanticism. Since then, Beo has built its own recording studio, started its own label, and recorded two additional albums, offering compelling performances of music by composers including Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Missy Mazzoli, Kerrith Livengood, and Kyle Sanna. Along with Neukom, the ensemble includes violinist Jason Neukom (Sean’s brother, and the group’s co-founder), violinist Andrew Giordano, and cellist Ryan Ash; each musician plays additional instruments, electronics, or provides vocals. Their latest album, triggerLand, is a milestone in their creative development. Like Ghosts Revisited, triggerLand is a Sean Neukom composition with a narrative arc. Yet it’s far more ambitious in scope, a real Gesamtkunstwerk that blends music, film, and visual art in an eight-part allegory on the current gun crisis. The album, which was released on streaming platforms in May, stands alone as a listening experience, but each part’s corresponding film adds further dimension to an already multilayered work. “triggerLand exists as an album and a movie,” said Neukom, who has released one film per week on Beo’s YouTube channel. “Though both use the same music, the experience of each is quite different.” This is certainly true of the two films. Both album and film follow Alvin, a miner who forges the very first bullet, reaps unthinkable profits from firearms, and turns his idyllic town into a dystopia. triggerLand carries the weight of myth, charting a fall from grace—the first gun-related homicide. Onscreen, its characters appear as masked, speechless figures. Sean Neukom, the film’s director-producer, heightens visual impact with color saturation, contrast, and shifts in hue. In the first film, an intensely yellow stop-motion excavator crawls across a psychedelic landscape of black pastures and icy blue mountains. An electric bass pounds a rhythmically-charged pedal point as the quartet burns, in unison, through a modal tetrachord. This introduction captures the otherworldliness of triggerLand and compels listeners to think big. In a sense, that’s the point of triggerLand and Beo’s previous output, all of which Neukom calls “concept albums.” The concept? “A linear experience where each point along the way helps build a whole larger than any of the individual components,” he explained. “Especially in today’s climate of streaming and digital players, the label of ‘concept album’ helps denote the intention that the entire album is the experience.” Beo’s experimentation with genre-crossing textures and studio effects such as live sound processing suggests a paradigm established more by The Beatles than the Borodin Quartet. Their adventurous spirit has led to an album whose harrowing opening should captivate listeners and keep them engaged through a cathartic ending, along the way registering powerful musical and political statements. www.beostringquartet.com ■ BY ROBERT McCLUNG

Photo: Courtesy of Beo String Quartet

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Miles and Ziggy Johnston

Brotherly Love, With Strings Attached

Photo: Jiyaang Chen

Photo: Courtesy of Beo String Quartet

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Ziggy Johnston says the title track of Sidekick, the second album from his guitar duo with his brother, Miles, is “inspired by us, musical bickering and all.” The unusual musical rapport of these two musicians—built on both the joys and tensions inherent in sibling bonds—is in fact a central aspect of that piece, written by Welsh composer Katie Jenkins. These brothers’ unique voices come clear through Jenkins’ music: Ziggy plays loquacious runs and assertive arpeggios that plot a succession of tonal centers, while Miles responds with turbulent, melancholy counterpoint. The climax of the piece is what the brothers refer to as “the bickering part,” in which the music simulates an argument, with short staccato quips from Miles and long, seemingly angry lines from Ziggy cutting into one another. There was perhaps no one better to translate these personalities into music than Jenkins, the brothers’ fellow Juilliard alum, who became a close friend while the three quarantined through the pandemic in the dorms, in 2020. Jenkins had never composed for guitar when she first proposed a piece for ZIGGY AND MILES, but they loved her work and were confident in her ability. Most important was that she understood them. “She’s seen us be ourselves, have these quibbles, finish each other’s sentences,” Miles said. “When we play together, we bring that energy to the stage as well, both in our announcements to the audience and how we play.” Ziggy chimes in: “...with the dialogue between us and the interaction and everything else.” Back to Miles: “Exactly. This piece was trying to encapsulate all of that into one work, and she did a

fantastic job of it.” Elsewhere, Sidekick features among its diverse offerings the duo’s own arrangement of Debussy’s Clair de Lune. The brothers began playing guitar in elementary school in their native Australia, but they didn’t develop a passion for classical music until they studied at a performing arts high school. At the the Juilliard School, they studied extensively with the trailblazing classical guitarist and educator Sharon Isbin. “The more we played classical music, the more we loved it,” said Ziggy, “and the more we discovered in it things that were part of ourselves.” Duo gigs started early in their career. Their childhood Suzuki training required playing duets, which they performed at school events. Later, the pair began developing their signature onstage rapport, playing up their brotherly teasing for laughs and audience connection. They agree that, now, performing a piece written not just for but also about them is, as Ziggy said, “weird in a good way—it’s a surreal experience, because it is a musical satire, but it also highlights things we do in concert anyway.” Like that title track, the new album reflects the brothers’ history and relationship, both private and in performance, through music that is stylistically ambiguous, contemplative, and at some points comical. For some siblings, exploring their relationship onstage might risk that relationship or the music at hand, or lead to negative emotions. “For us, that’s not what music is about,” Miles explained. “It’s fun and inviting, and it makes the world a better place.” ziggyandmiles.com ■ BY EVA QUITTMAN 15

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I S A Beo String Quartet

S A P I N Black Oak Ensemble

Reviews of Beo’s recent New York début: “Absolute purity of intonation . . . [and] that supernatural ‘one-ness’ of interpretive intent that animates the best quartets.” —NEW YORK CONCERT REVIEW “A superb concert . . . invigorating and deeply satisfying.” —NEW YORK CLASSICAL REVIEW

#1 IN BILLBOARD CLASSICAL CHARTS FOR THEIR LATEST CD, “AVANT L’ORAGE.” “Fierce eloquence.” —THE TIMES (London) “Insightful, committed and masterful performances. 10/10” —CLASSICS TODAY

Program highlights: works by Latin GRAMMY-nominated Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz; Missy Mazzoli; & Beo’s own violist, Sean Neukom.

“Flamboyant vitality . . . expert performances.” —CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Lincoln Trio

Poulenc Trio Celebrating their 20th Anniversary Season!

Special focus on works by living composers and female composers. BILLBOARD TOP 5 CLASSICAL ALBUMS, June 2022 “The playing is sensational.” —STRAD MAGAZINE “Impassioned performances.” —THE GUARDIAN

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In their first two decades, the Poulenc Trio has . . . lPerformed hundreds of concerts lReached thousands of school students lAppeared in 46 States (Alaska, Maine, Montana, Wyoming, we’re coming for you!) lCommissioned 22 new works and numerous arrangements “POULENC TRIO DOES ITS NAMESAKE PROUD [Headline] An intriguing and beautifully played program . . . neareffortless lightness and grace.” —WASHINGTON POST Special collaborations with clarinet, violin and soprano.

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Spanish Brass

“Everyone who heard them was completely blown away and elated . . . artistry and musicianship. They have transformed not only the brass quintet, but indeed the idea of chamber music itself. Over 30 years of playing together they have become one instrument with five players.” —MERRIE KLAZEK, Professor of Trumpet, University of Victoria, BC

The Queen’s Six

A cappella ensemble from Windsor Castle

Featured on CBS Sunday Morning in its tribute to Queen Elizabeth. “One senses . . . the evident enjoyment they derive from singing together. It brings a kind of twinkle to the performance that it is hard to find in the proliferation of groups of this type . . . barely contained excitement . . . this music is in the blood of these singers.” — GRAMOPHONE

Cavatina Duo Flute and Guitar

“The collaborative powers of this couple are extraordinary.” —CHICAGO SUN-TIMES Forthcoming CD with Pacifica Quartet: “River of Fire” — newly commissioned works inspired by Romani (“Gypsy”) music, by Clarice Assad, Stacy Garrop, and other major composers.

Antonio Meneses & Paul Galbraith

A stunning collaboration between Antonio Meneses, the last cellist of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio, and GRAMMY-nominated guitarist Paul Galbraith. “Musically compelling . . . drew audience raves.” —SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE

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With a new memoir, Henry Threadgill reveals how and why his music got where it is. With his new music, he hints at where it’s going.

n 2016, the cornetist Graham Haynes joked that the composer, alto saxophonist, and flutist Henry Threadgill should have received a Pulitzer Prize solely on the basis of his song titles. Haynes, the son of the standard-bearing jazz drummer Roy Haynes, had a point; in the book, Epistrophies: Jazz and the Literary Imagination, author Brent Hayes Edwards devotes an entire chapter to the narratives implied by Threadgill titles such as “Jenkins Boys Again, Wish Somebody Die, It’s Hot,” and “To Undertake My Corners Open.” “People always ask me about those song titles,” Threadgill writes in his memoir, Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music, published in May and written with Edwards, a Columbia University professor who directs the scholars-in-residence program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. “They assume too quickly that titles are always descriptive or

Threadgill plays the flute and hubkaphone, a homemade instrument constructed from hubcaps suspended above pipes.

programmatic: clues about content . . . They might have roots in my artistic process— in the sundry stuff I encountered as I was making the work—but their function isn’t to suggest that the music can be reduced to those sources. They function as a spark . . . to spur your own thought process as you listen.” To help us slip away, wherever we go. Threadgill did in fact win a Pulitzer in 2016, for Music, in recognition of In for a Penny, In for a Pound, which he recorded with Zooid, his longest-running ensemble in a career that spans seven decades. That music—all his celebrated work—reflects a personal approach to composition and bandleading that Threadgill took up long ago and has refined ever since. His signature as a composer is distinct; no one else’s music sounds even remotely like his. It moves with a singular flow—“a smooth, frictionless groove,” he calls it. Unlikely or even troublesome combinations of instruments—tuba, cello, and acoustic guitar in the current Zooid, for instance— achieve unexpected balance and clarity. There are never tropes or licks or transparent references, but still always a familiar identity, less in the sense of how the music is shaped than in where it takes listeners. A sense of communal engagement— the depth of the exchanges his compositions stimulate among players—pervades, and is largely the point. Jose Davila, who plays tuba and trombone in Zooid and first worked with Threadgill in 1995, told me, “He doesn’t treat me or anyone else like a sideman. I’m a colleague. We sit down and talk about the things he’s working on, for hours sometimes.

Photos: Alan Nahigian, Lona Foote (hubkaphone)

B Y Larry Blumenfeld

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It’s made me think less like a band member and more like an integral part of the creative process, the formulation process.” Threadgill’s aesthetic owes to the supportive community he found in Chicago more than 60 years ago. It has, in turn, nurtured creativity in New York, where he has lived in the East Village for nearly a halfcentury. Now 79, he is both elder master and renegade. Musicians call his music demanding yet also inviting. However complex, it takes shape as organically as do cloud formations or a good conversation. Rhythms are forceful yet slippery, like a wave’s undertow. For me, Threadgill’s music doesn’t so much define our lives and times as suggest its possibilities.

Early in his book, Threadgill shares childhood memories of listening to the jukebox in his father’s “sort of gambling house” on Chicago’s South Side. “Sometimes it seemed the spell could be sustained indefinitely,” he

writes. “One tune would end, but the beat continued . . . and then the jukebox arm would deliver the next disc into position. So easy to slip into another world.” Even as a boy, he had a composer’s ear, “curious to decipher the secrets of the songs’ pulsating architecture.” Listening to Studs Terkel’s radio show on Chicago’s WFMT, which moved easily from Mexican son jarocho to Indian classical music and on, “your ears could roam, and you heard unexpected echoes between far-flung corners of the globe.” The music of his grandmother Gertrude’s Church of God in Christ congregation was “like a ritual of theater and movement and sound and drama. And it wasn’t planned.” Jazz gripped him. Hearing Charlie Parker’s “dazzlingly quick-witted improvisations” for the first time felt “like watching someone leap off a cliff and take flight.” (Soon after, his mother got him a tenor saxophone; he’d later take up alto as his primary instrument, along with flute, and, on occasion, the baritone saxophone.) Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” was “an alarm clock going off.” More so than the sound, the geometry of John Coltrane’s playing on Miles Davis’s ’Round About Midnight captivated him: “You could hear the shapes in his playing.” He was moved enough by Sonny Rollins’s excellence and dedication to stencil Rollins’s name on his saxophone case. A young Threadgill looked for liberation, not roadmaps. He was touched most deeply

Photos: Alan Nahigian, Lona Foote (hubkaphone)

The Joy of

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by willful outliers. Pianist Ahmad Jamal’s music “didn’t do what it was ‘supposed to do.’” Claude Debussy’s compositions called him “to dare, to go ahead and take the leap.” Edgard Varèse’s music “wasn’t behaving.” Threadgill held onto that “obstinancy” as a model. At Woodrow Wilson Junior College, he wondered: “How can you give music a different sort of formal integrity, one that wouldn’t rely on the old systems of harmonic structure?” He wasn’t the first to ask that question, but he has devised his own answer.

“How do you ‘become’ a composer?” Threadgill asks in his book. “It’s like you’re a snowball rolling down a hill,” accumulating information and expertise without pretending to control the process. One key, he explains, is context: “Music is everything that makes the musician: family, friends, hardships, joys, the sounds on the street, how tight you buckle your belt, the person who happens to be sitting next to you on the subway car, what you ate for breakfast—all of it.” Threadgill came of age as a cultural revolution was brewing, especially in Chicago. The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians—the A.A.C.M., as it’s known—began in 1965 as a collective 20

of ambitious Chicago musicians fed up with a restrictive scene and determined to foster original music; it remains an engine of creative inspiration and practical outreach. In its earliest iteration, “You had to be able to play everyone’s music and give 150% of your energy and focus to the aesthetic they wanted to explore, whatever it was.” The pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, an A.A.C.M. founder, “set me on fire,” he writes. Abrams was an example of supreme discipline, brilliance, curiosity, and nonconformity, drawn not from a history book or an elite institution but “out there in the community.” Threadgill left that fertile scene in August 1966. At 22, he’d lost his draft deferment because he couldn’t afford to attend Chicago’s American Conservatory of Music full time. If he volunteered rather than wait to be drafted, he’d enter the Army as a musician. Within months, he was head arranger for an elite military ensemble at Fort Riley, in Kansas. When asked to arrange a medley of patriotic songs—“God Bless America,” “The StarSpangled Banner” and others—for an important ceremony, he did so with an “angularity and dissonance” inspired by the music of Igor Stravinsky and Thelonious Monk. Eight bars in, a Catholic archbishop stood up, shouting “Blasphemy!”

The ceremony got shut down. Threadgill lost his post and was assigned to the band of the Fourth Infantry Division, in Pleiku, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, as the war raged. “As though a musical peccadillo could merit the death sentence,” he writes, which it nearly was. Threadgill’s account of his service is a notably disturbing and colorful addition to our Vietnam War literature. He narrowly escaped death during the Tet Offensive. His back suffered permanent damage after his jeep flipped. He witnessed unspeakable atrocities. He was never the same. Yet he also never forgot the sound of the gongs played by Montagnards of the Central Highlands, which later inspired the hubkaphone, his homemade instrument constructed from hubcaps suspended on pipes. And, he writes, “It’s like I grew a set of antennae over there. When I returned, my reception equipment was different . . . that heightened sensitivity became one of the main things that shaped me into the composer I’ve become.” Upon his return to the States in 1969, the progress of his A.A.C.M. colleagues inspired him. Roscoe Mitchell’s Sound, recorded shortly after he left for the army, “opened up an entirely new route in terms of tempo and space and silence.” His first

Photo: Anthony Barboza

The Sextett in rehearsal on West 31st Street: Muneer Abdul Fataah, Vincent Chancey, Olu Dara, Pheeroan akLaff, Threadgill, and Fred Hopkins.

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Photo: Anthony Barboza

“How do you ‘become’ a composer?” Threadgill asks in his book. “It’s like you’re a snowball rolling down a hill.”

Threadgill never wavered from one mission: to compose and play his own music. In 1971, backstage after a Duke Ellington concert, his hero seemed interested in working together. “What if Duke had made me an offer to work with him as an arranger? I love him madly, but I can’t go to work for Duke Ellington. I want to lead my own band and play my own music. I need to work for me.” Initially, he formed an ensemble called Reflections with drummer Steve McCall, who was among the A.A.C.M.’s founders, and bassist Fred Hopkins—a collective that started with Threadgill’s commission for a Chicago theatrical production; he adapted Scott Joplin’s piano rags for a piano-less trio. They changed the name to Air and, in 1975, released Air Song, the first of a series of stirring and highly influential albums. Threadgill eschewed the “athletic displays of bottomless improvisational genius” of his hero, Rollins, in a similar configuration, instead seeking, and finding, the “subtle line between zero improvisation and total improvisation.” If Air was elemental to creative music’s possibilities in the 1970s, Threadgill’s Sextett was a bright light of the eighties. With seven members, the band’s coy name reflected Threadgill’s concept of its two drummers—one behind the beat, one nearly on top of it—playing two trap sets— one tuned in fourths, the other in fifths— as a single entity. His groups ever since have featured unlikely instrumental combinations. His 1979 album X-75 Volume 1 engaged a nonet of four basses, four winds, and a vocalist. His first Very Very Circus band included two tubas. 2018’s Double Up, Plays Double Up Plus featured three pianists.

If Ellington famously wrote parts for specifics musicians, Threadgill hears combinations of instruments, and finds players for these configurations, always seeking “a special level of commitment . . . a sort of abandonment; the musicians have to give themselves over completely to the art.” His 2001 release, Everybodys Mouth’s a Book, the final one by his Make a Move band, signaled what he terms “the last step” of his development as a composer— a sound and approach he’d been chasing and finally found, inspired by revisiting Varèse’s music. Building upon Varèse’s idea of “infolding” and “outfolding” intervals to form chromatic harmonies, he formulated his own “language” and “syntax” based on assigned intervals for each instrument and combinations thereof. Improvisation remains a key element, but players must work within the system. A few pages after Threadgill spells this out, he addresses his music’s alluring yet elusive rhythmic orientation. James Brown implored his bands to get back to “the one.” Threadgil wonders, “What if you never get off the one?” He wants, if only by illusion, to “eradicate any demarcation of meter.” Above all else, his music is modular. “The score is a starting point, not the final product,” he writes. His current Zooid band—acoustic guitarist Liberty Ellman, cellist Christopher Hoffman, drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee, and Jose Davila on tuba and trombone—have indeed abandoned themselves to this system; they sound and feel more like an organism than an ensemble.

recording assignment “that really counted” was Abrams’s Young at Heart/Wise in Time. “This wasn’t a job,” he writes. “This was creative music. It was important.”

In his book, Threadgill cautions against sitting “in the mausoleum of your accomplishments.” The ensemble on The Other One, released a week after his book’s publication, features three saxophones, two bassoons, two cellos, violin, viola,

tuba, percussion, and piano, performing a three-movement composition. Threadgill serves solely as composer and conductor. Yet even without his pungent alto saxophone tone or his often pensive-sounding flute, the music casts his familiar spell. He’s gathered musicians from both jazz and classical ranks, who are no longer divided by stylistic borders Threadgill helped erase. This sounds like chamber music for a liberated century. Driving Threadgill’s creations—behind the youthful twinkle in his eyes whenever he smiles—is an attitude: obstinate like Varèse, yes; touched by pain, including that of long-ago war, sure; but also utterly hopeful. I’ll never forget his words to end a public interview we did together at the 2019 Chamber Music America National Conference, before a hotel ballroom filled with composers and musicians: “Some people get rich in certain styles of music. But most people doing the kind of music we do, they might do well but they don’t get rich as rich goes. I always think back to that pure moment when I was a kid and I wanted to play music. All I wanted to do was be as good as those people I was jumping up and down listening to. There was no reward in that, other than that. I never let that get clouded. “We don’t talk about it too much, but music and art is spiritual activity. It’s spiritualism of the highest order. It civilizes people. It builds humanity. Poetry, painting, literature, music, dance: In the presence of those things, people behave better. They act better. You become sensitive about humanity, and it’s only through the arts that this happens a certain way. We never verbalized that, but I was always certain that everybody in A.A.C.M. had this ideal in mind.” Larry Blumenfeld is Editorial Director for Chamber Music America. He writes regularly on music and culture for The Wall Street Journal.

