/news/meaning-behind-motions <span>The Meaning Behind the Motions</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-10T23:56:35-04:00" title="Monday, March 10, 2025 - 23:56">Mon, 03/10/2025 - 23:56</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Samuel Gardner reveals the profound ways a musician’s gestures deepen our connections to music.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Sarah Grant</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>What makes a live performance unforgettable? Assistant Professor of Music Theory Samuel Gardner has uncovered compelling evidence that physical gestures—ranging from subtle, unconscious movements to lively, intentional displays—are central to understanding how both performers and audiences connect with sound.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">91ֱ�� Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/samuel-gardner" hreflang="und">Samuel Gardner</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Christian Woltman</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/research-review/01/samuel_gardner_research-review-woltman_760x570.jpg?itok=h2syuPgr" width="760" height="570" alt="A modern abstract collage featuring black-and-white images of hands in various positions, possibly engaged in crafting or stringing beads."> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40686" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--distinguished" data-text-size-giant> <p>Music lives in the body as much as it does in the ear, so by not considering the impact of gestures in music, we’re missing half the conversation.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40364" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>“We know from studies that gestures organize our thoughts and shape how others perceive us,” Gardner says. “If you ask someone to sit on their hands and give directions, they’ll struggle. The question was, ‘How does this apply to music?’”</p><p>A research study Gardner published in <a href="https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.22.28.3/mto.22.28.3.gardnershea.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Music Theory Online</em></a> coauthored with Nicholas J. Shea, an assistant professor of music theory at Arizona State University, answers this question by exploring how movements impact the perception and structure of music.&nbsp;</p><p>The spark for this research emerged during an unexpected moment during the COVID-19 pandemic. While exchanging favorite performance clips with Shea, Gardner found himself transfixed by footage of rock ’n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. “She wasn’t just playing guitar,” he recalls. “She was narrating the song with her body.” Her exuberant movements, including rhythmic foot tapping and sweeping arm gestures, amplified the music’s emotional core and guided the audience’s focus.</p><p>Gardner and Shea analyzed dozens of live performances, including those by Tharpe, R&amp;B singer Macy Gray, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, and folk-leaning singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. They selected performances where the camera angles made gestural analysis accessible to lay audiences, not just trained musicians. In “Fast Car,” for instance, Chapman’s deft finger movements along the fretboard mirror the song’s chordal progression, providing visual cues for audiences to anticipate the music’s direction. The study also deliberately excluded choreographed movements, instead focusing on spontaneous gestures that help performers process and express musical ideas.</p><p>The research identified three distinct categories of gestures. Some, like strumming or clapping, produce sound directly. Others, like pointed fingers or raised chins, are communicative, used to enhance or clarify ideas. The third category facilitates musical transitions, guiding both artist and audience through the song’s structure. Expanding on a concept music theorist David Temperley calls the “surface-to-structure process,” Gardner suggests that more pronounced gestural performances allow aspects of musical structures to rise to the musical surface.</p><p>In addition, the research revealed systematic patterns in how musicians use space and movement. For example, Gardner notes the study found that “the formal sections” of a song—like the verse, bridge, and chorus—“are often delineated by where the guitar player is. Empirically, we actually see larger shifts and leaps on the guitar fretboard when formal sections change.”</p><p>Comparing gestures across genres also yielded surprising insights. “Rock music actually had a lot more natural gestures than pop music,” Gardner says, “and these increased depending on where they were in the formal section of the song.” For example, singers moved far more in the choruses than they did in the verses.</p><p>Instrument-specific physicality also emerged as a crucial factor. “Balance plays a huge role in how drummers and pianists perform,” Gardner observed. “For drummers, it depends on how their kit is set up or the tempo of the song. For pianists, the physicality of moving across the keyboard shapes how their bodies interact with the music.”</p><p>The implications of this study extend from stadium concerts to places like conservatory classrooms. At 91ֱ��, Gardner emphasizes stage presence awareness in education and cites classical pianist Lang Lang’s theatrical style as an example. “There’s an interview where someone asked him, ‘Why do you do that when so many pianists don't like it?’” he says. “And he said, ‘It’s to bring new kids into piano and classical music—they see me; they get really excited.’”</p><p>Gardner also frequently involves 91ֱ�� students in his research. In 2024, he coauthored a study with Abby Fiedler ’26 that was presented at the national conference of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and later submitted for publication. This study examined how genre familiarity affects how audiences interpret the movements of performers. “Working with students allows us to test new ideas and push the boundaries of what we know about music,” Gardner says. “Their fresh perspectives often lead us to unexpected discoveries.”</p><p>Gardner’s findings raise intriguing questions about live performance’s evolution: How might classical concerts change with increased attention to movement? Could performers strategically use gestures to shape audience expectations? These questions suggest that understanding the physical language of music may be key to its future.</p><p>“Concerts create real-time connections that recordings can’t replicate,” Gardner notes. “Why else do people keep going to concerts? It’s not just to hear the songs—it’s to feel them with others.