Music Department

Brooklyn-based composer and dhol (double-headed drum) player Sunny Jain will fine tune a new piece of work during his year-long artist residency at Wesleyan. Jain is developing the latest iteration of his first music theater project “Love Force.” He started working on the storytelling piece in 2020, and previously presented portions as part of a commission from the music venue Joe's Pub, a program of The Public Theater in New York, delivering the narration as well as drumming. The idea of the show “Love Force” is embedded in rhythm and improvisation and includes immersive elements. Jain is trying to figure…

Wesleyan’s Music Department continued its tradition of performing in unexpected spaces this month, with musicians showing up in library and museum venues on campus. “Instrument—Body,” a series of four performances in surprising locations presented in conjunction with the seminar of the same name and curated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Ethan Philbrick, kicked off with bassist Brandon Lopez and musician and multimedia artist Cecilia Lopez MA '16 on synthesizers in the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History in the Exley Science Center in the afternoon on October 20. Professor of Music Paula Matthusen presented the third iterations…

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, which culminates on campus with the 20th annual Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend, featuring two nights of concerts in Crowell Concert Hall. Cellist, composer, and educator Akua Dixon makes her Connecticut debut with her string quartet, Quartette Indigo, on Saturday, April 29 at 8pm. The group includes violinists Meg Okura and Frederika Krier, Judith Insell on viola, and bassist Jennifer Vincent. The Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble, directed by Noah Baerman, presents a concert with a variety of modern small-group jazz traditions and techniques on Friday, April 28 at 8pm. Assistant Professor of the Practice in Music Jin…

One spring day in 2011, 15,000 people gathered in the streets of Tokyo, all of them singing a song that had been released online just three days prior. It was a self-cover of a love song, but re-configured and lyricized to protest the use of nuclear power in Japan following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A tale of a teenage crush reignited at a high school reunion was turned into accusations of governmental lies about nuclear safety. Flickering love to unwavering anger. A sentiment that carried thousands to the streets. The song “Zutto Suki Datta” (“I Always Loved You”) by Kazuyoshi…

By Maia Bronfman '24 It is important, if you are improvisationally accompanying a silent film on an organ, to not detract from the theme on screen. Peter Krasinski, a renowned secular and sacred organist, taught this and other lessons on Thursday night at Memorial Chapel during a masterclass with students of Alcee Chris, assistant professor of music. Chriss had his students each choose silent films to accompany during the masterclass. The silent films organists accompany are rarities in themselves, with 75 percent of the genre having been lost, according to the Library of Congress. Chriss, also an organist but inclined…

Alvin Lucier, John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, Emeritus, died on Dec. 1 at the age of 90. Lucier received his BA from Yale University and his MFA from Brandeis University. He joined the Wesleyan faculty as a visiting professor in 1968 and as an associate professor in 1972. He taught here for 43 years before retiring in 2011. A pioneering composer, Lucier was at the forefront of American avant-garde music. He lectured and performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. In 1994 Wesleyan celebrated his career with a five-day multimedia festival, Alvin Lucier: Collaborations, which included new work…

In honor of revolutionary composer, experimental musician, and professor emeritus Alvin Lucier's 90th birthday, several Wesleyan faculty, staff, and alumni participated in a 27-hour-long performance of Lucier's paradigmatic work "I Am Sitting in a Room." Lucier, the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, emeritus, retired from Wesleyan in 2010 and earned a Master of Arts ad eundem gradum from Wesleyan in 1979. Lucier personally chose 90 colleagues, friends, and former students to participate in the event, of which 15 are acquaintances from his time at Wesleyan. The concert spanned from 8 p.m. Thursday, May 13 to 11 p.m. Friday, May…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of Wesleyan's musical activities and classes were canceled, drastically adjusted, or moved to virtual platforms. Fortunately, for Wesleyan's Javanese gamelan classes, students were still allowed to meet in-person as long as they followed strict guidelines: wear a mask and disposable gloves, social distance, and frequently use hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. "The university made all of these available to the students in the World Music Hall, where the gamelan meets," explained Winslow-Kaplain Professor of Music Sumarsam. "The gamelan instruments were set up six feet apart, and the students were required to maintain that distance while…

Four faculty, two alumni, and one graduate student participated in the virtual Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting held Oct. 22–31. As part of a panel addressing contemporary musical issues in Iran, Bridgid Bergin MA '17 spoke about the Iranian Female Composers Association (IFCA), which was established in 2017 by three female-identifying Iranian composers: Anahita Abbasi, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Aida Shirazi. IFCA supports Iranian female-identifying composers by encouraging organizers and ensembles in Iran and beyond to commission and engage these composers in collaborations, while also discovering and mentoring young female composers who are fighting against all odds to become contemporary classical…

A new album created by pianist and composer Noah Baerman, director of the Wesleyan University Jazz Ensemble, features more than 80 minutes of performances honoring his friend and former student, vocalist Claire Randall '12, who was murdered in December 2016. Love Right, produced by Resonant Motion, Inc. (RMI) Records, showcases songs written by Baerman alongside more than 40 Wesleyan-affiliated instrumentalists and singers who navigate a broad multitude of musical styles. It was released on Oct. 9 and is Baerman's 11th album. "Love Right is by far the most stylistically eclectic thing I've ever done," Baerman said. "I've incorporated different styles…

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Nadya Potemkina, adjunct associate professor of music, placed third in The American Prize competition, in the category of orchestral programming. The American Prize—Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award in Orchestral Programming—honors the memory of the great Lithuanian conductor Maestro Vytautas Marijosius, who served as the music director of the Lithuanian State Opera and the director of orchestral activities at the Hartt School of Music. The prize recognizes and rewards "the best achievement in the unique field of orchestral programming, where the selection of repertoire by knowledgeable, creative and courageous music directors builds orchestras and audiences, educates young people and adults, and enriches…

Sunny Jain to Create New Music Theater Project During Wesleyan Residency

Music in Unexpected Spaces

Jazz Appreciation Month Features Cellist Akua Dixon

Visiting Professor Talks Protest Music in Japan Following the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Students Learn to Improvise Music For Silent Films

Lucier Remembered as a Groundbreaking Composer of Iconic Works

Lucier’s 90th Birthday Celebrated with 90 Artists Recording “I’m Sitting in a Room”

Gamelan Ensemble Provides Virtual Mini-Concerts, Demonstrations During Pandemic

7 Wesleyan Faculty, Alumni, Graduate Student Make Presentations at SEM Annual Meeting

Baerman, Wesleyan Community Pay Tribute to Randall ’12 with New Album, Love Right

Stanton, Hoggard Discuss Collaborative “Storied Places” during Faculty Luncheon Series

Potemkina Wins Orchestral Programming Award