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Artificial Intelligence

is now a part of everyday life. In music, as in other arenas, it is a source of both creative inspiration and existential dilemmas. What does it feel like to make music using A.I.? How have these technologies affected the ways we compose, listen, share, and think about music? This special section traces how we got here and where these developments may lead us.

Mezzo-soprano Patricia Risley in Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers, an opera utilizing experimental technology developed at the M.I.T. Media Lab. 22

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What Does It Mean? And How Is It Making These Decisions?

Tod Machover, a pioneer of the connections between classical music and computers, considers the history, promise, and dangers of artificial intelligence. B Y Rebecca Schmid

How is the use of A.I. a natural development from what you began back in the 1970s, and what is different?

Sitting at his home in Waltham, Massachusetts, the composer Tod Machover speaks with the energy of someone half his 69 years as he reflects on the evolution of digital technology toward the current boom in artificial intelligence. “I think the other time when things moved really quickly was 1984,” he says—the year when the personal computer came out. Yet he sees this moment as distinct. “What’s going on in A.I. is like a major, major difference, conceptually, in how we think about music and who can make it.”

Photos: Jill Steinberg (Death and the Powers); Sam Ogden (Machover)

Perhaps no other figure is better poised than Machover to analyze A.I.’s practical and ethical challenges. The son of a pianist and computer graphics pioneer, he has been probing the interface of classical music and computer programming since the 1970s. As the first Director of Musical Research at the then freshly opened Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (I.R.C.A.M.) in Paris, he was charged with exploring the possibilities of what became the first digital synthesizer while working closely alongside Pierre Boulez. In 1987, Machover introduced Hyperinstruments for the first time in his chamber opera VALIS, a commission from the Pompidou Center in Paris. This technology incorporates innovative sensors and A.I. software to analyze the expression of performers, allowing changes in articulation and phrasing to turn, in the case of VALIS, keyboard and percussion soloists into multiple layers of carefully controlled sound. Machover had helped to launch the M.I.T. Media Lab two years earlier in 1985, and now serves as both Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media and director of the Lab’s Opera of the Future group. As such, A.I. is another tool in his palette. Yet Machover emphasizes the need to blend the capabilities of the technology with the human hand. For his new stage work, The Overstory Overture, the first movement of which premiered last March at Lincoln Center, he used A.I. as a multiplier of handmade recordings to recreate the sounds of forest trees “in underground communication with one another.” Machover’s ongoing series of “City Symphonies,” for which he involves the citizens of a given location as he creates a sonic portrait of their hometown, also uses A.I. to organize sound samples. Another recent piece, Resolve Remote, for violin and electronics, deployed specially designed algorithms to create variations on acoustic violin. Based on the research of one his Ph.D. students, Manaswi Mishra, Machover is also experimenting with decomposing and re-composing music using a technology he calls A.I. Radio. Machover has long pursued his interest in using technology to involve amateurs in musical processes. His 2002 Toy Symphony allows children to shape a composition, among other things, by means of “beat bugs” that generate rhythms. This work, in turn, spawned the Fisher-Price toy Symphony Painter and has been customized to help the disabled imagine their own compositions. We spoke via Zoom about the arc of his innovations, and what recent developments imply about the act of making music.

In terms of big history, I think the other time when things moved really quickly was 1984—literally, the year when the first affordable personal computer came out. Everybody could have a pretty powerful machine at home. John Chowning at Stanford had developed something called frequency modulation (F.M.), which turned out to be an incredibly efficient way of creating sound and a very intuitive way for musicians to understand how to manipulate it. Yamaha licensed the patent and made this instrument called the DX7, in May 1983. The third thing that happened around that same time was that, like a miracle, all of the computer companies and music instrument companies decided to create a standard for all of these computers and digital instruments to talk together. And that was called M.I.D.I., or Musical Instrument Digital Interface. So, everybody could have a powerful music generation instrument, and everybody could have a way of controlling these instruments by computer.

How is the use of A.I. a natural development from what you began back in the 1970s, and what is different? There are lots of things that could only be done with physical instruments 30 years ago that are now done in software: you can create amazing things on a laptop. But what’s going on in A.I. is like a major, major difference, conceptually, in how we think about music and who can make it. One of my mentors and heroes is 23

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The only reason music matters is because it’s a way of a human being reaching out to somebody else saying, this is something that I’ve observed or felt, or something that I’m thinking… A machine has no investment like that, and it never will.

Baritone James Maddalena prepares to download himself into “The System” in Machover’s Death and the Powers.

What systems have you used successfully in your work? One is R.A.V.E., which comes from I.R.C.A.M. and was originally developed to analyze audio, especially live audio, so that you can reconstruct and manipulate it. The voice is a really good example. Ever since the 1950s, people have been doing live processing of singing. The problem is that it’s really hard to analyze everything that’s in the voice: The pitch and spectrum are changing all the time. What you really want to do is be able to understand what’s in the voice, pull it apart and then have all the separate elements so that you can tune and tweak things differently on the other side. And that’s what R.A.V.E. was invented to do. It’s an A.I. analysis of an acoustic signal. It reconstructs it in some form, and then ideally it comes out the other side sounding exactly like it did originally, but now it’s got all these handles so that I can change the pitch without changing the timbre. And it works pretty well for that. You can

have it as an accompanist, or your own voice can accompany you. It can change pitch and sing along. And it can sing things that you never sang because it understands your voice. I’m now updating the Brain Opera using R.A.V.E. We did a version in October with live performers. For that particular project, I wanted a kind of world of sounds that started out being voice-like, and ended up being instrumental-like, and everywhere in between. The great thing about A.I. models now is that you can use them not just to make a variation in the sound, but also a variation in what’s being played. So, if you think about early electronic music serving to kind of color a sound—or add a kind of texture around the sound, but being fairly static—with this, if you tweak it properly, it’s a kind of complex variation closely connected to what comes in but not exactly the same. And it changes all the time, because every second the A.I. is trying to figure out:

Photo: Jonathan Williams

Marvin Minsky, who was one of the founders of A.I., and a kind of music prodigy. And his dream for A.I. was to really figure out how the mind works. He wrote a famous book called The Society of Mind in the mid-eighties based on an incredibly radical, really beautiful theory: that your mind is a group of committees that get together to solve simple problems, with a very precise description of how that works. He wanted a full explanation of how we feel, how we think, how we create— and to build computers modeled on that. Little by little, A.I. moved away from that dream, and instead of actually modeling what people do, started looking for techniques that create what people do without following the processes at all. A lot of systems in the 1980 and 1990s were based on pretty simple rules for a particular kind of problem, like medical diagnosis. You could do a pretty good job of finding out some similarities in pathology in order to diagnose something. But that system could never figure out how to walk across the street without getting hit by a car. It had no general knowledge of the world. We spent a lot of time in the seventies, eighties, and nineties trying to figure out how we listen—what goes on in the brain when you hear music, how you can have a machine listen to an instrument—to know how to respond. A lot of the systems which are coming out now don’t do that at all. They don’t pretend to be brains. Some of the most kind of powerful systems right now, especially ones generating really crazy and interesting stuff, look at pictures of the sound—a spectrogram, a kind of image processing. I think it’s going to reach a limit because it doesn’t have any real knowledge of what’s there. So, there’s a question of, what does it mean and how is it making these decisions?

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Photo: Jonathan Williams

B Y Garrett Schumann

How am I going to match this? How far am I going to go? Where in the space am I? You can think of it as a really rich way of transforming something or creating a kind of dialogue with the performer.

And you’re manipulating material yourself rather than just feeding the algorithm and seeing what comes out the other end, right? Yes. We use some existing models but also build our own sometimes. We’re working hard right now to build models where you can customize every aspect, and where customizing is easy enough that you don’t have to be an M.I.T. graduate student. Most models now are kind of like black boxes. What comes out is a big surprise. That’s amazing, but it’s hard to personalize them to the degree you’d want to, although we do a pretty good job with R.A.V.E. The next models are called diffusion models. I find they work best if you’re building up a library of sounds. For instance, for this first version of Overstory that we did in New York in March, where I was trying to build the sound of a forest with all its variety, I could have done it by hand. I made a lot of recordings out in the woods. I also made a lot of sounds from scratch in my studio. We live on an 18th-century farm here, and so we have an old barn that is filled with wood. I spent a day scraping and had lots of recordings. I fed all of those into a model, and from that we made spectrograms. And then with the spectrograms, you could go in and say, make the frequency higher, or more percussive or denser. You can give it words, or actual frequency information. And then it transformed these sounds. You could make many variations, which were really interesting but still in the family, and many of them would have

TIMELINE

A Brief History of A.I. and Classical Music

Composers have been using tools and techniques that fall under the umbrella of what we call “artificial intelligence” since the late 1950s. Although sometimes seen as monolithic, applications of A.I. in music involve and combine many different processes, ranging from algorithmic systems to neural networks. This distinctive technological history is closely related not only to other twentieth-century developments in electronic music, but also to the much older practice of using rules-based systems to create new works. Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson’s computer-generated string quartet Illiac Suite (1956) emerged at the same time that other composers, including John Cage and Iannis Xenakis, manually applied sophisticated mathematical procedures to their compositional processes. Even the musical dice games (Musikalisches Würfelspiel) of 18th-century Europe may be seen as a distant forebearer of the procedurally generated music that composers have produced with computers from the middle of the twentieth century onward. If the connection between artificial intelligence and music is much older than we might think, then so are questions and concerns about the creative authenticity of this technology’s musical applications. In 1959, William D. Hansen of the Chicago Daily Tribune responded to Illiac Suite with an op-ed piece titled, “This Is Music?” in which he worried, “little by little, it seems, electronic ‘brains’ are taking over,” and, “while human composers are not yet in jeopardy, the cards are on the table.” From Illiac Suite forward, this timeline illustrates the development of different types of artificial intelligence technology as related to classical music during the last 66 years. We can see consistent advancements in terms of composition, in the forms of musical analysis and computer-generated music, as well as in performance, in terms of sound synthesis and real-time interactivity. The current era of A.I. music tools distinguish themselves by their increased computational power, speed, and flexibility, especially in interactive, real-time, and live performance applications. In the last decade, corporations and other powerful institutions have invested more resources in and exerted more influence upon the development of A.I. music tools than ever before, making it difficult for individual musicians to experiment independently with this technology. Similarly concerning are the highly extractive practices common to recent A.I. music programs, whose training scrapes enormous amounts of audio from websites such as YouTube without permission from the creators. The past few years have been marked by the arrival of new, free-to-use music A.I. tools, such as Google’s MusicLM and SingSong, as well as the startup releases WavTool and Uberduck. Unfortunately, some of these new programs quickly gained an ignoble notoriety, as anonymous users have impersonated and exploited the celebrity of popular, primarily African-American, musicians. In classical music, A.I. continues to appear most commonly in custom-designed, specialized projects, many of which consider if not directly confront these ethical issues. Nevertheless, the worry William D. Hansen expressed in 1959 remains relevant.

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It’s a really odd moment.

We need to put context and knowledge back into these systems before they become so prevalent and so closed off that you can’t shape them anymore.

the intensity, or the sound of the orchestration. The added dimension is that it’s quite possible to add a few dials to this A.I. radio, so that if you’re listening, you could be the one who says, “I’m kind of anxious today. I’d really like to hear a version which is as chill as you can make it.” Or “I want to hear a version that is as intense and as wild as possible.” You can imagine a bunch of variables that would be interesting and intuitive, but all related to that piece, not just random.

Does all of this raise copyright issues? There are enormous problems with sucking in other people’s music. And the crazy thing about these A.I. models, of course, is that it’s almost impossible now to track what’s in them. It’s much more complicated than sampling because most of the legal cases ask: “Can you tell what the sample was? Can you audibly hear it? Is it fair use, or is it ripping off someone’s idea?” In these A.I. models, there are thousands and thousands of bits of audio. Once they turn into a model, and then start playing things back, either live or with these various prompts, right now it’s impossible for an outsider to go back and trace what’s in there. So, if they’ve taken my entire oeuvre, let’s say, and put it into

someone else’s model, and it’s generating something that sounds kind of like my music, that’s really dangerous. It’s likely that fairly soon there will be ways of tracing what goes into a model. Maybe you will have to tag material when you create it. In fact, it’s already happening. For our admissions applications to the media lab this year, we were not sure if some were written by a machine. I’m assuming that by next year a place like M.I.T. will have to have some way of tracing whether a human being wrote something. It’s a really odd moment.

How could A.I. help support your endeavor to facilitate amateur creativity? One thing I’ve spent my career doing is trying to reduce some of the barriers for somebody who didn’t take years of lessons or isn’t naturally gifted to be part of a musical experience. You can do that by making Guitar Hero, or you can do that with Hyperscore, where you can draw music. We’re very careful to try to ensure that the activity you’re doing is meaningful— that you’re not being led to think that you’re doing something you’re not really: You’re getting closer to the music and,

Soprano Joélle Harvey in Machover’s Powers.

Photo: Jonathan Williams

taken a lot of time to do by hand with studio techniques. I wanted a language like trees that communicate underground, and it worked really well for that. For commencement at M.I.T., I created a segment for my City Symphony for Boston. We have this incredible mayor [Michelle Wu]. She’s really shaking everything up; she played Mozart’s 21st Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons. I ran the Mozart and the sounds of Boston through this diffusion model. And in this three-and-a-half minutes, there were these incredibly interesting hybrids. I’m pretty imaginative, but I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of these particular cross-pollinations of Fenway Park and a piano solo, or the sound of traffic and the orchestra. The other thing I’m really interested in—and I think that this technology will allow us to do it—is to create a piece of music where I would take all of the material from a composition and break it apart: Here’s the baseline. Here’s a chord. Here’s a texture. And say, here’s a toolkit with a thousand elements; you can take them apart and put them together the way you want, like LEGO bricks. What’s even more interesting is to put them in a form where this A.I. system, let’s call it A.I. radio, can actually enable switching channels: With just a few dials, you might be able to change the way the piece develops. Every time, the A.I. system makes it play out a bit differently. One term we use in computer programming is a “branch.” So, you can imagine a piece of music where the A.I. system says, now it’s going to grow in this direction or that direction. The possibility of having this core of material that develops differently each time is very real. Maybe the tempo is different, or

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TIMELINE Photos: Courtesy of S.U.N.Y. Buffalo Library (Hiller); courtesy of Tod Machover (VALIS)

Photo: Jonathan Williams

hopefully, with something like Hyperscore, where you’re drawing your own composition, it really allows you to express something you care about. The problem with these systems is that they are already full of music, and there is no barrier for pushing a button and saying, “Oh, make me something.” And so the question is, what is a person doing? You could do an enormous amount without really putting much of yourself into it. And is that what we want? I’ve invested a lot of time in trying to make it possible for people to interact meaningfully and creatively with music. Now our machines are producing all this amazing stuff, and they don’t have any music training. The machines don’t really have any knowledge about how it works—what harmony is, or what rhythm is. And maybe that’s not a good thing. We need to put context and knowledge back into these systems before they become so prevalent and so closed off that you can’t shape them anymore. So, we’re trying to work really fast. The more serious issue is that machines don’t care about anything: The only reason music matters is because it’s a way of a human being reaching out to somebody else and saying, this is something that I’ve observed or felt, or something that I’m thinking. It has meaning because it’s related to my life, or to yours. A machine has no investment like that, and it never will. And if we can’t build these systems so that I can shape them—or anybody can shape them with something they care about— then it’s dangerous. But I think that something really powerful is happening. Rebecca Schmid, Ph.D., is a music writer and the author of Weill, Blitzstein, and Bernstein: A Study of Influence (University of Rochester Press/Boydell & Brewer).

algorithmic and machine learning A.I. technologies.

1977 1956

Hiller and Isaacson’s Illiac Suite Composer Lejaren Hiller and his research assistant Leonard Isaacson presented Illiac Suite for the first time on August 9, 1956 on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The duo programmed the Illinois Automatic Computer to generate numbers using algorithms that reflected varied musical aesthetics, ranging from Renaissance polyphony to serialism. Hiller then ‘translated’ the computer’s punch-card outputs into a four-movement score for string quartet.

1965

Ray Kurzweil’s “Electronic Computer” At age seventeen, Ray Kurzweil, who went on to co-found Kurzweil Music Systems, appeared on the TV game show “I’ve Got A Secret” to demonstrate his musical “electronic computer.” Kurzweil’s artificial intelligence program was able to write new music based on patterns it analyzed in other composers’ works. This focus on pattern recognition presages later developments in both

I.R.C.A.M. opens in Paris Conceived by Pierre Boulez in 1970 at the request of French president Georges Pompidou, the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (I.R.C.A.M.) opened its doors in Paris in 1977. The center immediately began collaborating with leading composers from around the world—including Luciano Berio, Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, and Terry Riley, among others—in the creation of new works, many of which have involved advancements in various types of musical A.I.

1980

Laurie Spiegel’s A Harmonic Algorithm During her tenure at Bell Labs, Laurie Spiegel used an Apple II computer to create the self-generating computer music work A Harmonic Algorithm as an experiment in compositional immortality. As Spiegel wrote in a program note, “if instead of composing individual finite length works, a composer could encode in computer software their personal compositional methods, preferences, processes and ways of making musical decisions…then they could go on composing and generating new music long after the biological human had ceased to exist.”

1987

Tod Machover’s VALIS Commissioned to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Pompidou Center in Paris, VALIS is an operatic setting of Philip K. Dick’s book of the same title. The work showcases Machover’s “hyperinstrument” concept, which he began developing at I.R.C.A.M. in the early 1980s and fully developed at the M.I.T. Media Lab. Mixing M.I.D.I. and advanced algorithmic computation, Machover’s hyperinstruments allow a single keyboardist and percussionist to perform all the instrumental parts in VALIS. Joseph Rothstein’s 1992 review of it in Computer Music Journal notes the piece, “points towards new styles of opera, instrumental performance, and computer music.”

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The holographic cellist in Automation: Concerto for Human and AI Cellists, performing a part composed by a machine learning algorithm

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Musician Versus Machine

How one cellist took on artificial intelligence, did battle with his holographic alter-ego, and found himself. B Y Yves Dhar

Yves Dhar and his A.I. duet partner

Photos: Lindsay Adler (Dhar); Courtesy of Yves Dhar (holographic cellist)

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a hologram cellist battling me onstage?” It was March 2019, and composer Adam Schoenberg and I were spitballing ideas for a new cello concerto commission. I threw the idea out there half-jokingly. With a blank slate, Adam and I didn’t want to produce just another traditional work. We craved impact. Relevance. We had spent most of our careers tired of hearing that classical music was old, boring, elitist, and too hard to understand. We wanted to shake things up with something modern and fresh—something to attract new audiences, but not at the expense of the Beethoven superfans who keep classical music afloat. That’s the challenge of classical music today. It’s not easy to produce a serious piece of music—one that moves you, sparks intellectual discussion, and has the artistic merit to sit on a program beside Mozart, Brahms, or Shostakovich, and yet is popular enough to fill

thousands of seats and help keep orchestras out of deficit. But a hologram straight out of Star Wars and Blade Runner? That had to be too Hollywood for symphony hall. Somehow, we couldn’t shake the idea. Adam and I are wired the same way. We both dream big and love to make the impossible possible. It’s why we clicked instantly as doctoral students at Juilliard nearly twenty years ago, and the reason I always saw us creating a major work together in the mold of, say, Rostropovich and Prokofiev. With this seemingly gimmicky idea of a hologram on stage, we doubled down and ran with it. It had legs. The deeper we dug, the more meaning we uncovered behind human and hologram facing off in an orchestral arena. It’s old versus new, analog versus digital, acoustic versus electronic, stage versus film, live versus virtual, man versus machine. In a world filled with Siri, Alexa, chatbots, and automated call centers, we humans now depend on technology. And

though much of classical music has resisted technology in favor of the acoustic purity of violins, clarinets, and French horns, we figured: why not explore this modern love-hate relationship in the concert hall? We had a solid concept in mind, but never in our wildest dreams did we think it would generate A.G.N.E.S., the machine-learning algorithm that composed the music played by my holographic rival in Automation: Concerto for Human and AI Cellists.