</p><p>“Gestures are not just embellishments,” he continues. “Music lives in the body as much as it does in the ear, so by not considering the impact of gestures in music, we’re missing half the conversation.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40365" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr><p><em>Samuel Gardner studies music cognition and music theory; his research, which has a specific focus on modern popular music, emphasizes how gesture facilitates and embodies our musical understanding. He earned a doctorate at The Ohio State University.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_260/public/content/biography/replacements/sammy_gardner.png?itok=adXVe1Xq" width="260" height="347" alt="Photo by Tanya Rosen-Jones '97"> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Samuel Gardner</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Assistant Professor of Music Theory</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/samuel-gardner">View Samuel Gardner’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40385" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <div style="padding:56.25% 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe style="height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;top:0;width:100%;" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1161157869?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" title="Research Review - Samuel Gardner, Music Theory"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script><hr><h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top:1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2><figure class="captioned-image obj-right" style="margin-bottom:1.75rem;" data-cte><p><img alt="An uncropped version of the illustration featured at the top of the page." height="330" src="/sites/default/files/content/research-review/illustrations/samuel_gardner_research-review-woltman.jpg" width="260"></p><figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption></figure><p class="subhead" style="color:var(--darkgray);margin-bottom:0;">Illustrator: Christian Woltman</p><blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution><p>Music, words and movement are all forms of communication. But more importantly they communicate a feeling. Visual Communication Design—or Graphic Design and Illustration—helps communicate information. It’s the hope that my work not only communicates, but also evokes a feeling.</p></blockquote><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" style="color:black;" aria-label="Phone"></span><a href="https://reference-studio.com/" target="_blank">reference-studio.com</a></p><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram" aria-label="Instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reference.studio" target="_blank">@reference.studio</a></p><hr class="hr--light" style="clear:both;margin:1.25rem 0;"><p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>91ֱ�� Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40366" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">91ֱ�� Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script> <!-- change photo credit to illustration credit --> <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script> <!-- sidebar --> <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style> <!-- image adjustment, this story only --> <style> .top-combo.top-combo--news .top-combo__figure img { border: 1px solid var(--lightgray) } </style> <!-- hide bio card quote, adjust quote spacing --> <style> .biography-card blockquote { display: none } .body-centered-layout blockquote.blockquote--distinguished { margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: -1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-article-header field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">0</div> Tue, 11 Mar 2025 03:56:35 +0000 awillia2 488244 at /news/meet-conservatorys-newest-tenure-track-faculty <span>Meet the Conservatory’s Newest Tenure-Track Faculty</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2023-10-04T16:43:15-04:00" title="Wednesday, October 4, 2023 - 16:43">Wed, 10/04/2023 - 16:43</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Five members of the conservatory faculty have been granted tenure-track positions beginning this academic year. They span the disciplines of <a href="/node/3326">music theory</a>, <a href="/node/75916">composition</a>, <a href="/trombone">trombone</a>, and <a href="/timara">TIMARA</a>—each of them standout artist-educators who join a highly revered conservatory faculty.</p> <p>And while some are entirely new to their roles, many have deep ties to campus as past visiting faculty, guest artists—and even a former student.</p> <p>Follow the links below to learn more about each of them, from their areas of scholarly and artistic interest to the courses they teach this fall.</p> <p>Welcome—and <em>welcome back</em>—to 91ֱ��, one and all!</p> <script> (function () { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function () { const educationBlocks = [ `<div class="lined-list"> <h2 class="small-headline">Education <ul> <li>PhD, music theory, Indiana University, 2023 <li>BMus, violin performance, 91ֱ�� Conservatory of Music, 2017 `, `<div class="lined-list"> <h2 class="small-headline">Education <ul> <li>BM, acoustic and electronic composition, University of South Florida, 2014 <li>MA, musical composition, Eastman School of Music, 2016 <li>PhD, musical composition, Eastman School of Music, 2021 `, `<div class="lined-list"> <h2 class="small-headline">Education <ul> <li>BME, instrumental music education, Bowling Green State University, 2010 <li>MM, trombone performance, University of Michigan, 2015 <li>DMA, trombone performance, University of Michigan, 2018 `, `<div class="lined-list"> <h2 class="small-headline">Education <ul> <li>PhD in composition and computer technologies, University of Virginia <li>MM in music composition, Bowling Green State University <li>BA in music, Bowdoin College `, `<div class="lined-list"> <h2 class="small-headline">Education <ul> <li>BA cum laude, music (concentration in music theory), Pomona College, 2016 <li>MA, music theory, Eastman School of Music, 2019 <li>PhD, music theory, Eastman School of Music, 2022 `, ] const cardTitles = document.querySelectorAll('.biography-card__content h2 ~ .item-list'); cardTitles.forEach(title => { title.classList.add('list--clean'); title.querySelector('ul').style.marginTop = 0; title.querySelector('li').classList.add('professional-title'); }); const cardLinks = document.querySelectorAll('.biography-card__content .view-more'); cardLinks.forEach((el, i) => { el.insertAdjacentHTML("beforebegin", educationBlocks[i]); }); }); })(); </script> <style type="text/css">.professional-title { font-size: 1rem; /* margin-bottom: 2rem;*/ margin-bottom: 1.5rem; line-height: 1.4; } .biography-card__content h2 { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } .biography-card__content .lined-list li { font-size: .9375rem; } </style></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Five artist-teachers, many with deep ties to campus, settle into new roles.