Olivia DrakeAlvin Lucier, the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, is featured in an Oct. 23 article titled "Alvin and the experimentals: Alvin Lucier comes to town as a Queen’s visiting artist and special guest for Tone Deaf 8" published by The Journal of Queens University. According to the article, Queen's Tone Deaf 8 festival "brings an experimental sound adventure to campus through the genius of experimental composer Alvin Lucier and some of his critically-acclaimed students." Lucier teaches music composition, an experimental music course, as well as a freshman course on the Orpheus Myth at Wesleyan, where he’s been teaching for…
Corrina KerrThe following is the second installment of The Wesleyan Connection's new feature, "5 Questions." This issue, accomplished composer and Wesleyan Professor of Music Neely Bruce is our guest. Q: I see your piece Vistas will be performed at the "Hearts Pounding and Skins Taut" concert in late October at Wesleyan. For what instrument was this piece originally composed? NB: Vistas at Dawn is a short (approximately three minute) piece for organ and vibraphone. Q: For what musician did you compose this piece? NB: I wrote it for Ronald Ebrecht, Wesleyan University Organist, to play. Over the years I’ve written two…
The 33rd annual Navaratri Festival, a celebration of Indian music, dance and food, was held on campus Sept. 30-Oct. 4. Navaratri, one of India's major festival celebrations, is a time to see family and friends, enjoy music and dance and seek blessings for new endeavors. Wesleyan's 33rd annual festival celebrated traditional music and dance while giving audiences a glimpse at the contemporary arts scene. Exciting pre-festival activities extend the festival into nine (nava) nights (-ratri), featuring performances by some of India's leading artists, a film screening, Dandiya Raas dance parties and an honoring of Navaratri's religious traditions; it culminated with…
Drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey will take an extended break to study composition with "avant-garde avatar" Anthony Braxton, professor of music, in a master’s program at Wesleyan. According to a July 2009 article in Time Out New York, Sorey shares an earnest, seeking quality with Braxton, who also has upset convention, particularly in terms of what kind of music African-Americans schooled in jazz are supposed to make. “Quiet as it’s been kept,” Sorey says, “people would tell me to my face that this is not like ‘real’ black music. To me, it’s a very serious problem.” Sorey has had stints with headstrong…
With a boost from National Endowment for the Arts, Angel Gil-Ordóñez's Washington DC-based orchestra will continue making music for seasons to come. Gil-Ordóñez, music director of the Wesleyan Orchestra, adjunct professor of music, director of private lessons, chamber music and ensembles, learned that his Post-Classical Ensemble received a $50,000 grant from The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The award is made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. "We are still jumping for joy," Gil-Ordóñez says. "It is such an honor, and reassurance that the NEA and the Recovery Act consider that our work must be…
Alvin Lucier, professor of music, Iván Naranjo MA ’09, and Katherine Young MA '08 are mentioned in a July 19 New York Times article titled "Where Bows Tap and the Cello Travels." The Flux Quartet, which performed an American contemporary music program at Bargemusic near the Brooklyn Bridge, performed music that grew from their association from Wesleyan. For several years the quartet has participated in Wesleyan’s graduate seminar for composers, playing new pieces by students. Along with an experimental work by composer Lucier, who has been on the Wesleyan faculty for nearly 40 years, there were recent scores by two…
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Neely Bruce, professor of music, lead 89 trombones, a soprano and an organ in the East Coast premiere of Henry Brant’s “Orbits” in the rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum June 21, as part of both the museum’s Works & Process series and the citywide festival Make Music New York. A New York Times article on the event is online here. Henry Brant is a 1998 Honorary Degree recipient.
Tesla Place, a "thunderous light project" by Pedro Alejandro, associate professor of dance, was performed May 10 and 11 on the Wesleyan campus. The dance, light and sound-based performance began outside Crowell Concert Hall and ended in the Center for the Arts Courtyard. The theme focused on the inventor/scientist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). Tesla Place was created in collaboration with Marcela Oteiza, adjunct assistant professor of theater and faculty fellow; Paul Boylan; Sal Privitera, audio-visual technician; Adam Tinkle; graduate student Rod O'Connor; Dante Brown '09; Brittany Delany '09; Aaron Freedman '10; Spencer Garrod '09; Shayna Keller '09; and Samantha Sherman '09.…
The dance and music departments of Wesleyan hosted the West African Drumming and Dance Spring Concert showcasing the vibrancy of West African cultures through their music and dance forms. In West Africa, dance is life embodied in rhythm and movement. It celebrates and reinforces life and its various cycles. Right from conception to death, people in West Africa are called upon to honor and celebrate the different stages, achievements and successes of life, as well as to mourn and remember bitter experiences and losses, through music and dances. (Photos by Alexandra Portis '09)
Wesleyan jazz musicians have been tooting their own horns to the local community. During spring semester, the 20-member band has performed six times at public elementary, middle and high schools in Middletown. They work under the direction of vibraphonist-composer Jay Hoggard, adjunct associate professor of music. "It's good for the Wesleyan students to get out of their little shell of the universe according to Momma Wesleyan, go a few blocks away and play for young people who may or may not have been exposed to this type of music before," Hoggard says. "We're representing jazz and we’re representing Wesleyan." The…