“I’ll be back.” —Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 in The Terminator Artificial intelligence wasn’t really on the table in those early brainstorming sessions. Sure, Adam and I had bandied the notion about, while sprinkling in wisecracks about The Terminator being sent back in time from a dystopian future to kill and prevent us humans from creating a piece like Automation. 29

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A hologram straight out of Star Wars and Blade Runner? That had to be too Hollywood for symphony hall.

Kathryn, and Ghassan prompted A.G.N.E.S. with the human cellist line—my part— that Adam had by then written for Automation. The results were disappointing. “The output was square and basic,” Adam said, “almost all eighth notes with little variety.” Kathryn and Ghassan explained how the algorithm works as if we were beginning students: “A.G.N.E.S. is actually two competing networks. The generator tries to pass off ‘fake’ music that it makes, and the discriminator tries to catch the ‘fake’ music and deem it bad.” By letting this cycle play out over more time, both networks drastically improve the quality of the music generated. Sure enough, after two more weeks, A.G.N.E.S. had generated hundreds of measures with a dizzying array of rhythms, intervals, and registers. On first listen to A.G.N.E.S.’s output, we were both amazed at its ability yet dumbfounded by how odd it sounded. A.G.N.E.S. definitely had its own writing style. It sounded nothing like the earcatching melodies, lush harmonies, and breathtaking colors of Adam’s scores that it had so scrupulously analyzed and modeled. In fact, A.G.N.E.S.’s music—crafted so deftly, yet head-shakingly cold—teetered right on that line: was it written by a human or was it fake? Folded within his orchestration, the A.I.-generated music stuck out so much that there was temptation for Adam to mold it to give the score a more cohesive feel. We both agreed that that very human urge to edit would defeat the purpose of contrasting human subjectivity and A.I. artifice. “I wanted to stay true to the process,” Adam said. He literally cut and pasted the number of measures needed for the A.I. second cello part and placed it into the Automation score. The computer did the rest. With A.G.N.E.S.’s part in place as the final piece of the puzzle, the score to

Automation was complete. We now needed to give A.G.N.E.S. its voice. How would the A.I. cellist sound onstage? To give A.G.N.E.S. a “humanoid” feel (as cello-like as possible, but still robotic), we opted for me to pre-record the A.I.generated music on a real cello and process the sound through synthesizers. Adam recruited sound designer Alex Brinkley and synth programmer Gabriel Bethke to assist him in this transformation. There was just one problem with this plan; some of A.G.N.E.S.’s music was not humanly possible to play. By the end of what we call “Battle Mode”— the movement when A.G.N.E.S. and I try to one-up each other atop a frenetic orchestra, with it finally surpassing me in technical ability—A.G.N.E.S. wrote a perpetual motion of dissonant leaping intervals at breakneck speed. In order to record this virtuosic A.I. cadenza, we would need to split the passage into small chunks and record at half speed. Dhar in pre-production for Automation

Photo: Courtesy of Yves Dhar

But how realistic was this idea, anyway? Would it fit in the limited budget I had fundraised for this project? We were already tasked with figuring out how to produce a hologram onstage; A.I.generated composition seemed like one rung of the impossible too high to climb, even for us. That all changed one day when Adam shared the human versus hologram narrative of Automation with his fellow Occidental College professor Justin Li. Justin, who teaches cognitive and computer science, casually slipped into the conversation, “You know, there are A.I. out there that not only can replicate your music, but can digest and learn it, then start to compose something new.” Not only did this type of machinelearning algorithm exist, it was within our reach. Adam would go on to collaborate with Kathryn Leonard, chair of the computer science department at Occidental, and her partner, Ghassan Y. Sarkis, a professor of mathematics and statistics at Pomona College, who built A.G.N.E.S. (Automatic Generator Network for Excellent Songs) over the course of several months. By August 2021, A.G.N.E.S. was online and ready to accept data in the form of musical scores. Data entry is crucial to machine learning, so Adam chose model scores with purpose: “We fed it Picture Studies, American Symphony, and my percussion concerto Losing Earth—three of my largescale works, so it could learn about my voice, my color, my instrumentation, my orchestration,” he told me. “At the very end, we fed it my solo cello piece Ayudame, so it could learn how to write for cello.” After four months of learning, analyzing, and modeling every aspect of those scores, A.G.N.E.S. was ready to generate original content. Adam,

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TIMELINE “I see dead people.” —Cole Sear, in The Sixth Sense

Photos: Michel Waisvisz Archives (Lewis); courtesy of David Cope (diagram)

Photo: Courtesy of Yves Dhar

The audio-engineering wizardry results in a heart-pumping sonic climax that leaves the audience gasping for air when orchestra, lights, and A.G.N.E.S. “short-circuit” into blackness onstage.

While Adam, Kathryn, and Ghassan tended to A.G.N.E.S.’s composition lessons, I continued to tackle how to create the hologram that would bring A.G.N.E.S. to life onstage. Unsure of where to start looking, I drew inspiration from the late gangsta-rap icon Tupac Shakur— not his music, but his fabled back-fromthe-dead performance at the Coachella music festival in 2012. Tupac died in 1996, but the entertainment company AV Concepts brought him back to life using holographic projections. Tupac’s resurrection was a modern version of those blue-green ghosts we saw as kids in haunted houses. Pepper’s Ghost, a nineteenth-century illusion technique still widely used today, is simple enough: it involves bouncing light off of glass to reflect a floating image onstage. But for Tupac’s headline act, AV Concepts needed to build a special stage with massive panels of angled glass. Factor in complex video editing and computer-generated imagery (C.G.I.) and the bill came out to nearly $400,000. Neither transportable nor affordable, A.G.N.E.S. would not be getting the Tupac treatment. It was November 2020, in the thick of the pandemic, when the media reported yet more dead celebrities coming back to life. The majority of us were sheltering in place, but Kim Kardashian was throwing a lavish birthday party on a private island. With the help of U.K.-based hologram company Kaleida, then-husband Kanye West surprised her with a priceless gift: a life-like holographic projection of

1987

George E. Lewis’s Voyager George E. Lewis describes Voyager as, “a nonhierarchical musical environment that privileges improvisation.” Using sophisticated, multilayered algorithms, Voyager’s computer program can analyze its human coperformers’ improvisations and generate synthesized performances that are sometimes responsive and other times independent. In 2004, Lewis revised Voyager to work with Yamaha’s ‘Disklavier’ digital piano, so the program could appear as a soloist with the American Composers Orchestra in Carnegie Hall.

1991

Iannis Xenakis’s GENDY3 Iannis Xenakis first composed with randomly determined, probabilistic techniques in the 1950s and, in the 1960s, began using computers to assist this process. For GENDY3, he applied the mathematical processes he used throughout his career in a new technological setting, by using stochastic algorithms to drive computerized sound synthesis for the first time. He became interested in sound synthesis in the 1970s, and, as scholar MarieHélène Serra wrote in the journal Perspectives of New Music, GENDY3 realized his “dream of making a music that would be entirely governed by stochastic laws and entirely computed.”

1996

David Cope’s Experiments in Music Intelligence David Cope’s book Experiments in Musical Intelligence reflects on his creative research that began in 1981 and still serves as the foundation for applying so-called ‘machine learning’ to music. Cope conceived the foundational computational process of musical machine learning, which consists of deconstructing existing material, identifying the basic ideas that form its ‘signature’ style, and producing new material based on those characteristics. Originally, Cope used this process with his own works, and has famously done the same with Bach, Chopin, and Debussy’s music.

2002

describes, allows, “users to interact with virtual copies of themselves.” Pachet, who now directs Spotify’s Creator Technology Research Lab, developed The Continuator at Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Paris. It is fundamentally reflexive, both mirroring and building upon structures it detects in the musical ideas the user plays. In this way, the program combines analysis and performance to recognize patterns in its human co-performer’s improvisations, and to play new musical material based on these basic structures, creating the sense that the software has absorbed and reproduced the musician’s personal style.

2005

Roger Reynolds’s The Image Machine Premiered in October 2005 at the Ultima Festival in Oslo, Norway, and developed in collaboration with musician Pei Xiang and choreographer Bill T. Jones during a residency at Arizona State University, The Image Machine is an interactive, multimedia work in which a live dance performance is accompanied by an algorithmically-generated combination of pre-recorded sound and visual elements, assembled and spatialized in real-time.

François Pachet’s The Continuator The Continuator is a musically interactive computer program that, as creator François Pachet 31

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A.G.N.E.S.’s music—crafted so deftly, yet head-shakingly cold—teetered right on that line: was it written by a human or is it fake?

Adam Schoenberg

“So, what does A.G.N.E.S. look like?” That question caught me off-guard. I was on a Zoom call with Mauricio Ceppi, founder of the visual collective Funktaxi 1533, and Ryan Wise, the wizard who runs the motion graphics firm Dasystem. These two video artists would be my ambassadors to the foreign land of C.G.I. “You know, I’ve been so caught up in how to project the hologram, I never really gave A.G.N.E.S. a face,” I replied. “You’re gonna need some sketches, a storyboard, a timeline, some detailed descriptions, bro,” said Maurice. Lost in the sonic realm of the musician, I’d failed to consider that I’d need these filmmaking tools, too. Truth is, Adam and I had taken our opening cues from cinema. With help from his Hollywood scriptwriter wife, Janine Salinas Schoenberg, we had even written a simple plot to help define the form of the concerto: Lonely and curious, a human cellist builds an A.I. alter-ego. The machine learns from him, at first in slow call-and-response, but then exponentially fast. Eventually, they battle and the A.I. cellist exceeds the human’s ability, leaving him to question the purpose of his existence. Lost, he digs deep, asks what it means to be human and redeems himself by looking back at tradition, embracing imperfection, and indulging in beauty and heart-on-sleeve emotion. A.I. returns briefly at the end, to remind the human that he must co-exist with 32

its perfectionism moving forward. With plot, characters, and electronic soundtracks to mix in with the orchestra, C.G.I., and visual effects, was this music or cinema? It sure felt like we were making a short film. Amid the complexities of green screens, blue suits, motion tracking, time codes, and Adobe After Effects—all things used to make Marvel superheroes, and that this humble human cellist knew nothing about—even I began to wonder if we had gone too far. A.I.-generated composition was already a tough pill to swallow. Would the Beethoven superfans protest these cinematic pyrotechnics? Had I betrayed my vow to keep Adam’s breathtaking score the main feature, with projections solely acting as visual aids?

“Halldoro-what?” In search of dystopian sounds to fill the world of Automation, Adam had dived deep into electronic musical inventions. He had discovered the Halldorophone, a cello-like, electro-acoustic instrument that creates gnarly sounds through a feedback loop, and which had been featured in Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Oscar-winning score to Joker and HBO’s Chernobyl. Any cellist can tell you that flying with their instrument to an engagement is never fun. The prospect of traveling with two large instruments, along with the Holonet and other gear, seemed preposterous. Didn’t we already have so many moving parts with A.G.N.E.S., synth programming, and holographic projections? “There’s just something so mesmerizing about it,” Adam insisted. “It just draws you in.” He was right. Its otherworldly vibrations penetrate your soul. Primarily featured in film scores or in solo appearances, this revelation of an instrument would make its world premiere onstage with orchestra with Automation.

Adam and I had decided to spotlight its grumbling frequency beats, harmonic overtones, and distortion with a visceral three-minute improvisation at the heart of the piece. In near-absolute darkness after the climax of “Battle Mode,” and with its feedback loop introducing an uncontrollable element, the Halldorophone solo captures the distraught, lost, and frail psyche of the human cellist upon learning of its technical inferiority. Against the cacophony of these raw sounds, I imagined a backdrop of the purest strains of the orchestra sneaking back in as a guiding light. I asked Adam to write a quasi-Baroque string chorale full of heartfelt suspensions and, in one evening, he delivered the framework. I was up at 3 A.M. tending to my now toddler son when I opened my email to find an audio clip. What I heard out of those unforgiving iPhone speakers made me weep. Adam had written a chorale so beautiful, so angelic, that it was on par with Barber’s and Albinoni’s beloved Adagios. The transition from the growlings of the Halldorophone to the serenity of the chorale is like a musical redemption— dare I say resurrection?—unlike any I had experienced in performance before.

A.G.N.E.S. comes to life With all the blood, sweat, and code shed in nearly five years of production, Adam and I needed the right conductor and orchestra to premiere this groundbreaking work. Teddy Abrams, the young maverick maestro who would be named Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, was our dream fit. A prolific composer himself, a champion of works new and old, he would be a terrific steward for our risk-taking production. On May 15, 2022, we performed the world premiere of Automation with the Louisville Orchestra to a packed house.

Photo: Sam Zauscher

her late father. A cold call to Kaleida co-founder Daniel Reynolds gave us the breakthrough we needed. Kaleida manufactures the Holonet, a semitransparent foldable scrim that makes two-dimensional video cast from a high-definition projector appear threedimensional and floating.

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TIMELINE Photos: Courtesy of R. Luke Dubois (Timelapse); Quipa (Iamus); courtesy of Georgia Tech (Shimon); Jane Wattenberg (Tepfer)

Photo: Sam Zauscher

I was nervous, not so much for my impending performance but more for the work’s reception. Would the audience like it? Was it worth all the trouble? I was particularly nervous for Adam, that his newest work be presented in the best light possible. The intrigue in the hall was palpable. Teddy was crisp with the baton. The orchestra was electric. A.G.N.E.S. was incandescent, floating, and menacing in sound. I emptied my emotional tank, even letting loose an unplanned scream where Adam’s score had called for me to make a lot of noise. But it wasn’t until the rousing ovations that got Adam to join me and A.G.N.E.S. (who takes holographic bows) for a second curtain call that I knew we’d created something special. It was icing on the cake when Annette Skaggs, longtime local critic, wrote, “Automation is perhaps one of the best new pieces that have been performed by our Orchestra in many years. The piece was like a rollercoaster ride I didn’t want to end. Stunning from first note to last. I am still craving to hear more.” What started out as a questioning of the classical concert experience transformed into a referendum on the use of A.I. in classical music. In booking Automation for future seasons, I have found that the two ideas are linked. One Grammy-winning music director of a top-tier U.S. orchestra told me, “Adam’s music is great. Tell him to rewrite the second cello part for another human cellist. Then I’ll think about programming it.” At the League of American Orchestras National Conference this past June, a forward-thinking executive director of another major orchestra exclaimed, “This is cool! I think our audiences would love the hologram, the A.I., the whole experience. But is the music any good?” In my many interactions, I’ve come

2006

R. Luke DuBois’s Timelapse R. Luke DuBois’s composition Timelapse employs machine learning to ‘listen’ to and reproduce the iconic timbres of every Billboard No. 1 song from 1958-1999, without any of their signature melodic or rhythmic elements. The result is a series of unique sonic tableaus, which DuBois combines into a new fixedmedia composition. The large dataset of over 1,000 songs from which Timelapse’s musical materials are derived foreshadows more recent machine learning projects, such as Google’s MusicLM.

2010

Iamus, Opus one Iamus is a computer cluster located at the University of Málaga, in Spain, designed to create musical works in its own style, intentionally unlike the highly referential outputs of David Cope’s Experiments in Musical Intelligence. On October 15, 2010, Iamus produced its first fragmentary work, Opus One, and, two years later, the London Symphony Orchestra released a recording of four of its compositions. The Iamus computer cluster

now operates as part of Melomics, a corporation that specializes in generating royalty-free music in various classical and pop styles.

were projected behind the quartet. The practice of enhancing traditional concerts with A.I.-generated images continues; the Philadelphia Orchestra used similar technology during a 2022 concert featuring Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

2016

Georgia Tech’s Shimon Described by Georgia Tech’s Robotic Musicianship Group as “a musical cyborg”, Shimon is an improvising mechanical robot powered by an interactive musical A.I. that analyzes what its human co-performers play. Shimon was created to participate in real-time interactions with other musicians, and it is known to both support and surprise its collaborators. Because Shimon has a physical, robotic form, it moves as it plays, providing visual cues to the musicians it works with and embodying its performance in a manner that was unprecedented among A.I. technologies.

2017

Kronos Quartet and Sight Machine In January 2017, Kronos Quartet presented a concert in collaboration with artist Trevor Paglen’s “Sight Machine” project. The performance featured A.I. image rendering technology, similar to that used for security surveillance, to generate live visuals that

2019

Dan Tepfer’s Natural Machines Composer, pianist, and improviser Dan Tepfer released the album Natural Machines to showcase his achievements in extemporaneous performance that features real-time, interactive computer collaboration. As Tepfer described in an interview, Natural Machines explores, “the intersection, in music, between natural and mechanical processes.” In live settings, the work results in a full multimedia experience that includes computer-generated audio and visual elements that respond to Tepfer’s free improvisation at the piano.

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TIMELINE Cellist Yves Dhar performs regularly on stages such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and The Walt Disney Concert Hall. Automation: Concerto for Human and AI Cellists was commissioned by Justin M. Sullivan, in honor of his son Alec Baker Sullivan.

2019

R.A.V.E. R.A.V.E. (Realtime Audio Variational autoEncoder) is an open source, machine learning sound synthesis program developed at I.R.C.A.M. by Antoine Caillon and Phillipe Esling. Contrary to contemporaneous largescale A.I. music initiatives, R.A.V.E. is designed so it can be trained on only a few hours of audio, and, as such, is intended to augment a single musician’s performance. The software is also compatible with other common electronic music software, such as Max MSP, which enables real-time manipulation during performances, enhancing the expressive range of its outputs.

2020

OpenAI’s Jukebox Jukebox is a music-generation platform developed by OpenAI, the enterprise behind ChatGPT, that uses neural networks, an advanced form of machine learning, to create and perform new music based on established popular genres and performers. It is but one entry in the ongoing frenzy of corporate interest in A.I. integrations with the creative arts. Google launched its multi-disciplinary Magenta project in 2016, and Microsoft also announced its “Muzic” A.I. research project in 2019. Moreover, this activity has not been limited to tech companies: in 2019, Warner Music Group signed the A.I.powered “mood music app” Endel to an unprecedented recording contract, and countless other startups have emerged in this period.

2021

Holly+ Composer and vocalist Holly Herndon created ‘Holly+’ in 2021 to respond to and address the increasing commonality of vocal ‘deepfakes.’ Described on Herndon’s website as her “digital twin,” Holly+ is a free-to-use A.I. vocal model. Any musician can upload compositions to Holly+, and the program will render the submissions using a computer-generated simulation of Herndon’s singing voice. The project is managed by a cooperative and is intentionally designed to counter the exploitative, extractive trends that pervade this era of music A.I. As Herndon writes on her website, “A balance needs to be found between protecting artists, and encouraging people to experiment with a new and exciting technology.”

2022

Robert Laidlow’s Silicon The BBC Philharmonic’s October 2022 premiere of Robert Laidlow’s Silicon marked the orchestra’s first ever A.I. performance. Laidlow developed the work during his fellowship at the Royal Northern College of Music’s Center for the Practice & Research in Science & Music. Silicon begins with the orchestra playing a

computer-generated score based on hundreds of years of classical compositions. The second movement features an A.I.-powered instrument trained on recordings of the orchestra’s members. The finale accompanies the orchestra with live audio derived from thousands of hours of BBC Philharmonic broadcasts.

2023

Live A.I. Synthesis with R.A.V.E. Composer Isaac Io Schankler and vocalist Jen Wang used R.A.V.E. to perform Alvin Lucier’s 1971 composition The Duke of York in January of this year at the Monk Space in Los Angeles. The duo created virtual versions of Wang’s voice, which accompanied and engulfed her performance with varying degrees of intensity. The performance modeled new ways to use A.I. to enhance the interpretation of existing works that were not created with that technology in mind.

Garrett Schumann is a composer and music scholar who lives in Ypsilanti, Mich., and whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, Grove Music, and VAN magazine among other outlets.

Photos: Andrés Mañón (Holly+); courtesy of Will Smart and Brightwork newmusic (Jen Wang)

to notice that those who wish to preserve the old classical traditions fear A.G.N.E.S. the most and dismiss Automation as gimmick. Others who wish to reinvent the concert experience and push our beloved artform forward support A.I. as a tool, and embrace the concerto as a bold new expression. Whatever anyone’s taste, it is my sincere hope that Automation spurs lively debate about both A.I. and the classical concert experience. Automation was never about making a statement about A.I. Instead, our production asks all the existential questions that A.I. poses today: Can a technically superior machine with no emotions make music that moves us? Is it a tool to help humans reach new heights? Will it replace us? But along the five years of production full of twists, turns, and pandemic pause, I learned far more about what it really means to be human. It means taking risks. It means appreciating beauty in any form. It means taking on challenges and making mistakes. It means getting lost in a journey full of doubts and having faith you’ll find yourself again. Ultimately, it means connecting with others by whatever means possible. A.G.N.E.S. and its A.I. might be polarizing, and the Halldorophone and its beautiful “noise” might not be for everyone. Yet, when I play each soaring theme or dazzling arpeggio of Adam’s moving score in the face of those digital inventions, I can’t help but feel that much more alive and human. Besides, isn’t it cool to see a hologram battling a human cellist onstage?

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Miya Masaoka & Nicole Mitchell

The koto player and flutist, both composers and educators, talk about how to learn, to lead, and to grow, and their shared interest in subverting musical hierarchies. B Y Peter Margasak

eaching is a relatively recent pursuit for composer and koto player Miya Masaoka, who has been on the Columbia University faculty since 2018 and now directs its Sound Art masters program. Flutist and composer Nicole Mitchell has been an educator for the past dozen years, including a six-year stint at the University of California-Irvine, followed by positions at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Virginia, where she is now Professor of Composition and Computer Technologies. Both artists overcame challenges in their own educations, and they’ve each applied their personal solutions to their

educational philosophies as well as to their musical careers. Both are women of color, and each has consistently flouted stylistic expectations to develop work that blurs boundaries, including the lines between composition and improvisation as well those separating jazz and classical music. Both resist rigid labeling of their work and, as a result, enjoy a mobility that allows them to incorporate various traditions within their music. Whether writing for other ensembles or improvising on her own, Masaoka has regularly designed her own instruments, which often involve computer enhancements and other technology, and has experimented with the sonification of

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year-long residency at the American Academy, and Mitchell joining from her home in North Carolina. Nicole Mitchell: I just started teaching at U.Va. last year. I think it’s so important that students remember who they are, and that they look at their experience at the university as a way for them to have this access to an amazing, multi-milliondollar laboratory. They can try to expand their aesthetics and their skill set. I’m there to help facilitate it, but I don’t want them to forget their identity as artists that they came in with, because I’ve seen that happen too many times. If a student gets lost in academia, then when they

finish they don’t know what they’re doing. The curriculum should really expand on their goals as artists, and give them new options and new possibilities to explore. Miya Masaoka: I was talking to [composer] Annie Gosfield about our experiences in state universities. She had the same experiences I did, where we had to take six semesters of harmony and counterpoint, six semesters of basic harmony, intermediate harmony. That’s way more than Ivy League colleges had to do for their music majors. It was really a nuts-and-bolts kind of music program, which I actually benefited from.

Photos: Heike Liss (Masaoka); Kristi Sutton Elias (Mitchell)

plants and human brain activity. Mitchell, a former president of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, has pushed far beyond her jazz roots to create long-form works that celebrate influential Black women such as Alice Coltrane and Octavia E. Butler, and to develop collaborative projects with artists as diverse as Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko, French bassist Joëlle Léandre, and poet Haki R. Madhubuti. The two artists seem always on the move, geographically as well as stylistically. They discussed ideas concerning education and about their own artistry via Zoom, with Masaoka calling in from Rome, where she recently completed a

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NM: At a lot of state schools, you have teachers coming from top universities, like Northwestern, and a lot of times they are just as good as what you would have at a more prestigious school. I ended up going to Chicago State and graduating from there. People really looked down on that school, but I had really good teachers. They didn’t have a flute teacher, so they went and found me one outside of the school and hired her to teach me. That’s because these people cared, and that’s really what students need. I feel that education is very different now. I had a really hard time. I dropped out of school twice. I was at U.C. San Diego, but I left there and then I also left Oberlin. I came already intact, with a vision of what I wanted to do. It was really difficult to work through the curriculum, and the assumptions of “No, you’re supposed to do it like this.” At Northern Illinois University, I was a grad student. They worked with me, and I was able to build my own master’s degree, but it was still challenging, because there are these assumptions about, What is jazz? How are you supposed to play it? And what does it look like? What if you want to compose and improvise? These things have changed a lot in the educational systems now, but when I was a student it was very rigid. You’re either on this track or you’re on that track, and you’re supposed to do it like this. I know that I’m here to do it differently. That’s who I am. When a student knows who they are, they want support to develop what they know they want to do. I think there’s a lot more openness for that now, which is great. The line between improvisation and composition is not as rigid anymore, but it wasn’t like that when I was a student, and that made it very difficult for me. I found my way, but it meant having to drop out. You’re either gonna kill my spirit, or I’m gonna drop out. 38

MM: I dropped out of high school and left home early. So I’m really out of the picture of the normal. That’s not something I tell my son or my daughter, because they would just say, “Well, Mom, you dropped out of high school, you didn’t finish? Why should I?” I lived in France for a few years, got married, and had a child. When I went back ten years later, I was clearer on what I needed. I was older than the other students. I went to San Francisco State, and then I went to Mills College for a master’s in composition. I was a bit older than the other students, and I couldn’t participate in social life because I think I was the only one who had a child. I couldn’t bond with the students the way the other kids could. That does affect your education. There were a couple of classes where I had to bring my kid to the classes with me and, luckily, they kind of tolerated that. But it’s not ideal to bring your kid to class with you. NM: I did a residency at Oberlin this year, and I was so happy to see how much things have transformed. The students seem really happy. I felt like if I were a student today, I would have loved being there, because things have really opened up between, like I said, improvisation and composition, and also people in jazz being able to take classes with classical teachers. But Miya, I feel you. When I went back to college, I remember being in a class, and my daughter was really sick one day. I was supposed to do a presentation, and I called the teacher and I told him that my daughter had a 103º fever. I’m not going to be able to come, so can you reschedule my thing? He said if I didn’t show up, he was going to give me an F for the class. That’s the kind of stuff you have to go through as a single mom trying to finish college. And so I definitely relate to what you’re saying.

MM: One thing I’m interested in, Nicole, is your practice as an artistcomposer, because neither one of us would have any teaching positions at all if it wasn’t for our art. How do you change your compositional strategies, between your own group, Black Earth Ensemble, as opposed to an orchestra or different kinds of configurations? Do you have different ways of thinking about composition and organizing the creative flow? NM: I try to approach composition in a lot of different ways—through my voice or the flute, the piano, or concepts or philosophies or questions. Each time I go in one of those directions, a different part of my voice is going to come out. I still have very contrasting projects that come out with Black Earth Ensemble because of that. If I’m writing for International Contemporary Ensemble or another chamber group that plays a varying program that may have historically included more throughcomposed music—not so much nowadays, because things are changing—I have different curiosities. I want to explore with those opportunities, and the music can sound different doing that. MM: I did a piece for Mivos Quartet that was just performed here at the American Academy in Rome. Writing for strings, there’s so much flexibility and possibility for the positions of the bow, the positions of the fingers, how hard the fingers are pressing, which nodes they’re on, whether they’re doing harmonics, or doing an actual pitch. Each piece is like a new palette, but with more experience. It’s probably my fifth string quartet. Each time, there’s building on the knowledge and experience of the previous work. Also, not just quartets, but winds, etcetera. The imagination is

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allowed to open up because you have more experience writing for different instruments and different ways of playing them. It allows for a larger imaginary palette. That’s really exciting, because it’s always broader, it’s always expanded.

Photo: George Lewis

NM: You did this choir piece in the Bay Area some years ago that was really fascinating to me. I think you were using a lot of different syllables, not necessarily texts, and a lot of sounds that you wouldn’t normally hear with the voice. What was your process for writing for voice? MM: That was a piece called “While I was Walking, I Heard a Sound . . .” It was a commission for the tenth anniversary of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. I had three choirs, and they were directed by the same conductor, Robert Geary. I also put together a choir of soloists who were experts in areas of individual sounds, extended vocal techniques, who were also trained in opera. I wanted to be able to use those particular techniques as well as the strength of the choirs. There were 110 singers, and they had different areas of ability. One was a professional new music choir, another one was an amateur choir with 60 people— but it was a high-level amateur choir that toured and made CDs—and the other one was a children’s choir, which was also very accomplished. Then there was the smaller new music choir that I put together. The piece was organized with phonemes or parts of speech. I organized one movement of just vowels, because the vowels are very open, and the tongue is in a particular position. You have a more resonant sound from the body, the diaphragm, and you can get oh and ah, these kinds of very good sounds for sustain. Then I would have an entire movement of nothing but consonants.

“What is the conductor? They’re a conduit, they’re making things connect to each other. But actually, it’s the individual musicians who are really creating the thing, really making organic sounds.” – Miya Masaoka

The consonants in English are very percussive. The k’s, the c’s, these use a different part of the body, a different part of the mouth. It was also spatialized, because there were singers in the balconies and they would do particular opera excerpts. It was very challenging, but I was able to work with them the entire summer. NM: Awesome! So you got to experiment for a while in writing the piece. It wasn’t just a piece that you brought to them, they worked on, and then you had a few rehearsals. That’s cool. MM: What has it been like to keep a group together for so long? I used to have an orchestra—it was called the Masaoka Orchestra—and I know very intimately the challenges for the fundraising, let alone the personalities that can exist among accomplished musicians, and how to keep these personalities under

your baton when you’re the leader. Can you relate some things about your experiences while keeping this ensemble together, creating work for them, and making it sustainable? NM:Black Earth Ensemble has always been a group that has changing personnel, depending on the project. No one expects they’re going to be on every project. There’s always new people coming in, depending on what instruments I’m hearing and or what the concept is. I think that makes it a little easier. People are so busy, so it gives an openness for things to be flexible and to be shifting. I think that’s different from a lot of other groups, where they have the same people that have to be there on the stage every time. For the most part, the music in Black Earth has always premiered in Chicago. So if it’s a new project, it starts there and then it goes wherever it goes. I still really look at it as my main platform for composition, 39

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even though I’ve had other projects with mostly New York musicians, and I have a project that I did with mostly California musicians when I was living there, called Sundial. MM: I wanted to pivot for a second to this idea of being women of color, and how things have changed a little bit in the classical music scenes. I’m JapaneseAmerican, and right now, there’s kind of a resurgence, which is amazing, with Black artists. George [E. Lewis] has just published the book Composing While Black with Harald Kisiedu, and it’s incredibly important. I’ve been spending a number of years in Europe, living in Germany, and now I’m living in Italy, at the Academy. In Europe, there’s a sense 40

of things being either Black or white. There’s almost a confusion about AsianAmerican or anything that’s not Black or white. From my point of view, not being Black and not being white, this presents its own set of challenges. In terms of the different circles that you’re in as a composer, how do those issues end up playing out? NM: I could give an example of how that plays out for me. I was given the opportunity to write an orchestra piece, and I was told that it was going to be performed during Martin Luther King weekend. So now they’re asking this African-American composer to write this piece; I get what they’re trying to do here. I told them that this is about social

justice, so I decided I was going to write a piece about Harriet Tubman, and I told them in advance. At that time, Harriet Tubman wasn’t getting very much attention. She had a very difficult life, but she’s a very important American for everyone to know about. She was the first woman spy in the U.S. It’s not just about what she did in terms of rescuing hundreds of Black folks from slavery, which is very important. But she’s a really big person in American history, period. She shouldn’t just be taught in children’s books. I told them that because of her life and what she went through, that the piece wasn’t going to be a happy, hand-clapping type of piece. They’re like, “Oh, that’s fine.” It’s like they don’t actually listen to

Photo: Juice Aleem

“If a student gets lost in academia, then when they finish, they don’t know what they’re doing. The curriculum should really expand on their goals as artists, and give them new options and new possibilities to explore. ” – Nicole Mitchell

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Photo: Juice Aleem

Duos

the music that I make. They just say, “Oh, she’s jazz.” And then they have this idea of what jazz is, and that’s what they want. I wrote the piece, and then they rejected it. They said, “This is too atonal. It’s just not what we’re looking for.” And this happens to me, where people make an assumption, “Oh, she’s a Black American, she plays jazz. So it’s gonna be like this.” Or it’s gonna have a beat, and it’s gonna be bouncy, and it’s gonna have all these rhythmic things. It’s the idea that you’re going to assume a certain aesthetic and put it on me. The whole thing with the A.A.C.M. is original music. The A.A.C.M. is not about a specific aesthetic. But people always assume, “Oh, it’s gonna be that crazy stuff.” Whatever you’re calling crazy isn’t crazy, first of all. And second of all, that might not be what we’re doing. Miya, you do so many things that cross media boundaries, going into visual art and science. You did a piece—I think it was a sound exhibit? Can you talk about how your music extends beyond the stage into these different spaces, where sound takes on a different experience? MM: Yeah, for the pieces with plants, I used the physiological response of plants when people touch the leaves. I’ve used these plants as collaborators in performances since the early ’90s. I used medical equipment to record the E.E.G. response of the plant. It had to be through special kinds of medical equipment that would translate their electrical response to sound, and through different programs we would algorithmically sonify the electrical response. I had versions where the plants are talking and saying things in different languages—saying they can’t breathe, relating it to global warming. Of course, plants have this ability to create oxygen that we need to breathe through

this exchange. We have this really important relationship with plants, and we’re suffocating them, in the different ways that we are injuring the ecology of the planet, based on human consumption. We know the story. These plants end up being collaborators, literally, figuratively, and metaphorically. NM: I wrote a book, The Mandorla Letters, where I’m talking about the planet as a plant network and how all these connections are really, in a sense, holding everything together in that network. I think it’s so amazing that human beings have the ability to collaborate with plants. You’re doing it in a really unique way. When you were asking me that question earlier about Black Earth, and how hard it might be to direct this group of people, I’m always exploring new ways of making music where it’s less hierarchical, where I have different members of the group that are taking on leadership roles in different parts of the music, which is what my book is about—exploring the group as an ecosystem or as social system, and trying to embody different ways of collective being. I feel like the kinds of things that challenge us in society have to deal with hierarchical thinking. MM: Hearing you talk is making me think of something, which is the idea of the score as an instructional tool or set of instructions. What is the conductor? They’re a conduit, they’re making things connect to each other. But actually, it’s the individual musicians who are really creating the thing, really making organic sounds. The substance is the musicians and the sounds they’re making. Somehow the culture has elevated the conductor to a higher level than what is actually the thing. That hierarchy can be chipped

away at a bit. I think it’s been overexposed, overexaggerated. I used to have a gagaku ensemble in the ’90s, this ancient Japanese orchestral music. We have a conductor. They sit on the floor, and they use both legs and both arms to conduct. They’re beating different rhythms, with left leg and right leg, and this is the traditional way of conducting gagaku. It’s part of the practice that’s been lost. In Eastern orchestral music, the conductor is very important in the earlier stages, but not in the performance. I think it’s interesting, this idea of rethinking the hierarchy of the orchestra and the conductor. NM: Yeah. With my pieces, Inescapable Spiral and Mandorla Awakening, I tried to do that differently, in terms of everyone having a role of leadership inside the performance. Jazz has been really important in terms of American music, in transforming that role of the composer. With Inescapable Spiral, everyone sits in a horseshoe shape. For the most part, everybody is never playing all at the same time, but there’ll be configurations of two and three across the room that are playing together at different moments of the piece, and it’s the same with Mandorla Awakening. There’s a different kind of listening that happens when you’re doing something and somebody else is doing something completely different. And you have to keep up with your team. That team over there is doing their thing. And sometimes they overlap. There are so many ways we can do it, and that’s what’s fun about music.

Peter Margasak is a Berlin-based music journalist who spent more than two decades as a staff writer at the Chicago Reader. He’s currently at work on a book about the intersection of jazz, experimental, and rock music in Chicago between 1992-2002.

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Setting New Standards

Top to bottom: Members of Next Jazz Legacy’s inaugural class perform at the Kennedy Center; Terri Lyne Carrington with Next Jazz Legacy student Lexi Hamner at WBGO studios; Michelle David, a Luna Lab Fellow, with composer Ellen Reid; a convening of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians honoring pianist Michele Rosewoman (fifth from right).

SPRI NG 2023

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Three novel programs—Next Jazz Legacy, Luna Composition Lab, and Mutual Mentorship for Musicians— approach longstanding issues of gender inequity in jazz and classical music head-on. Photos: Shannon Gillen (Kennedy Center), Ellen Qbertplaya (Carrington/Hamner), David Andrako (Luna Lab), Mariana Meraz (M3).

B Y Ray Mark Rinaldi

he way Terri Lyne Carrington sees it, jazz always had a gender problem. And for a long time, everyone just accepted that as the way things are. Men were the stars of this show. They wrote the music and were handed the instruments to perform it. Men got the gigs and the recording contracts and the money. The way men manipulated trumpets, saxophones, and keyboards defined what is authentic and praiseworthy in the genre. Women played jazz, of course, and had done so since the beginning. But the spotlight rarely fell on them, and then it was typically when they took the role of vocalizing. “The issue for me is that none of us saw that,” said Carrington, a three-time Grammy-winning jazz drummer and one of the few female instrumentalists at the top of her industry. “And it was not just the men in jazz. The women in the business didn’t really see it either, because it was a part of this system that said men play jazz, as far as instrumentalists go. We didn’t really see anything wrong with it.” Missy Mazzoli noticed the same problem in her line of musical work. She is among the most prolific and in-demand composers in contemporary classical music. Yet she knows that successful female composers like her are the exception to a rule that has existed for centuries. Things may be getting better lately for female composers, in terms of commissions and recognition, but Mazzoli has looked at too many programs during too many concerts to find that she is the only woman with a composing credit on the page. “The numbers are still incredibly dire if you look at how many pieces by women are performed by,

say, the New York Philharmonic or at the Met,” she said. “Looking over the entire history, it has been almost nothing.” For women in classical music and jazz, the expectations have been low, which has perpetuated a reality wherein the talents of an entire gender have been largely overlooked. This situation, in turn, has led to a lack of role models for young female and nonbinary musicians who might thrive in the profession. Musicians and composers such as Carrington and Mazzoli are trying to change things, by creating new forms of institutions designed to lift up gender minorities in the music business or to erase the issue of gender altogether. Carrington is the co-founder and artistic director of Next Jazz Legacy, a national apprenticeship program that pairs emerging women and nonbinary jazz musicians with established performers—often well-known names with sizable audiences— who coach musicians on both their playing techniques and their careers. (CMA launched its Performance Plus program, which supports gender minority and women-led jazz ensembles by connecting them with an experienced artist-educator, in 2020.) Working with fellow composer Ellen Reid, Mazzoli developed Luna Composition Lab, which offers hands-on mentoring to promising female and nonbinary composers as young as 13 years old. Another organization, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians, which pursues a novel approach to developing the talents of female and nonbinary musicians, was co-founded by vocalistcomposers Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa. M³, as it is known, brings together up-and-coming jazz and creative music artists for 43

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structured collaborations that are meant to enhance their composing skills, build support networks, and set these musicians on successful artistic paths. All three programs focus on musical and professional development and share a single aim: to rid the music business of its patriarchal structures and, as Shyu put it, “to normalize and empower” a class of musicians that has not had the opportunity and encouragement to be full partners in their art form.

ext Jazz Legacy is just one facet of Carrington’s efforts to support female jazz musicians and composers. She is the founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, which is housed at the Berklee College of Music and aims for no less than a “cultural transformation of jazz” rooted in equity. The home page of the institute’s website poses the question: “What would jazz sound like in a culture without patriarchy?” Last year, Carrington published the book New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers, a curated collection of scores dating back a century and including compositions by, among others, Mary Lou Williams, Alice Coltrane, Dianne Reeves, Maria Schneider, and esperanza spalding. The book’s goal was to address the nearly complete absence of songs written by women in The Real Book, the go-to collection of repertoire for working jazz musicians. It was also the basis for Carrington’s latest studio recording, titled New STANDARDS, Vol. 1, a Grammy winner that featured a stellar lineup of musicians performing 11 compositions plucked from her book’s 184 pages. If New STANDARDS amounts to a bit of revisionist history, Next Jazz Legacy, now in its second year, is her bet on the future. Co-sponsored by Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and the nonprofit New Music USA, the program selects seven apprentices each year and pairs them with master bandleaders for mentorship and musical collaborations. The apprentices get

Missy Mazzoli has looked at too many programs during too many concerts to find that she is the only woman with a composing credit on the page. 44

a $10,000 grant, and a chance to mingle with stars. Among the mentors in the program’s first year were saxophonist Wayne Shorter (who died in March of this year), vocalist Bobby McFerrin, and bassist Marcus Miller. The current crop of awardees are paired with mentors including trumpeter Nicholas Payton, bassist Christian McBride, and pianists Kris Davis and Patrice Rushen. It is a competitive program, and it’s getting to be more so as word about it has spread; more than 120 musicians applied to be part of the 2022-23 cohort. “They have to submit videos and they have to write a personal statement, so we can see a little bit about their lives and why they want to be in the program,” Carrington explained. The point is to identify female musicians who are not getting the nurturing they need. “We have a habit of rewarding people who have already succeeded,” said Carrington, “while overlooking folks who need a leg up. I’m a big supporter of just doing the extra work, and trying to dig into what somebody’s doing, or trying to do, really checking out their potential. Because sometimes this boost is all they need to realize that potential.” The apprentices come from all styles of jazz; each gets two mentors, one focusing on performance and the other on creative practice in general. Carrington makes the matches using factors like geography and musical compatibly to connect the players. The pairs meet, play, compose together, and talk business. Then the pros integrate the newcomers into their ensembles for a series of concerts before live audiences. The mentors are paid for their work, which often requires them to write or arrange music to accommodate the apprentice. For apprentices like Neta Raanan, a tenor saxophonist and composer based in Brooklyn, New York, the program offered an opportunity for partnering with musicians she “could only dream of playing with.” A member of this year’s cohort, Raanan was paired with drummer Nasheet Waits, also a New Yorker, whose music has “just enchanted me since I was a teenager,” she said. Her creative mentor is Philadelphia poet and musician Moor Mother. Raanan and Waits are connecting regularly and assembling a band for a music festival in Brooklyn. “I just try to take every opportunity to really be in the moment and enjoy this, because it feels like something I’ve been working towards for more than a decade,” Raanan said.

n some ways, lately, female composers and musicians are progressing in the jazz and classical worlds. More female instrumentalists are leading bands and winning awards— among jazz’s ranks, these include harpist Brandee Younger, pianist Kris Davis, and bassist esperanza spalding. The classical

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Clockwise from top left: Jen Shyu; Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid; Sara Serpa; Terri Lyne Carrington.

“What would jazz sound like in a culture without patriarchy?”

Photos: Daniel Reichert (Shyu), David Andrako (Luna Lab), Ebru Yildiz (Serpa), Delphine Diallo (Carrington)

– Terri Lyne Carrington

music world, too, has begun to focus anew on female composers. Last year, Tania León received a Kennedy Center Honor in recognition of her achievements as a composer and conductor; the previous year, her orchestral work, Stride, earned her a Pulitzer. (León was also the recipient of CMA’s 2022 Richard J. Bogolmony National Service Award, recognizing lifetime achievement.) Still, those women who have succeeded in jazz or classical music share a common refrain: There were few other high-profile women to show them the way. Instead, they had to come up with their own vision on how to succeed in a male-centric art ecosystem. That was true for Mazzoli, who grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and Reid, who was raised in East Tennessee, and who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2019. “We didn’t meet another female composer until we were in college,” said Mazzoli. Those experiences helped them understand that the best way to inspire new composers was to reach musicians at the beginning their journeys, while they were young and still shaping ideas about what is possible. Luna Composition Lab, which started seven years ago, works with six fellows each year, ages 13-18, from across the U.S. The apprentices—this year, selected from 60 applicants—are matched with an established, professional composer for eight months of one-on-one coaching, with a goal of creating a new piece of music. They work online, so that musicians in cities and towns, large and small, have equal access to top-notch tutoring. Fees for the program are low, totaling $800 per student. “Anytime you’re in such a severe minority, or anytime you’re in a minority at all, it can be a very isolating experience and you’re without a

certain kind of support that I think most people just take for granted,” said Mazzoli. “We wanted to reach out and find these people who didn’t have access to a strong music program in their high school, or who maybe live in a more isolated community.” The program culminates in a music festival held each year in New York City. The compositions are workshopped, and then premiered. The event also features masterclasses by professionals. The list of participating artists thus far includes Renée Fleming, Tania León, and Jeanine Tesori. In addition to giving young composers the confidence boost and practical experience that comes with hearing their work performed live, the apprentices walk away with an important tool for the next likely step of their careers: a recording of their work by a top-notch ensemble that they can use for college applications. (Luna Composition Lab’s current recording partner is the International Contemporary Ensemble.) Those recordings, Mazzoli said, are essential for admission, and often only possible for students who come from advantaged backgrounds. They have helped deliver results: 95 percent of the apprentices have gone on to study composition in college. The apprentices also gain other benefits. This year, Luna Composition Lab sent three of its fellows to Norway, where their pieces were performed at the Bergen International Music Festival. Recently, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra commissioned 25 Luna alumni to write works for its chorus. Luna also has a separate beginner program, called Adventures in Sound, held entirely online, that offers a three-semester course, starting with a focus on basic music theory, and which can be a feeder program for the apprenticeship. It is all part of Luna’s 45

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Those women who have succeeded in jazz or classical music share a common refrain: There were few other highprofile women to show them the way. comprehensive strategy to assist composers of the future at every level. “We even have an alumni fund that helps them with everything from purchasing software to attending festivals,” said Mazzoli. “Because the business of being a composer can be very expensive.”

Alicia Erlandson, a Luna Lab fellow, after the premiere of her piece in 2022.

a while to start questioning these roles that we have been assigned.” The program has yielded benefits that neither Serpa nor Shyu anticipated, qualities M³ has in common with both Next Jazz Legacy and Luna Composition Lab. As word spreads of their success, the wider music world has begun looking to them as a resource. Any orchestra looking to hire a female composer or any venue hoping to book a female player or bandleader need only to click on the Luna, M3, or Next Jazz Legacy websites to locate a long list of highly talented and fully employable artists. Perhaps more importantly, the cohorts of each organization have begun to form their own networks, organically. They remain connected after their programs end and serve as resources for one another. After decades of exclusion from the boys’ clubs that have long helped male musicians prosper, here are alternatives. None of this means that men don’t have a role to play in changing the status quo. These programs make it clear that they are not cutting men out of the picture. They welcome their support and, sometimes, their direct involvement in the apprentice process. Carrington has had great success pairing her female cohorts with the best male players in the business—after all, they have plenty of expertise and power to share, if they are willing. “It’s not a woman’s job to change patriarchy,” said Carrington. “It’s really up to the oppressor to change their way of thinking.”

Ray Mark Rinaldi is a Denver-based writer, critic, and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Denver Post, Opera News, Dwell magazine, and other publications.

Photo: David Andrako

utual Mentorship for Musicians has its own method of encouraging women and nonbinary artists in the music field, which is, in some ways, more radical. M³ explodes the usual master-student model, replacing it with peer-to-peer coaching. Shyu and Serpa are best-known as experimental jazz vocalists and composers, but M³ is open to all kind of creative minds. “We welcome electronic musicians, sound artists, noise artists, everyone,” said Serpa. Cohorts come from countries around the world and their ages have spanned from 20 to 70. The program, which kicked off in 2020, works this way: Each year, twelve participants are chosen to participate. Some are nominated by current fellows; others are chosen by program organizers. They convene regularly as a group over the following ten months to discuss their work. At the first meeting, the participants are assigned a project partner based on a random drawing of names. The pairs work together, virtually, over the course of a dozen or so meetings to compose a new piece, about ten minutes long, which they perform before live listeners at the end of their sessions. An audience Q&A follows the show. Because the program started during the coronavirus lockdown, the first concerts were online. This year, M³ was able to offer cohorts the opportunity to present their works in-person during a June concert at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem. The collective used the occasion to give out a lifetime musical achievement award to one of its alumni, pianist and bandleader Michele Rosewoman. M3 helps advance the careers of its participants, but that is not the point of the operation. It’s about the development of high-quality art. “We do talk about our careers, but the focus is not so much on ‘how did you get that gig,’” said Serpa. “The focus is on ‘how did you create that work’? Or ‘tell me about your process.’ Or ‘how did you get through raising three kids while you were trying to work on your music?’” she said. The goal of M³’s programs is to create comfortable spaces, apart and different from the arenas where men traditionally get most of the attention—“where everyone can be themselves and free, and not have to feel like they have to prove themselves or be twice as good as the guy sitting next to them,” said Serpa. “We grow up with these kind of environments,” added Shyu. “It takes SUMM ER 2023

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Conservatories & Schools of Music

COVER IMAGE

Created by Red Herring Design and the A.I. art generator Imagine using the prompts chamber music, impact, modern, instrument, string, rhythm, concerto, and resurrection.

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Bard College Conservatory of Music 30 Campus Road Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504

EXP E N S E S See Bard College Conservatory’s website.

CONTACT Katie Rossiter Mancus PHONE (845) 752-2409 FAX (845) 758-7440 EMAIL conservatoryadmission@bard.edu WEBSITE www.bard.edu/conservatory

ENSEMBLES INSTRUMENTAL Chamber Music, Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, New Music Ensembles, Chamber Music with collaborative pianists and other instrumentalists, Opera Workshop

TYPE Postsecondary SETTING Rural (near New York City) SIZE OF SCHOOL 1,800 SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 180

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Average GPA: 3.5/4.0 Average ACT: 30 Average SAT: 1330/1600 Interview Required: No Placement Tests Required: No Auditions Live: Yes Recorded: Yes Virtual: Yes, via Zoom APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E(S) Undergraduate Program: January 1 Graduate Instrumental and Vocal Arts, Conducting: December 1 Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship: December 1 U N DERGRADUA TE A U DI TI ON S February to March (See Bard College Conservatory’s website for more details.) Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 24% GRADU AT E AUD I TI ON S February to March (See Bard College Conservatory’s website for more details.) Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 20%

VOCAL Opera Workshop, Choir, Chamber Music, Recital, Oratorio

FAC U L T Y UNDERGRADUATE & GRADUATE INSTRUMENTAL Part Time: 48 Full Time: 12 Student/Faculty Ratio: 3:1 Key Faculty: All of our faculty are worldrenowned performers and teachers. UNDERGRADUATE & GRADUATE VOCAL Part Time: 2 Full Time: 3 Student/Teacher Ratio: 3:1 Key Faculty: Edith Bers, Stephanie Blythe, Teresa Buchholz, Richard Cox, Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Kayo Iwama, Rufus Müller, Lorraine Nubar, Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, Erika Switzer GRADUATE CONDUCTING Part Time: 6 Full Time: 2 Key Faculty: James Bagwell, Leon Botstein DE G R E E S All undergraduates earn two degrees over five years, a BA and a BM. Graduate degrees are an MM in vocal arts, instrumental studies, and conducting. Postgraduate certificate offered in collaborative piano. GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BA, BM Total Course Hours: At least 160 semester hours of academic credit for BA/BM degree Senior Recital: Yes Junior Recital: Yes SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N % Students Receiving Aid: 100% Program-Specific Related Awards: All students are eligible for Conservatory merit scholarships. Distinguished merit scholarships are available for double bass, brass, and double reed applicants. All special merit scholarships may cover up to the full cost of tuition, room and board.

Other Financial Aid: General merit- and need-based aid, up to and including full tuition, room, and board.

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: 60 to 90 minutes Available for Non-Majors: No Cost Included in Tuition: Yes Accompanists Provided: Yes R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Graduates of the undergraduate program are attending the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Rice University, and SUNY Stony Brook, among others. Some graduates are also pursuing non-music graduate degrees at such schools as the University of Texas at Austin, Harvard University Schools of Education and Government, California Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and Washington University School of Medicine. Vocal Arts Program graduates are attending Curtis, Juilliard and New England Conservatory. Graduates include winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Astral Artists Auditions, Young Concert Artists International Competition, the Joy of Singing Competition, and the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition. Graduates have participated in the apprentice programs of the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, and Utah Opera, among others. PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 50 Rooms with Piano: 35 HOUSING Available: For all undergraduates On Campus First Year Required: Yes Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

SUMMER 2023

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E C C

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EXCELLENCE CURIOSITY COMMUNITY

PROGRAM OFFERINGS Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Arts, Undergraduate Double Degree Master of Music, Graduate Instrumental Arts Program Graduate Certificate, Advanced Performance Studies Paid Fellowship, Postgraduate Collaborative Piano The mission of the Bard Conservatory is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music. bard.edu/conservatory/admission conservatoryadmission@bard.edu 845-752-2409

LEARN MORE

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Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance 2001 N. 13th Street Philadelphia, PA 19122 CONTACT Boyer College of Music and Dance Admission PHONE (215) 204-6810 EMAIL music@temple.edu WEBSITE boyer.temple.edu

EXP E N S E S TUITION $19,992 (in-state undergraduate) $34,704 (out-of-state undergraduate) $1,380/credit (in-state graduate) $1,515/credit (out-of-state graduate)

TYPE University SETTING Philadelphia, PA SIZE OF SCHOOL 33,606 SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 860

ENSEMBLES INSTRUMENTAL Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Opera Orchestra, Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, Collegiate Band, Marching Band, Basketball Band, Community Band, Contemporary Music Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, numerous chamber ensembles ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS All undergraduate applicants must complete an online application and submit supporting materials (transcripts, SAT/ACT scores or essay substitutions, and pass an audition). All graduate applicants must complete an online application and submit supporting materials (transcripts, letters of recommendation, resume, and a program-specific portfolio or audition). Information is available on our website. Auditions: Live: Yes Tape: Yes; no prescreening requirements APPLICATION DEADLINE(S) February 1 (freshmen), May 15 (transfer), March 1 (graduate) UNDERGRADUATE FACULTY Part Time: 55 Full Time: 230 DE G R E E S BA: No BM: Yes BME: No Others: Undergraduate and graduate diplomas, BS, minors, certificates, MM, MMT, MS, MA, DMA, PhD. GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BM Total Course Hours: 124–160 Course Hours in Major: Varies by major Course Hours Outside Major: 32 credits Senior Recital: Required for Performance majors, optional for others Junior Recital: No

S C H O L A R S H I P I N F O RMA T IO N % Students Receiving Aid: 90% Program-Specific Awards: Yes, scholarships and assistantships based upon audition and instrumental need of the College Other Financial Aid: Academic merit-based scholarships for undergraduates, teaching assistantships and fellowships for graduate students

CHORAL Concert Choir, University Singers, University Chorale, Community Choir, Graduate Conductors Chorus, Recital Chorus, numerous a cappella ensembles JAZZ Big Band, Lab Band, three additional large jazz ensembles, jazz choir, community jazz band, community jazz choir, numerous combo ensembles PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: One hour/week Cost Included in Tuition: Yes Additional Private Instruction Cost: Yes Accompanists Provided: For some lessons PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of practice rooms: Over 75 Rooms with piano: Over 65 Assigned: 10 Unassigned: Over 65 In residence hall: 2 additional rooms HOUSING Available: Yes On-campus first year required: No Dorms located near music building: Yes

SUMMER 2023

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Boyer College of Music and Dance

ENSEMBLES AT TEMPLE Students at the Boyer College of Music and Dance participate in numerous large and small ensembles, performing in venues like

Terell Stafford

Chair of Instrumental Studies, Director of Jazz Studies

the Temple Performing Arts Center, Kimmel Cultural Campus, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and studying under faculty drawn from premier east coast ensembles

Patricia Cornett Director of Bands

including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

José Luis Domínguez

Director of Orchestral Studies

Phillip O’Banion

Artistic Director of Percussion

Contact admissions: (215) 204-6810 or boyer@temple.edu

boyer.temple.edu @boyercollege

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Carnegie Mellon University School of Music 5000 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15213 CONTACT Katherine Heston PHONE (412) 268-4118 EMAIL music-admissions@andrew.cmu.edu WEBSITE music.cmu.edu TYPE University SETTING Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 14,000 SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 350

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Average GPA: 3.5 Scholastic Tests: SAT/ACT is Optional for all undergraduate applicants Average ACT: 32 Average SAT: 1280 Interview Required: No Other: Audition or Portfolio Review Required Auditions: Live: Yes Tape: Yes APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E(S) December 1 IN ST RUMEN TAL AU DI TI ON S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes (no percussion, collaborative piano, flute, composition, or MM - Music Education) Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 30% VO CAL AU DITIO N S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 30% U N DERGRADUA TE FACU LTY INSTRUMENTAL Part Time: 27 Full Time: 16 Student/Teacher Ratio: 4:1 Key Faculty: Andrés Cárdenes, former Concertmaster, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; David Harding, viola, Trio Verlaine; Nancy Galbraith, Vira I. Heinz Professor of Music, composition; 22 CMU School of Music faculty are members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

EXP E N S E S APPLICATION $50 undergraduate, $125 graduate UNDERGRADUATE TUITION $62,260 FEES $1,014 ROOM & BOARD $17,468 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $2,400 (estimate) TRANSPORTATION Variable TOTAL $83,192+ Graduate: Tuition (MM, MS, AD) $42,200 AMSC (1 year) $10,200

DE G R E E S BA: No BM: No BME: No Others: BFA, BS, BXA, MM, MS, AMSC (Advanced Studies in Music Certificate) GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BFA Senior Recital: Yes Junior Recital: Yes (voice, strings)

R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Alison Fierst (BFA 2018) associate principal flute, New York Philharmonic James Wyman (MM 2010) principal timpani, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Vivian Choi (AD 2010) piano, internationally acclaimed soloist and recording artist Muhammad Haris Usmani (MS 2015) music & technology, Bose Corporation Emma Steele (BFA 2012) violin, concertmaster of the Royal Danish Opera Orchestra in Copenhagen Liam Bonner (BFA 2003) baritone, Executive Director, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 80 Number of Rooms Assigned: 8 Number of Rooms Unassigned: 72 F R A T E R N A L A N D P R OFES S IO NA L ORGANIZATIONS Sigma Alpha Iota HOUSING Available: On-campus On Campus First Year Required: Yes (undergraduates only, not commuting from home) Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N Program-Specific Related Awards: Undergraduate: No Other Financial Aid: All undergraduate aid is need based; graduate students can receive up to full tuition awards ENS E M B L E S INSTRUMENTAL Philharmonic, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Ensembles, Jazz Orchestra, Baroque Ensemble, Exploded Ensemble CHORAL CMU Singers, Chorus, Jive P RI V A T E I N S T R U C T I O N Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: 1 hour per week Available for Non-Majors: Yes Cost Included in Tuition: Yes, for music majors Accompanists Provided: Yes

VOCAL Part Time: 2 Full Time: 4 Student/Teacher Ratio: 4:1 Key Faculty: Maria Spacagna, soprano, The Metropolitan Opera; Thomas Douglas, Director of Opera Studies and Director of Choral Activities 52

SUMMER 2023

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WHERE ARTISTRY + INNOVATION SHARE CENTER STAGE

MUSIC.CMU.EDU APPLICATION DEADLINE DECEMBER 1 47-81_SCHOOL SECTION.indd 53

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Curtis Institute of Music 1726 Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 CONTACT Mr. Paul Bryan PHONE (215) 893-5252 EMAIL admissions@curtis.edu WEBSITE https://www.curtis.edu/

EXP E N S E S APPLICATION $300 TUITION (FEES) $6,000 ROOM & BOARD $21,200 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $5,335 TOTAL $32,535

TYPE Conservatory SETTING Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 151

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Average GPA: N/A Scholastic Tests: TOEFL/IELTS/Cambridge required for non-native English speakers for placement purposes only Average ACT: N/A Average SAT: N/A Interview Required: No Auditions: Live: On Campus Tape: No APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E December 15 IN ST RUMEN TAL AU DI TI ON S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: No Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 4% VO CAL AU DITIO N S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: No Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 4% U N DERGRADUA TE FACU LTY Part Time: 112 Full Time: 3 Student/Teacher Ratio: 2:1 Key Faculty: Misha Amory, Benjamin Beilman, Yefim Bronfman, Michelle Cann, Dover Quartet, Richard Danielpour, Roberto Díaz, Pamela Frank, Gary Hoffman, Imani Winds, Ji Su Jung, Ida Kavafian, Meng-Chieh Liu, Daniel Matsukawa, Robert McDonald, Anthony McGill, Edgar Meyer, Midori, Alan Morrison, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Eric Owens, Miloš Repický, Ignat Solzhenitsyn

DE G R E E S BA: No BM: Yes BME: No Others: Diploma, Post-Baccalaureate Diploma, Master of Music GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BM Total Course Hours: The BM requires the completion of a minimum of 133 semester hours; additional requirements vary by major Course Hours in Major: Minimum of 51 semester hours Course Hours Outside Major: 80 semester hours Senior Recital: Yes Junior Recital: No Exit Exams: No SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N % Students Receiving Aid: 100% - all students receive a full-tuition scholarship Program Specific Related Awards: N/A Other Financial Aid: Need-based grants and on-campus employment available to defray living expenses

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: 1 hour Available for Non-Majors: N/A Cost Included in Tuition: N/A Accompanists Provided: Yes R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Teddy Abrams, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Jonathan Biss, Marc Blitzstein, J’nai Bridges, Karina Canellakis, Michael Casimir, Ray Chen, Vinson Cole, Joseph Conyers, Dai Wei, John de Lancie, Dover Quartet, Juan Diego Flórez, Lukas Foss, Alan Gilbert, Richard Goode, Stewart Goodyear, Daron Hagen, Hilary Hahn, Lynn Harrell, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Shuler Hensley, Paavo Järvi, JIJI, Leila Josefowicz, Kim Kashkashian, Young Uck Kim, Jennifer Koh, Lang Lang, Jaime Laredo, Seymour Lipkin, Anthony McGill, Gian Carlo Menotti, Anna Moffo, Eric Owens, Rene Orth, Vinay Parameswaran, Vincent Persichetti, John Relyea, Ned Rorem, Nino Rota, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Peter Serkin, Rinat Shaham, Joseph Silverstein, Karen Slack, Robert Spano, Michael Stern, Time for Three, George Walker, Yuja Wang, Hugo Weisgall, Trio Zimbalist PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 40 Number of Rooms with Piano: 35 Number of Rooms Assigned: 10 Number of Rooms Unassigned: 30 In Residence Hall: 21 F R A T E R N A L A N D P R OFES S IO NA L ORGANIZATIONS N/A HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First Year Required: Yes Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

ENS E M B L E S INSTRUMENTAL Chamber Ensembles, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble 20/21 CHORAL Curtis Opera Theatre

SUMMER 2023

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C U RT I S LEARN .E MORE D ATU CURTIS.EDU

7/17/23 9:33 PM

The Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester 26 Gibbs St Rochester, NY 14604 CONTACT Colby Carson, Director of Admissions PHONE (585) 274-1060 FAX (585) 232-8601 EMAIL admissions@esm.rochester.edu WEBSITE www.esm.rochester.edu

EXP E N S E S I N - S T A T E + O U T O F S T A T E APPLICATION $100 TUITION (INCLUDING FEES) $63,150 ROOM & BOARD $18,712 TOTAL $81,962

TYPE University-based music school SETTING Small Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 9,000 (University of Rochester) SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 900 (Eastman)

G R A D U A T I O N R E Q U I REMENT S BA, BM, BME Total Course Hours: 120-147 Course Hours in Major: 96-119 Course Hours Outside Major: 24 -27 Senior Recital: Yes for BM Junior Recital: No Exit Exam: No S C H O L A R S H I P I N F O RMA T IO N % Students Receiving Aid: 100% ENSEMBLES INSTRUMENTAL: 2 orchestras, chamber orchestras, 2 wind ensembles, early music ensembles, multiple studio and chamber ensembles CHORAL: Chorus, Repertory Singers, Chorale, Women’s Chorus, Opera Chorus

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS Average GPA: 3.4 Interview Required: Yes, for some majors Placement Tests Required: No Auditions: Live: Yes Tape: Yes, with restrictions APPLICATION DEADLINE(S) Early Decision: N/A Regular Decision: December 1 INSTRUMENTAL AUDITIONS On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 30% VO C A L A U D I T I O N S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 20%

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: 1 hour Available for Non-Majors: Yes Cost Included in Tuition: Yes Accompanists Provided: With restrictions R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Renee Fleming, Kathyrn Lewek, Alarm Will Sound, JACK Quartet, Ying Quartet, William Warfield, Fred Sturm PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 135 Number of Rooms with Piano: Most Number of Rooms Assigned: Piano/Harp/ Percussion only Number of Rooms Unassigned: 135 In Residence Hall: No

UNDERGRADUATE FACULTY INSTRUMENTAL Part Time: 46 Full Time: 85 Student/Teacher Ratio: 6:1 Key Faculty: See website

F R A T E R N A L & P R O F FES S IO NA L MUS IC ORGANIZATIONS Mu Phi Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Iota

VOCAL Part Time: 2 Full Time: 11 Student/Teacher Ratio: 6:1 Key Faculty: See website

HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First Year Required: Yes Dorms Located in Music Building: Yes

DE G R E E S BA: No BM: Yes BME: Yes

SUMMER 2023

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Sequoia Reed Quintet, 2022 Lift Every Voice Prize Winners at Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition

Learn from a dedicated residential faculty

Belong to a fiercely supportive community

Discover your own path

Scan here to take a virtual tour of campus

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS

For application information visit esm.rochester.edu/admissions

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The Frost School of Music University of Miami P.O. Box 248165 Coral Gables, FL 33124 CONTACT Karen Kerr PHONE (305) 284-6168 FAX (305) 284-6475 EMAIL admission.music@miami.edu WEBSITE frost.miami.edu

EXP E N S E S I N - S T A T E + O U T O F S T A T E APPLICATION $100/graduate $70/undergraduate UNDERGRADUATE TUITION $58,104 FEES $1,364 ROOM & BOARD $21,580 undergraduate TRANSPORTATION $1,926 TOTAL $83,044 undergraduate

TYPE University/School of Music SETTING Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 17,000 SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 750

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Average GPA: N/A Scholastic Tests: ACT or SAT (Test-optional) Interview Required: For Music Ed., Music Therapy Auditions: Live: Yes Online Recording: Accepted for classical applicants outside of Florida APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E(S) Early Action: November 1 Regular Decision: December 1 IN ST RUMEN TAL AU DI TI ON S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: No Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 30% VO CAL AU DITIO N S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: No Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 30% U N DERGRADUA TE FACU LTY Part Time: 56 Full Time: 58 DEGREES BA: Yes MM: Yes Others: BS, BM, MA, MS, AD, PhD, DMA GRADU AT IO N REQU I R EMEN TS BM BA BS Total Course Hours: At least 120 Senior Recital: Varies Junior Recital: Varies Exit Exams: Varies

SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N Program Specific Related Awards: Academicand Merit-based Other Financial Aid: Need-based aid ENS E M B L E S INSTRUMENTAL Bands: Frost Wind Ensemble, Frost Symphonic Winds, Frost “Band of the Hour” Marching and Pep Bands, Frost University Band Orchestras: Frost Symphony Orchestra, Frost Chamber Orchestra, Frost Repertory Orchestra, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra New Music Ensembles: Composers’ Performance Collective, Ensemble Ibis, Frost Electroacoustic Music Ensemble, Frost Percussion Group Small Ensembles: Frost Classical Guitar Ensemble, Frost Clarinet Choir, Frost Flute Ensemble, Frost Horns, Frost Saxophone Ensemble (Sax Band), Frost Saxophone Quartet, Frost Trombone Choir Chamber Music: Chameleon Strings, Composers Performance Collective, Frost Chamber Players, HMI String Quartet, Stamps Brass Quintet Stamps String Quartet, Stamps Woodwind Quintet VOCAL Choirs: Chamber Singers, Frost Bella Voce, Frost Chorale, Frost Symphonic Choir Opera: Frost Opera Theater Vocal Ensemble: Frost Musical Theatre Ensemble JAZZ Large Jazz Ensembles: Frost Concert Jazz Band, Frost Studio Jazz Band, Frost Latin Jazz Orchestra, Frost XJB Big Band, Jazz Vocal Ensembles, Frost Extensions, Frost Jazz Vocal I, Frost Jazz Vocal II

Small Jazz Ensembles: 1959 Ensemble, Accompaniment Class, Art Blakey Ensemble, Bass Desires, Billy Strayhorn Ensemble, Blue Note Ensemble, Brian Lynch Artist Ensemble, Dafnis Prieto Artist Ensemble, Frost Jazz Octet, Frost Jazz Sextet, Funk/Fusion Ensemble I, Funk/ Fusion Ensemble II, Guitar Ensemble I, II, III, Horace Silver Ensemble, Joe Henderson Ensemble, Latin Jazz Ensemble, Max Roach/Clifford Brown Ensemble, Melba Liston Ensemble, Miles Davis Ensemble, Monk/Mingus Ensemble, New Music Ensemble, Odd Times Ensemble, R&B Ensemble, Recording Ensemble, Stamps Jazz Quintet, Trio Ensemble, Wayne Shorter Ensemble CONTEMPORARY (POP/SONGWRITING) Songwriter’s Ensembles: American Music Ensemble (AME), American Modern Band (AMB), American Musicians Group (AMG), American Musicianship Collective (AMC) Historical Theme Ensembles: Anglo Roots Ensemble (FolkU), African-American Roots Ensemble (Crossroads), Vintage Pop Ensemble, Modern Pop Ensemble Specialized Ensembles: Contemporary Keyboard Ensemble (Black n’ White), Contemporary Country Ensemble (Sunshine State), Contemporary Rock Ensemble (Landfall), Contemporary Recording Ensemble, Contemporary A-Cappella Ensemble, Contemporary Strings Ensemble, Contemporary Ensemble Workshop (D.I.Y. Ensemble), Frost Electronica Ensemble (FrostEE), Frost Laptop Ensemble, Frost EDM Ensemble, The RUCK Ensemble PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: One hour Available for Non-Majors: In some cases Cost Included in Tuition: For majors Additional Private Instruction Cost: Yes, if supplementary or secondary lesson is taken R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Visit www.frost.miami.edu for details. F R A T E R N A L & P R O F ES S IO NA L MUS IC ORGANIZATIONS Visit www.frost.miami.edu for details. Alpha Mu, Phi Mu Alpha, Sigma Alpha Iota, Tau Beta Sigma, MENC, American Musicology Society, Society of Composers, Inc., Audio Engineering Society, ’Cane Records, CAT 5 Music Publishing, Music and Entertainment Industry Students Association, Frost School of Music Student Council HOUSING Available: Yes (Dorm) On Campus First Year Required: Yes Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

SUMMER 2023

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The Hartt School University of Hartford 200 Bloomfield Avenue West Hartford, CT 06117 CONTACT Hartt Admissions PHONE (860) 768-4465 FAX (860) 768-4441 EMAIL harttadm@hartford.edu WEBSITE www.hartford.edu/hartt

EXP E N S E S I N - S T A T E + O U T O F S T A T E APPLICATION $40/undergraduate UNDERGRADUATE TUITION $44,350 TOTAL $44,390 undergraduate + living expenses and fees

R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Robert Black, Ryan Speedo Green, Wu Han, Anthea Kreston, Shane Shanahan, Timothy Deighton, Jimmy Greene, Brandee Younger

TYPE Private SETTING Suburban SIZE OF UNIVERSITY 6,500 SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 625

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Average GPA: 3.3 Scholastic Tests: Optional Average ACT: 25 Average SAT: 1210 Interview Required: Yes Placement Tests Required: No Auditions: Live: Yes Tape: Yes APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E(S) Early Decision: November 1 (non-binding) Regular Decision: January 10 IN ST RUMEN TAL AU DI TI ON S On-Campus: December, January, February Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 76% VO CAL AU DITIO N S On-Campus: December, January, February Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 89% U N DERGRADUA TE FACU LTY INSTRUMENTAL Part Time: 43 Full Time: 21 Student Teacher Ratio: 8:1 Key Faculty: Glen Adsit, Edward Cummings, Gilda Lyons, Rita Porfiris, Anton Miller, Mihai Tetel, Emlyn Ngai, Phil Snedecor, Haim Avitsur, Benjamin Toth, Ayako Oshima, Javon Jackson VOCAL Part Time: 12 Full Time: 6 Key Faculty: Cherie Caluda, Deborah Lifton, Thomas Cannon

DE G R E E S BA: Music, Performing Arts Management BM: Instrumental Performance, Jazz Studies, Vocal Performance, Composition, Music Education, Music Management, Music Production & Technology, Music Theory, Music History Others: BSE in Acoustical Engeneering and Music, MM, MMEd, ADm GPD, DMA, PhD GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BM BM BME Total Course Hours: Varies by program Course Hours in Major: Varies by program Course Hours Outside Major: Varies by program Senior Recital: Varies by program Junior Recital: None Exit Exams: None

PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 64 Number of Rooms with Piano: 64 Number of Rooms Assigned: 14 Number of Rooms Unassigned: 50 Other: Any available classroom may be used as a practice room In Residence Hall: None F R A T E R N A L & P R O F ES S IO NA L MUS IC ORGANIZATIONS Sigma Alpha Iota, Pi Kappa Lambda, NASM HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First Year Required: Yes Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N % Students receiving aid: 98% Program Specific Related Awards: Yes— up to full tuition Other Financial Aid: Need-based grants available to undergraduates who qualify ENS E M B L E S INSTRUMENTAL Hartt Orchestra, Hartt Wind Ensemble, Collegium Musicum, Composers Ensemble, Foot In The Door, Chamber Ensembles, Jazz Combos CHORAL Choir, Chorale, Chamber Choir, Touring Choir

SUMMER 2023

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THE HARTT SCHOOL MUSIC • DANCE • THEATRE

The Hartt School is a performing arts conservatory for music, dance, and theatre with the added benefit of being a part of the University of Hartford. Home to the Garmany Chamber Music Series, Lions Gate Trio and more, Hartt has more than 400 performances, recitals, and master classes each year making it one of the largest and most diverse producers of chamber music in the state of Connecticut. Through diverse coursework and close mentoring relationships with faculty, you can make your passion your profession.

Turning passion into profession. PROGRAMS OFFERED: Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of Fine Arts

Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Performance with a Chamber Music Emphasis Through the study of chamber music, you will learn about the history and practice of this art form. Academic Double Majors and Minors At Hartt you aren’t limited to studying only one thing.

hartford.edu/hartt 47-81_SCHOOL SECTION.indd 61

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Center for Music Ithaca College School of Music, Theater, and Dance 3322 Whalen Center 953 Danby Rd. Ithaca, NY 14850 CONTACT Music Admission Team PHONE (607) 274-3366 FAX (607) 274-3068 EMAIL music@ithaca.edu WEBSITE www.ithaca.edu/music

EXP E N S E S APPLICATION $90 TUITION $50,510 ROOM & BOARD $16,030 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $850 LIVING EXPENSE $1,000 TOTAL $68,480

ENSEMBLES INSTRUMENTAL Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Brass Choir, Contemporary Ensemble, Flute Choir, Guitar Ensembles, Percussion Ensembles, Piano Ensembles, Trombone Troupe, Gamer Symphony Orchestra CHORAL Chorus, Treble Chorale, Choir, Madrigals Chorus, Jazz Vocal Ensemble, Opera Workshop

TYPE College-based Conservatory SETTING Residential college campus SIZE OF UNIVERSITY 5,000 SIZE OF MUSIC CENTER 400

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS Average GPA: B+ to A Scholastic Tests: SAT/ACT Optional Interview Required: By program Placement Tests Required: Sightsinging Placement Auditions: 2023-24 audition information can be found on our website. APPLICATION DEADLINE(S) Regular Decision: December 1 Early Decision: November 1 UNDERGRADUATE FACULTY Full Time: 60 Part Time: 43 Student Teacher Ratio: 7:1 DE G R E E S BA: Music BM: Performance, Music Education, Music Education & Performance, Composition, Sound Recording Technology, Music in Combination with an Outside Field, Jazz Studies Others: Music Minor GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BA Total Course Hours: 120 Course Hours in Major: 30 Course Hours Outside Major: 90 Senior Recital: Opt. Junior Recital: Opt.

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: One hour Available for Non-Majors: Yes Cost Included in Tuition: Yes, for Music Majors Additional Private Instruction Cost: No Accompanists Provided: In Part PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 75 Number of Rooms with Piano: 70 F R A T E R N A L & P R O F ES S IO NA L MUS IC ORGANIZATIONS Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Delta Chapter, Mu Phi Epsilon Lambda Chapter, Sigma Alpha Iota Epsilon Chapter, Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, American Choral Directors Association Student Chapter, National Association for Music Educators Student Chapter, Ithaca College American String Teachers Association Chapter HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First Year Required: Yes Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes Other: On-campus housing available for all four year, required for first three years

BM 120 90 30 Req. for Perf Req. for Perf

SUMMER 2023

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Calling all change-makers. Bring your talent to the premier progressive hub for the performing arts at the Ithaca College School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Take your musicianship to new levels through the continuous study of theory, practice, and performance.

2023–24 MUSIC AUDITIONS Saturday, December 9, 2023 Saturday, January 27, 2024 Saturday, February 3, 2024 (virtual) Saturday, February 17, 2024

APPLICATION DEADLINE December 1, 2023

TOUR OUR FACILITIES Take a virtual tour of the Whalen Center for Music at bit.ly/icwhalenvirtualtour.

ithaca.edu/mtd/apply music@ithaca.edu

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The Juilliard School / Music Division 60 Lincoln Center Plaza New York, NY 10023 CONTACT Office of Admissions PHONE (212) 799-5000, x223 EMAIL admissions@juilliard.edu WEBSITE www.juilliard.edu

EXP E N S E S APPLICATION $110 TUITION $53,300 ROOM & BOARD $21,340 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $4,000 LIVING EXPENSES $5,252 TOTAL $83,892

TYPE Conservatory SETTING Urban, New York City

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Interview Required: For some majors Tests Required: Yes. TOEFL, IELTS, or Cambridge Assessment English required for non-native English speakers, plus an interview for selected applicants; ACT or SAT required for home-schooled applicants; further details available at juilliard.edu Auditions Live: Yes Recorded: TBD APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E Regular Decision: December 1 IN ST RUMEN TAL AU DI TI ON S On-Campus: Yes Percentage Offered Admission: 16% VO CAL AU DITIO N S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: No Percentage Offered Admission: 3.7%; 5% Artist Diploma in Opera Studies U N DERGRADUA TE FACU LTY INSTRUMENTAL Full Time: 173 Part Time: 132 Student/Teacher Ratio: Approximately 2:1 Faculty: See website for full list and bios DEGREES BA: No BM: Yes BME: No Others: MM, GD, AD, DMA Special note: Applications for the biannual Artist Diploma in String Quartet Studies will be available starting September 1, 2023, for entry in Fall 2024.

GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S ALL PROGRAMS Total Course Hours: Varies by major and degree Course Hours in Major: Varies by major and degree Course Hours Outside Major: Varies by major and degree Senior Recital: Required for BM Junior Recital: Not required for BM Exit Exams: Required recital (replaces annual jury) SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N % Students Receiving Aid: 90% Program Specific Related Awards: Yes, including Kovner Fellowships and Greene Fellowships Other Financial Aid: Yes—all students are eligible for work-study jobs on campus Scholarship and Financial Aid Application Process: To be considered for any need-based or merit-based institutional funds (scholarships), students must complete the FAFSA and the CSS Profile, and submit income documentation, by March 1. No additional applications are required.

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: One hour/week Cost Included in Tuition: Yes Additional Private Instruction Cost: No Accompanists Provided: Yes, for some lessons R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Emanuel Ax, Sarah Chang, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Mann, Itzhak Perlman, Fred Sherry, Paula Robison, Gil Shaham; members of the Juilliard, Brentano, Brooklyn Rider, Orion, PUBLIQuartet, Shanghai, St. Lawrence, and Takács string quartets; the Peabody piano trio; the Imani, New York, and Windscape wind quintets; the American and Canadian brass quintets; and numerous other ensembles. PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 98 Number of Rooms with Piano: 90 Number of Rooms Assigned: 10 Number of Rooms Unassigned: 88 In Residence Hall: 22 F R A T E R N A L & P R O F ES S IO NA L M U S I C O R G A N I Z A T I O NS See website for registered student organizations HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First Year Required: Yes Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes Other: Some housing in the Residence Hall is available for graduate students

ENS E M B L E S INSTRUMENTAL Juilliard Orchestra; Juilliard415; Juilliard Jazz Orchestra; Jazz Ensembles; AXIOM; Juilliard Chamber Orchestra; Juilliard Wind Orchestra; Lab Orchestra; Honors Chamber Music; Juilliard Percussion Ensemble; 100+ student chamber ensembles CHORAL Opera chorus

SUMMER 2023

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PHOTO BY RACHEL PAPO

Chamber Music at Juilliard Developing the complete musician • Coaching with world-renowned faculty, artists-in-residence, and guest artists • Regular performance opportunities at Juilliard’s Lincoln Center campus and throughout New York City • The Juilliard String Quartet and the American Brass Quintet in residence • Honors Chamber Music Program with enhanced performance opportunities and professional development • Annual ChamberFest, an intensive chamber music immersion experience

• Specialized student groups including the Graduate Resident String Quartet, Juilliard415 (period instruments), Duke Ellington Ensemble (jazz), and many more • Annual week-long Juilliard String Quartet Seminar for pre-professional string quartets (by additional application) • Seminars, open rehearsals, master classes, explorations in improvisation, an emphasis on community engagement, and more

APPLICATIONS OPEN SEPTEMBER 1

juilliard.edu/music

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Manhattan School of Music 130 Claremont Avenue New York, NY 10027-4689 CONTACT Office of Admissions PHONE (917) 493-4436 FAX (917) 493-4436 EMAIL admission@msmnyc.edu WEBSITE www.msmnyc.edu TYPE Private SETTING Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 985+

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Average GPA: 3.0 or higher Scholastic Tests: Recommended, not required Interview Required: No Placement Tests Required: In-house English Assessment for all students whose first language is not English Auditions Live: Yes Recorded: Yes, if eligible APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E(S) Early Decision: No Regular Decision: December 1 IN ST RUMEN TAL AU DI TI ON S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 40% VO CAL AU DITIO N S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 40% CO MPO S ITIO N A U DI TI ON S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 35% MUS ICAL T H EATR E AU DI TI ON S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 25% U N DERGRADUA TE FACU LTY INSTRUMENTAL Part Time: 121 Full Time: 24 Student/Teacher Ratio: 2:1 VOCAL Part Time: 9 Full Time: 9 Student/Teacher Ratio: 7:1

EXP E N S E S I N - S T A T E + O U T O F S T A T E APPLICATION $125 TUITION $53,500 FEES $1,100 ROOM & BOARD $14,700 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $1,500 MSM STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE $4,128 LIVING EXPENSES $3,000 TOTAL $78,053

DE G R E E S BA: No BM: Yes BME: No Others: MM, DMA, Professional Studies Certificate, Artist Diploma, Dual Degree program with Teachers College (MM from MSM and EdM in Music Education with New York State Music Teacher Certification from Teachers College, Columbia University), Professional Performance Diploma GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BM Total Course Hours: 122 minimum Course Hours in Major: Varies by major Course Hours Outside Major: Varies by major Senior Recital: Yes Junior Recital: Voice–required; Instrumental– elective Exit Exams: Yes, plus graduation jury

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: One hour Cost Included in Tuition: Yes Additional Private Instruction Cost: N/A Accompanists Provided: Yes R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Christopher Coletti, Allan Dean, Timothy Eddy, Margo Garrett, Nicholas Goluses, Stefon Harris, Paul Katz, Jon Klibonoff, Anne-Marie McDermott, Kerry McDermott, Maureen McDermott, Robert McDonald, Jason Moran, Frank Morelli, Johanna Maria Rose, Stewart Rose, Michael Seltzer, Carol Wincenc, Miguel Zenón, Absolute Ensemble, Anonymous 4, Arc Duo, Burlington Ensemble, Cleveland Quartet, Imani Winds, Locrian Chamber Players, Manhattan Brass, Marian Anderson String Quartet, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Orion String Quartet, Trio Solisti, Vega String Quartet PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 140 total in Main Campus Building and Residence Hall Other: 20 classrooms for practice use when not being used for classes; 28 Wenger SoundLok practice rooms with Virtual Audio Enhancement HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First and Second Year Required: Yes Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N % Students Receiving Scholarship Aid: 75% ENS E M B L E S INSTRUMENTAL Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Sinfonia, Philharmonia Orchestra, Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Studio Orchestra, Latinx Jazz Orchestra, Opera Orchestra, Senior Opera Theatre Orchestra, Musical Theatre Orchestra, Brass Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Chamber Music Ensembles CHORAL Symphonic Chorus, Chamber Choir, Opera Theatre, Senior Opera Theatre, Opera Scenes, Baroque Aria Ensemble, Contemporary Opera Ensemble, Opera Repertoire Ensemble, Chamber Music Ensembles

SUMMER 2023

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Manhattan School of Music

MSMNYC.EDU NEW YORK, NY admission@msmnyc.edu

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Mannes School of Music 72 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10011 CONTACT Sam Byron PHONE (212) 229-5150 EMAIL byrons@newschool.edu WEBSITE www.newschool.edu/mannes

EXP E N S E S I N - S T A T E + O U T O F S T A T E APPLICATION $50 TUITION $25,950 per term Please refer to the Mannes estimator for other relevant fees: https://www.newschool.edu/mannes/ tuition-fees-estimator/

TYPE Conservatory SETTING Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 489

S C H O L A R S H I P I N F O RMA T IO N % Students Receiving Scholarship Aid: 80% Program Specific Related Awards: N/A Other Financial Aid: Need-based aid ENSEMBLES INSTRUMENTAL Orchestra, Opera, Baroque Chamber Players, Percussion Ensemble, New Music Mannes, Guitar Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Conductor’s Orchestra, Chorus, MACE (Mannes American Composers Ensemble) CHORAL Chorus

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS Average GPA: 3.3 Scholastic Tests: Optional Interview Required: No Placement Tests Required: Composition, Theory, and Transfer Applicants only Auditions Live: Yes Recorded: Yes APPLICATION DEADLINE(S) Early Decision: No Regular Decision: December 1 INSTRUMENTAL AUDITIONS On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 48%

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: One hour Available for Non-Majors: Yes Cost Included in Tuition: Yes Additional Private Instruction Cost: N/A Accompanists Provided: Yes PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 98 Number of Rooms with Piano: 52 In Residence Hall: Yes HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First Year Required: No Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

VO C A L A U D I T I O N S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 30% UNDERGRADUATE FACULTY INSTRUMENTAL Part Time: 150 Full Time: 5 Student/Teacher Ratio: 2:1 VOCAL Part Time: 8 Full Time: 1 Student/Teacher Ratio: 9:1 DE G R E E S BA: No BM: Yes BME: No GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BM Please call Admissions Office for graduation requirements.

SUMMER 2023

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Create Music Today That Inspires Tomorrow At Mannes School of Music, we prepare students to become the next generation of leaders in the performing arts. One way we help them accomplish this goal is by offering chamber ensembles that embrace a variety of classical and contemporary styles and genres of chamber music. GRAMMY® Award–winning artistic mentors help r

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students prepare for the real world of professional chamber playing. Students study and perform alongside renowned faculty including Valerie Coleman, Ralph Evans, Rebecca Fischer, Brandon Ridenour, Dave Taylor, and our ensembles-inresidence, the JACK Quartet and The Westerlies. Learn more about Mannes School of Music, part of The New School’s College of Performing Arts. newschool.edu/mannes Photos: Kevin W. Condon, Beowulf Sheehan

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University of Maryland School of Music 8115 Alumni Drive 2110 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center College Park, MD 20742 CONTACT Lauren McDonald PHONE (301) 405-8435 FAX (301) 314-9504 EMAIL musicadmissions@umd.edu WEBSITE www.music.umd.edu TYPE Public SETTING Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 40,500 SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 450

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Average GPA: A-/B+ average Scholastic Tests: ACT or SAT (Test-optional) Average ACT: 33 Average SAT: 1410 Interview Required: No Placement Tests Required: Yes Auditions: Required for all UG programs Live: Yes Recorded: Yes APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E(S) Early Action: November 1 for Freshmen, December 1 for Transfer Regular Decision: December 1 IN ST RUMEN TAL AU DI TI ON S On-Campus: early December/mid February Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 50% VO CAL AU DITIO N S On-Campus: early December/mid February Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 30% U N DERGRADUA TE FACU LTY INSTRUMENTAL Part Time: 30 Full Time: 17 Student/Teacher Ratio: 4:1 Key Faculty: Emily Tsai, Sarah Frisof, Gregory Miller VOCAL Part Time: 3 Full Time: 8 Student/Teacher Ratio: 4:1 Key Faculty: Kevin Short, John Holiday, Delores Ziegler

EXP E N S E S APPLICATION $75 for the University, $50 for School of Music TUITION $11,505 (in-state undergraduate) $40,306 (out-of-state undergraduate) ROOM & BOARD $15,416 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $1,250 LIVING EXPENSES $2,714 TOTAL $30,885 (in-state undergraduate) $59,686 (out-of-state undergraduate)

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: One hour/week Available for Non-Majors: No Cost Included in Tuition: Yes Additional Private Instruction Cost: $600 Accompanists Provided: No R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Chelsey Green, Lt. Col. Jason Fettig, Jason Max Ferdinand PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 35 Number of Rooms with Piano: 33 Number of Rooms Assigned: 0

DE G R E E S BA: Classical Voice, Piano, Strings, Wind and Percussion, Jazz Studies BM: Classical Voice, Piano, Strings, Wind and Percussion, Jazz Studies, Composition BME: Classical Voice, Piano, Strings, Wind and Percussion, Jazz Studies, Composition Others: Graduate degrees; see www.music.umd.edu for more information GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BA BM Total Course Hours 120 120 Course Hours in Major 51 74 Course Hours Outside Major 69 46 Senior Recital: Yes Junior Recital: Yes, for some programs Exit Exams: See recital

F R A T E R N A L & P R O F ES S IO NA L M U S I C O R G A N I Z A T I O NS Sigma Alpha Iota, Phi Mu Alpha, Pi Kappa Lambda HOUSING Available: For freshmen On Campus First Year Required: No Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

BME 140 100 40

SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N % Students Receiving Scholarship Aid: 70–75% Program Specific Related Awards: CAPA, Director’s, and Smith Scholarships Other Financial Aid: MPP need-based fund for music; Academic merit from the University ENS E M B L E S INSTRUMENTAL Instrumental Symphony Orchestra, University Orchestra, Wind Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, University Band, Jazz Bands CHORAL Choral Chamber Singer, University Chorale, Tactus (Tenor/Bass Choir), Treble Choir, Concert Choir

SUMMER 2023

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UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Funding Available for Fall 2024 The University of Maryland School of Music announces openings for the Fellowship Woodwind Quintet for Fall of 2024. UMD fellowship chamber groups are prominent ambassadors in the School of Music, throughout the D.C. Metro region, Maryland and beyond. Fellowship opportunities are designed for students pursuing a Master of Music degree. Benefits include: • in-state residency qualification • 5 credits tuition remission per semester • $5,000 fellowship • A stipend of $13,000 • Access to faculty/staff health insurance plans for students and their dependents

Our most recent Fellowship Woodwind Quintet, IGNIS, won bronze for their division at the 50th Fischoff Competition!

Fellowship Chamber Group Openings 47-81_SCHOOL SECTION.indd 71

Fellowship Woodwind Quintet Apply by December 1, 2023

FOR MORE INFORMATION music.umd.edu/apply musicadmissions@umd.edu 301.405.8435 @TerpsMusic #HearTheTurtle

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Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College Conservatory Annex 39 West College Street Oberlin, OH 44074 CONTACT Office of Conservatory Admissions PHONE (440) 775-8413 FAX (440) 775-6972 EMAIL Conservatory.Admissions@

oberlin.edu WEBSITE www.oberlin.edu/con

EXP E N S E S I N - S T A T E + O U T O F S T A T E APPLICATION $100 TUITION AND FEES $62,024 ROOM & BOARD $18,390 STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE $2,625 (optional) BOOKS AND LIVING EXPENSES $1,908 TOTAL $82,322

TYPE Conservatory of Music SETTING Residential college campus SIZE OF SCHOOL 2,900 SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 570

GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BM Total Course Hours: 168 Course Hours in Major: 124 Course Hours Outside Major: 44 Senior Recital: Yes Junior Recital: Yes Exit Exams: No

APPLICATIO N DEADLI N ES Regular Decision: December 1 Auditions: On campus in January

SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N Percentage of Students Receiving Aid: 100% Program-Specific Related Awards: Each admittedstudent receives the $10,000 Oberlin Commitment Scholarship. Performance- and audition-based Conservatory Dean’s Merit Scholarships are available. Other Financial Aid: Need-based aid encompassing grants, loans, and work-study student employment.

U N DERGRADUA TE FACU LTY Full Time: 70 Part Time: 25 Total: 95 Student/Teacher Ratio: 6:1 DEGREES BM: Performance, composition, music history, Technology in Music and Related Arts (TIMARA), jazz studies Others: Integrated five-year BM and MM in conducting (choral or instrumental); 2-year MM in historical performance; Artist Diploma in select programs BA: Offered in College of Arts & Sciences and through Oberlin’s signature double-degree program

R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Members of Eighth Blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble, Imani Winds, Roomful of Teeth, Sō Percussion, Les Delices, Rebel, Acronym, and the Michelangelo, Miro, Jasper, Jupiter, Fry Street, Diderot, Verona, and Zora string quartets. PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 150 Number of Rooms with Piano: 118 Number of Rooms Unassigned: 135

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Conservatory: Performance audition is the most important factor in admissions. Auditions: On campus, regional, or recorded College of Arts & Sciences: Average GPA: 3.6 Average ACT: 30 Average SAT: V685; M685 Interview Required: Suggested Placement Tests Required: No

AUDIT IO NS On-Campus: January 2024 Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 27%

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes for BM Average Length of Lesson: One hour Available for Non-Majors: Yes Cost Included in Tuition: Yes Additional Private Instruction Cost: No Accompanists Provided: Yes

BA 128 30–50 varies

F R A T E R N A L & P R O F ES S IO NA L MUS IC ORGANIZATIONS Pi Kappa Lambda Theta Chapter, Oberlin Flute Association, Oberlin Jazz Society, Oberlin College Black Musicians Guild, Modern Music Guild, Student National Association of Teachers of Singing. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Member of Great Lakes College Association. HOUSING Available: Yes, six semesters on campus housing required Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes Other: 11 residence halls, 4 co-op houses, 11 program houses, senior village housing

ENSEMBLES INSTRUMENTAL 30+ ensembles offered including Oberlin Orchestra, Contemporary Music Ensemble, Oberlin Jazz Ensemble, Baroque Orchestra, Oberlin Brass Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble, Viola da Gamba Consort, Oberlin Percussion Group, chamber music ensembles, Oberlin Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble, Genre Nova, Advanced String Quartet Seminar, Djembe Orchestra CHORAL Oberlin Opera Theater Chorus, Collegium Musicum, College Choir, Chamber Singers, Gospel Choir, Musical Union

SUMMER 2023

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Oberlin Conservatory of Music OPENING A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES

At Oberlin, students are guided along diverse paths by expert faculty mentors. Here, you will experience supportive instruction that inspires compelling performances. You’ll collaborate with remarkable guest composers and performing artists. And you’ll be supported by resources that make imaginative projects possible.

$10K COMMITMENT SCHOLARSHIP $5K GUARANTEED SUMMER PROJECT SUPPORT Learn more at oberlin.edu/con

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Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University 1 East Mt. Vernon Place Baltimore, MD 21202 CONTACT John Huling, Director of Admissions PHONE (667) 208-6600 EMAIL peabodyadmissions@jhu.edu WEBSITE www.peabody.jhu.edu TYPE Conservatory of Music SETTING Urban SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 757

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS Average GPA: 3.0 Scholastic Tests: Optional for SAT and ACT; TOEFL iBT in-person and at-home, IELTS Interview or Audition Required for all programs: Remote interview/recorded audition option for some majors; see website for exceptions APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E(S) Early Decision: November 1 (Undergraduate only) Regular Decision: December 1 Late Admission: May 1 (see website for exceptions) FACULTY INSTRUMENTAL Part Time: 42 Full Time: 30 VOCAL Part Time: 10 Full Time: 12 DEGREES BM: Performance in Composition, Instrumental, Jazz, Piano, Voice, Computer Music, Music for New Media, etc. Double Majors: Recording Arts & Sciences, Music Education (see website for exceptions) BFA: Dance Others: MA (Audio Sciences), MM, LowResidency MM (Composition only), DMA Diplomas: Performer’s Certificate (undergrad), Gradate Performance Diploma, Artist Diploma

EXP E N S E S ( B M , B F A ) APPLICATION $120 TUITION $62,380 ROOM & BOARD $19,226 HEALTH SERVICES $625 ENROLLMENT DEPOSIT $700 TECHNOLOGY FEE $350 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $1,054 (estimated) TOTAL $84,455 (estimated)

GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S BM Total Course Hours: Varies by program BM Performance (134–151); Composition (152–161) Double Majors: Music Education (161–188); Recording Arts (182–205) Average: 183 Course Hours Outside Major: ~30 Senior Recital: Yes Junior Recital: Required for guitar and strings Exit Exams: No

R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Zuill Bailey, Carter Brey, Manuel Barrueco, Joe Byrd, Angelin Chang, Anita Gillette, Gabrielle Goodman, Michael Hersch, Kim Kashkashian, Geoff Knorr, Jonathan Leshnoff, James Morris, Gemma New, Awadagin Pratt, Berta Rojas, Jake Runestad, Meng Su, Jory Vinikour, Bing Wang, André Watts PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 54 Number of Rooms with Piano: 42 Number of Rooms Assigned: 37 priority or assigned Number of Rooms Unassigned: 17 with no priority Other: Teaching Studios and classrooms available In Residence Hall: 1 HOUSING Available: Yes, on campus required for first two years of undergrad; exceptions for local and double degree students may be requested Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N % Students Receiving Aid: 90% Other Financial Aid: Fed Title IV Aid (grants, loans, work study), institutional loans, private loans, private scholarships and grants, institutional work study ENS E M B L E S INSTRUMENTAL Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Pan American Jazz Ensemble, Renaissance Ensemble, Baltimore Baroque Band, Now Hear This, Brass Ensemble, New Orleans Jazz Ensemble, Super Sax Ensemble, Laptop Ensemble, Hip-Hop Ensemble, African Drumming, Percussion Group CHORAL NEXT, Camerata, Gospel Choir, Opera Chorus, Peabody Hopkins Conservatory Choir P RI V A T E I N S T R U C T I O N Private Instruction Required: One hour/week; available for non-majors in the form of supplemental lessons Cost Included in Tuition: Yes, for majors; additional cost for non-major supplemental study Accompanists: Provided in some cases

SUMMER 2023

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Refine your artistry, create opportunities, and lead the way in a changing world. At the Peabody Conservatory, you’ll study with renowned chamber music faculty drawn from departments throughout the Conservatory, reflecting Peabody’s commitment to chamber music as an experience which will have a profound impact on every student’s musical life.

peabody.jhu.edu 667-208-6600

Virtually every instrumentalist at Peabody will participate in chamber music, with performances both on and off campus, regular masterclasses, and opportunities to collaborate with faculty. Peabody’s expert chamber music faculty includes former members of the Brentano, Mendelssohn, and Ridge String Quartets, and the Peabody and Amadeus Trios, among others.

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The Shepherd School of Music Rice University Rice University MS Shepherd School of Music P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77251-1892 CONTACT Geoffrey Scott PHONE (713) 348-4854 FAX (713) 348-5317 EMAIL musi@rice.edu WEBSITE www.music.rice.edu TYPE University-based school of music SETTING Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 4,500 undergraduates;

4,100 graduates

SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 107 undergraduates;

167 graduates

IN-STATE + OUT OF STATE UNDERGRADUATE EXPENSES TUITION AND FEES $58,128 ROOM & BOARD $15,900 TRANSPORTATION $3,000 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $1,400 LIVING EXPENSES $2,850 STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE $3,200 TOTAL $84,478 GR A D U A T E E X P E N S E S TUITION AND FEES $31,735 ROOM & BOARD $20,650 TRANSPORTATION $1,500 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $1,400 LIVING EXPENSES $2,850 STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE $3,200 TOTAL $61,335

G R A D U A T I O N R E Q U I REMENT S BA BM Total Course Hours: 120 120 (min.) Course Hours in Major: 51 81 Course Hours Outside Major: 25 25 Senior Recital: No Yes Junior Recital: No Yes Exit Exams: No No S C H O L A R S H I P I N F O RMA T IO N % Students Receiving Aid: 88% Program-Specific Awards: Merit awards are available to music majors. Other Financial Aid: For undergraduate students, Rice University meets 100% of a student’s financial need based on financial aid eligibility.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS Average GPA: 3.0 Scholastic Tests: SAT or ACT (optional) Interview Required: No Other: Transcript(s), three recommendations Placement Tests Required: For transfer and graduate applicants only Auditions Live: Yes

ENSEMBLES INSTRUMENTAL Brass Ensemble, Campanile Orchestra, Chamber Music, Collegium Musicum, Contemporary Music Ensemble, Electronic Music Studio, Percussion Ensemble, String Quartet Residence, Symphony & Chamber Orchestra

APPLICATION DEADLINE(S) Undergraduate applicants: December 1, 2023 Transfer applicants: March 15, 2024 Graduate applicants: December 1, 2023 Early Decision: No Application Fees: Undergraduate $75; Graduate $85; Preliminary audition submission $10

CHORAL Rice Chorale, Shepherd School Opera

INSTRUMENTAL AUDITIONS On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: No Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 15%

DEGREES BA: Yes BM: Yes BME: No Others: MM; AD; DMA

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Yes Average Length of Lesson: One hour Available for Non-Majors: Yes Cost Included in Tuition: Yes, for music majors Additional Private Instruction Cost: For secondary instrument Accompanists Provided: Yes

VO C A L A U D I T I O N S On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: No Percentage Auditioning Accepted: 7%

PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 63 Number of Rooms with Piano: 55 Number of Rooms Assigned: 2 organ, 3 percussion, 2 double bass, 1 harp In Residence Hall: No

UNDERGRADUATE FACULTY INSTRUMENTAL 37 Student/Teacher Ratio: 2:1 VOCAL 10 Student/Teacher Ratio: 1:1 ACADEMIC 15

HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First Year Required: No Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

SUMMER 2023

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The Future of Music. A CONSERVATORY EXPERIENCE WITH THE ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE OF A RENOWNED UNIVERSITY

The Shepherd School of Music | Rice University | music.rice.edu | 713-348-4854

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The Tianjin Juilliard School/ Graduate Studies 2946 Xinhua Road Binhai New Area Tianjin 300452, China CONTACT Office of Admissions PHONE +86 022 2576 4890 EMAIL admissions@tianjinjuilliard.edu.cn WEBSITE www.tianjinjuilliard.edu.cn

EXP E N S E S Please refer to the Tianjin Juilliard website for details www.tianjinjuilliard.edu.cn/students/ tuition-and-expenses

S C H O L A R S H I P I N F O RMA T IO N Tianjin Juilliard Fellowship (for individual applicants), Chamber Music Fellowship (for string quartets and piano trios), and other institutional scholarships available ENSEMBLES The Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra, The Tianjin Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, The Tianjin Juilliard Wind Orchestra, student chamber ensembles

TYPE Conservatory SETTING Tianjin, China SIZE OF SCHOOL 150+ SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL Full enrollment

of 150+ at capacity

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS Tests Required: Yes, for non-native English speakers (TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE) Interview Required: English language interview Other: Letters of recommendation Placement Tests Required: After acceptance Auditions Live: Yes (required) Recorded: Required for pre-screening

R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Graduates of the Tianjin Juilliard School will become part of Juilliard’s worldwide alumni network

APPLICATION DEADLINE December 15

HOUSING Available: Yes Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes

PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: 86 Number of Rooms with Piano: 86

INSTRUMENTAL AUDITIONS On-Campus: Yes Off-Campus: Yes FAC U L T Y 25 resident graduate school faculty Key Faculty, Chamber Music: Angelo Xiang Yu, violin; Wei He, violin; Weigang Li, violin; Honggang Li, viola; Nicholas Tzavaras, cello; Yeonjin Kim, cello; Xiaohan Wang, piano DE G R E E S MM: Master of Music from The Juilliard School (majors in instrumental and chamber music studies, collaborative piano, instrumental and orchestra studies) GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S MM Total Course Hours: 54–62 Course Hours in Major: Varies by major Course Hours Outside Major: Varies by major Graduate Recital Required: Yes Exit Exams: Annual jury required

SUMMER 2023

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Transforming passion into artistry Earn a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School Study with world-renowned faculty of artists-teachers Unparalleled performance and professional development opportunities Prestigious fellowships available for pre-formed quartets and piano trios Fall 2024 application opens September 1

tianjinjuilliard.edu.cn Photo by Shengyi Visual

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USC Thornton School of Music 3450 Watt Way – TMC 200 Los Angeles, CA 90089-1441 CONTACT Office of Admissions PHONE (213) 740-8986 FAX (213) 740-8995 EMAIL uscmusic@usc.edu WEBSITE music.usc.edu TYPE Private University SETTING Urban SIZE OF SCHOOL 49,000 SIZE OF MUSIC SCHOOL 1,000

ADMISS IO N REQU I R EMEN TS* Average GPA: A- average in rigorous, college prep curriculum Scholastic Tests: USC is currently test-optional. See admission.usc.edu for updated information. Interview Required: No Placement Tests Required: Music Theory Prescreen Audition: Varies by program Live Audition: Varies by program *There are no minimum GPA, SAT, or ACT scores required for admission to USC or Thornton. APPLICATIO N DEADLI N E Early Decision: No Regular Decision: December 1 INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL AUDITIONS On-Campus: January Off-Campus: No (but online arrangements may be available) FACULTY Approximately 180 total faculty Student/Teacher Ratio: 6:1 Key Faculty: Cristian Grases, Vice Dean, Classical Performance and Composition Division; Donald Crockett, Chair, Composition; Jason Goldman, Chair, Jazz Studies; Alan L. Smith, Chair, Keyboard Studies and Keyboard Collaborative Arts; Tram Sparks, Chair, Choral and Sacred Music; Ladd Thomas, Chair, Organ Studies; Lina Bahn, Chair, Strings; Lisa Sylvester, Chair, Vocal Arts; Sharon Lavery, Chair, Winds and Percussion

UNDERGRADUATE EXPENSES IN-STATE + OUT OF STATE APPLICATION $110 TUITION $66,640 (tuition for 12–18 units for two semesters)

FEES $1,597 (plus $1,400/year for individual instruction)

ROOM & BOARD $17,436 BOOKS / SUPPLIES $1,200 LIVING EXPENSES $1,702 TRANSPORTATION $464 TOTAL $90,921 All figures are estimates for the 2023-2024 academic year. Costs are subject to change. For graduate admission information please visit our website.

DE G R E E S BM: Choral Music, Classical Performance (instrumental and vocal), Composition (classical), Jazz Studies (instrumental and vocal), Music Production, Popular Music Performance BS (Bachelor of Science): Music Industry Others: Various graduate degrees and graduate certificates. GR A D U A T I O N R E Q U I R E M E N T S Total Course Hours: 128–132 depending on program Course Hours In Major: Varies by program Course Hours Outside Major: Varies by program Senior Recital: Varies by program Junior Recital: Varies by program Exit Exams: Graduate programs only SC H O L A R S H I P I N F O R M A T I O N % Students Receiving Aid: Approximately 70% Program Specific Related Awards: Music scholarships available for most graduate programs Other Financial Aid: Academic Scholarships (undergraduate only), Fed Title IV Aid (grants, loans and work-study), and institutional grants

ENSEMBLES INSTRUMENTAL USC Thornton Symphony, USC Thornton Winds, Edge Contemporary Music Ensemble, Early Music Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Jazz Orchestra, ALAJE (Afro Latin American Jazz Ensemble), Guitar Ensemble, Chamber Ensembles CHORAL Thornton Opera, Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, Apollo Chorus, Oriana Choir, University Chorus, Vocal Jazz Ensembles, Vocal Chamber Ensembles PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Private Instruction Required: Varies by program Average Length of Lesson: 1 hr/week Available for Non-Majors: Yes Cost Included in Tuition: No Additional Private Instruction Cost: $350 per unit ($1,400 per year for music performance majors) Accompanists Provided: Varies by program R E P R E S E N T A T I V E A L UMNI Ambrose Akinmusire, Eric Beyers, Alan Chang, Billy Childs, Gerald Clayton, Louis Cole, Sara Gazarek, Jason Goldman, Tigran Hamasyan, Marilyn Horne, Jessy J, Benjamin Jacobson, Morten Lauridsen, Andrew Lowy, Johnathan Moreschel, Gretchen Parlato, Cynthia Phelps, Elizabeth Rowe, Michael Tilson Thomas, Dale Warland, Sunny Yang PRACTICE FACILITIES Number of Rooms: Approx. 45 Number of Rooms with Piano: Approx. 45 Number of Rooms Assigned: N/A In Residence Hall: Varies by Residence Hall HOUSING Available: Yes On Campus First Year Required: No Dorms Located Near Music Building: Yes Other: Off-Campus USC affiliated housing available

SUMMER 2023

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UNIVERSITY of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

THORNTON SCHOOL of MUSIC

MUSIC IN THE CITY OF ANGELS The USC Thornton School of Music is located in the heart of Los Angeles, one of the world’s most vibrant music centers.

MUSIC.USC.EDU

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@USCTHORNTON

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From Trevor Weston’s

Stars

(2020)

For Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano

Stars was made possible by CMA’s New Jazz Works program with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

revor Weston has been fascinated by celestial stars for as long as he can remember. “My childhood bedroom and graduate student apartment had stars pasted on their ceilings,” he said. As other deep interests of his developed—mythology, ancient Egyptian civilization, and, most of all, music—he realized that these, too, could be tracked throughout human history in relation to the stars. Now a celebrated composer—his honors include the first Emerging Black Composers Project commission, sponsored by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony— and an educator—he is professor of music and chair of the music department at Drew University, Madison, N.J., and teaches at the The Juilliard School in New York City—Weston has never let go of these conjoined fascinations. Nearly 20 years ago, his first composition teacher, T.J. Anderson, introduced him to the poetry of Robert Hayden. Weston felt an immediate affinity. In Hayden’s “Stars,” a poem in five sections, each dealing with a distinct aspect of study, lore, or meaning related to stars, Weston had stumbled on a perfect vehicle for his passions. “Even though I didn’t have a project at the time,” he said, “I wrote and got permission to set this work to music because I knew I wanted to do something with it, someday.” In 2019, when the new music collective Musiqa offered him a commission, he knew what to do—a piece with five movements, one for each section of Hayden’s poem. “I started composing during the pandemic lockdown,” Weston said. Out of necessity, the planned premiere, in November 2020, became an online video of a live performance, directed by filmmaker James Templeton. Here, the

string players are masked, and the performance takes shape beneath radiant lights that suggests a starry sky. “Stars” got its live-audience premiere in April 2022, at Houston’s Midtown Arts & Theater Center, within Musiqa’s 20th anniversary celebration. Throughout his piece, Weston conveys Hayden’s themes through shifting contexts for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, with a soprano singing Hayden’s text. For the poem’s first section, about beliefs that Egyptian pharaohs ascended to the constellation Orion, Weston’s music carries an air of ritual. For Hayden’s second section, which lists stars by relative luminosity, Weston drew from scientific research that converted light waves into sound. For Hayden’s third section, celebrating the Black abolitionist and activist Sojourner Truth as a metaphorical “star” against injustice, Weston was inspired by “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” a 1927 recording by the gospel-blues singer and guitarist Blind Willie Johnson (which traveled into space via the Voyager 1 Space Probe); here, he employs blue notes and the “bow screw” playing technique on the strings to imitate the bottle-neck buzzing of rural Delta blues slide guitar playing. Weston’s fourth movement imagines the colors and shapes of pulsars as harmonies. His final movement, “Stars V” (the first four pages of which follow), utilizes nine-note chords to reflect the nine-pointed star that is the symbol of Hayden’s BaHá’í faith. “Since our view of stars is an image of their past, due to the lightyear distance,” Weston added, “this movement is also organized with the idea of the winds, strings, and piano being in the past, and the singer is leading, or exists in our present. The music is trying to collapse past, present, and future.”

Photo: Bill Cardoni

CMAScores

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Photo: Bill Cardoni

Stars Stars StarsV VV

Powerful Powerful Powerful q q= q =120 120 = 120

TREVOR TREVOR TREVOR WESTON WESTON WESTON

(The (The (TheNine-Pointed Nine-Pointed Nine-PointedStar) Star) Star)

Text: Text: Text: Robert Robert Robert Hayden Hayden Hayden

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82-86_CMA Scores.indd 83

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œœ œœ œœœœ œœ œœœœ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œ œœ œ œ 83

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CMAScores

Stars V #œ nœ bœ bœ œ œ bœ bœ œ #œ œ œ œ bœ b œ œ ‰ Jœ n œ œ & b œj ‰ > #œ nœ bœ bœ œ œ bœ ‰ j œ bœ œ #œ œ œ œ bœ & b œj ‰ œ nœ b œ œ >

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7/21/23 4:47 PM

Stars V

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∑

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Stars V

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SUMMER 2023

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AngelaAnswers

Have a question about how to move forward in your professional or creative life? Email angelaanswers@chamber-music.org.

Teaching by Example B Y Angela Myles Beeching

Dear Angela: Like most musicians, I perform and teach. And though I love what I do, I find myself wondering what we—as college teachers—are actually preparing students for in these crazy times. How should I think of my role and the value of my work?

n the face of astronomically high tuition fees, with music careers still reeling from COVID-19, it’s no wonder that many of us are questioning the value of teaching music. Unfortunately, no matter how well we teach, there’s no guaranteeing how things will play out for our students. And what they end up valuing from their studies may not be apparent to us—or them—until years later. So, take a moment to . . .

Reflect on the value of your own college education. What made the most lasting impact?

Back when I was teaching career courses at New England Conservatory, I conducted my own informal outcomes-based research. I questioned music school alumni, acquaintances, and consulting clients, asking people what they’d gained from their college educations. These were musicians reflecting back ten, twenty, and thirty years. I asked them what made the biggest impact—what they valued most from their college experience. Respondents didn’t cite specific skills or knowledge gained. Instead, they focused on the importance of having a mentor—a caring adult who challenged, encouraged, and dared them to expect more of themselves. Surprisingly, a fair number of respondents reported that the person they considered their most important mentor was not their studio instructor. For some, it was their chamber music coach, a history or theory teacher, or a liberal arts instructor. Young people unconsciously seek out role models to help them find their own 87 Summer 2017

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way to be in the world. As music journalist Ted Gioia writes, “my best professors were more valuable as role models than for the books they assigned. They gave me a sense of the kind of life and worldview I wanted to cultivate for myself.” As Ted did, we look for people “who radiate a kind of wholeness and depth,” the light that allows for an expanded life. This, of course, is subjective. And you may never know that you are that role model for a student. But as faculty, you are part of a constellation of influences in students’ lives. And we do this work on faith, wanting to contribute to a better world. It helps to keep in mind that the education that anyone receives is far more than training and coursework.

Remember: an education is not the curriculum.

It’s not the repertoire or the technique we learn, or the performance experience we gain. That’s the content. It’s not the prize. The real education is in the habits of mind we develop, including the curiosity to pursue meaning through an examined life of artistic inquiry. It’s a long-term process with many mentors needed, including you. I’ll close with a quote from Andrew Abbott, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. He writes: “Education is the light, the shining thing that assigns meanings. It is an invisible creativity that radiates from within. It’s not something you have. It is something you are.” Angela Myles Beeching is a career consultant and the author of Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music. Angela works with individuals, ensembles, and organizations to facilitate positive change.

7/21/23 4:50 PM

EndNote

Remembering Geoff Nuttall B Y Lesley Robertson

bickering, bolstering, needling, and just being silent. We often spent more time together than with our significant others. The intensity and longevity of this shared life forged a unique connection that is difficult to describe. Over the years, when pressed to describe our relationship, I would often quip: “Geoff? Oh, he’s like my dazzling but slightly annoying younger brother.” Geoff was an inspired artist—a seeking, devoted, joyful, and indefatigable disciple of music. He could excavate the emotional DNA from a musical phrase and inject it directly into a listener’s gut like no one else. He had an effortless cool about him and an energy, a dynamic, that was palpable. He was a man of strong convictions. He could be sharp and unsparing. He was curious and occasionally exhausting. Warm and embracing. Determined and optimistic. He loved the color orange. Babies. Pork rinds. Native plants. Haydn. LPs. Sports radio. He hated E-bikes, cats,

logistics, Brahms, and anything passive. Geoff was the one who reliably connected with the young child in a concert audience. He was the one sitting on the edge of the stage after a kids’ show, his lanky legs hanging over the edge and his violin cradled like a guitar. He drew people together and connected them, building community. And he was fun to be around. He lived life. One of Geoff’s favorite quotes to read from the stage was something Mozart famously said of his dear friend Haydn: “He could amuse, shock, arouse laughter and deep emotion as no other.” This also perfectly describes Geoff. At the Gaillard Center, the air heavy with shared loss, my carefully scripted words stuck to the sides of my throat. Backing away from the microphone, I rejoined our small band at center stage and, still trembling, began the opening notes of Haydn’s Salomon Symphony 102—a work we had performed together so often over the years but this time, somehow, without Geoff. And yet, within the swirling sounds of Haydn, he was still very much there. Violist Lesley Robertson is a founding member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Artist in Residence at Stanford University.

Photo: William Struhs

t was pelting rain in Charleston, South Carolina, the night in May we came together to celebrate violinist Geoff Nuttall, my longtime quartet partner and friend who died last fall at just 56 years old. The Gaillard Center’s performance hall was packed, and the stage was full of our closest musical friends—a family Geoff helped to nurture through nearly fifteen years as director and host of Spoleto Festival USA’s chamber music program. Quaking, I approached the microphone to speak to the audience, carefully scripted words glowing on my iPad. Geoff and I first met as teenagers at a summer music camp in Canada. Together with two fellow Canadians, Marina Hoover and Barry Shiffman, we launched the St. Lawrence String Quartet (we later moved together to Stanford, Calif., and welcomed first Christopher Costanza and then Owen Dalby into that family). For 33 years, Geoff and I shared quartet life—ecstatic musical experiences, terrifying musical experiences, lifealtering adventures, joys and sorrows. We spent a lot of time together—time rehearsing and making music, but also time in airplanes, rental cars, and roadside motels; time negotiating, laughing,

Violinist Geoff Nuttall performs alongside his colleagues in the St. Lawrence String Quartet (with guest pianist Pedja Mužijević) at Spoleto Festival USA in 2017. (Left to right: Geoff Nuttall; violinist Owen Dalby; Mužijević; cellist Christopher Costanza; violist Lesley Robertson.

SUMMER 2023

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For Your GRAMMY Consideration ®

“Vibrant Colors is an inspiring album of great complexity, accomplished with equally impressive competence and love: it showcases the eloquent sincerity of a contemporary American voice.” —Aloma Bardi, President, The International Center for American Music

“[Hedwig] shows compositional imagination and a way of making brass players sound good. This is an outstanding album; all performances are excellent.” —Kilpatrick, American Record Guide “What is striking is the coherent yet adventurous character of these compositions. The music is fabulously good; energetic, colorful and inventive.” —Aart van der Wal, Opus Klassiek [Netherlands] 5

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