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2023-10-04T12:00:00Z">Wed, 10/04/2023 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3341">Conservatory Faculty</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33031">TIMARA</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33331">Composition</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=35836">Trombone</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/john-gruber" hreflang="und">John Gruber</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/christa-cole-17" hreflang="und">Christa Cole ’17</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/steven-kemper" hreflang="und">Steven Kemper</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/michael-frazier" hreflang="und">Michael Frazier</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/eron-smith" hreflang="und">Eron Smith</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/contemporary-music" hreflang="und">Contemporary Music</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/winds-brass-and-percussion" hreflang="und">Winds, Brass, and Percussion</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Mike Crupi</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/image/bibbins_hall_2023_by_mike_crupi.jpg?itok=mkU3Kp_E" width="760" height="570" alt="Bibbins Hall in early autumn."> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_260/public/content/biography/image/christacole-018.jpg?itok=jA41KAMw" width="260" height="347" alt="Christa Cole"> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Christa Cole ’17</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Assistant Professor of Music Theory</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/christa-cole-17">View Christa Cole ’17’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_260/public/2025-11/michael_frazier-trosenjones.jpg?itok=tqXVaa9y" width="260" height="347" alt="Michael Frazier."> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Michael Frazier</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Assistant Professor of Composition</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/michael-frazier">View Michael Frazier’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_260/public/content/biography/image/john_gruber-trosenjones.jpg?itok=UlSVNLkX" width="260" height="347" alt="John Gruber"> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>John Gruber</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Assistant Professor of Trombone</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/john-gruber">View John Gruber’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_260/public/content/biography/image/stevenkemper-001.jpg?itok=9ga0jVP9" width="260" height="347" alt="Steven Kemper"> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Steven Kemper</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Associate Professor of Technology in Music and Related Arts</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/steven-kemper">View Steven Kemper’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_260/public/content/biography/image/eronsmith-010.jpg?itok=wTNuXwTG" width="260" height="347" alt="Eron Smith"> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Eron Smith</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Assistant Professor of Music Theory</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/eron-smith">View Eron Smith’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Wed, 04 Oct 2023 20:43:15 +0000 eburnett 464246 at /news/megan-kaes-long-wins-society-music-theorys-wallace-berry-award <span>Megan Kaes Long Wins Society for Music Theory's Wallace Berry Award</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-12-17T14:33:43-05:00" title="Friday, December 17, 2021 - 14:33">Fri, 12/17/2021 - 14:33</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="/node/6866"><img alt="Hearing Homophony book cover." class="obj-right" height="532" src="/sites/default/files/content/conservatory/images/megan_long_book_cover.jpg" width="350">Megan Kaes Long</a>, an associate professor of music theory at 91ֱ�� Conservatory, was awarded the 2021 Wallace Berry Award by the Society for Music Theory.</p> <p>The prize is given annually for a distinguished book by an author at any age or career stage. Announced in November, Long’s honor acknowledges her book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/hearing-homophony-9780190851903?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;"><em>Hearing Homophony: Tonal Expectation at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century</em></a>, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2020.</p> <p>The Wallace Berry Award comes one year after the <a href="/node/313351">Society for Music Theory recognized Long</a> as its Emerging Scholar for her paper “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/mts/article/40/1/52/4972846">Cadential Syntax and Tonal Expectation in Late Sixteenth-Century Homophony</a>,” which was published in the spring 2018 issue of <em>Music Theory Spectrum</em>.</p> <p>Long’s paper was a precursor to her book: Both explore the emergence of tonal languages in late-16th-century homophony by examining the ways in which phrase structure, meter, and cadential rhetoric produce “trajectories of expectation.” Long’s research centers around homophonic popular songs composed in Italian, German, and English; her book demonstrates how workaday musical features like text setting and meter regulated harmony and counterpoint to transform contrapuntal languages into tonal languages.</p> <p>The Wallace Berry Award jury offered the following comments:</p> <p style="margin-left: 80px;">This year’s Wallace Berry Award reexamines and reconceptualizes one of the most fundamental topics in our discipline—the concept of tonality. Through a meticulous assessment of the way it has been defined, interwoven with a detailed, multifaceted analysis of an understudied repertoire, the author sheds new light on the way we can understand both tonality itself and its origins. By considering a broad range of contextual elements, such as dance and function, and structural ones, such as text, texture, and phrase structure, the author convincingly argues for the importance of rhythm and meter in the harmonic trajectory of early seventeenth-century vernacular part-songs. Her findings show the need to redefine our understanding of tonality and the factors that led to its emergence.</p> <p>"I’m so grateful to 91ֱ�� for giving me the resources I needed to research and write this book," says Long. "I was tremendously fortunate to benefit from our extraordinary library resources, the insights of my brilliant colleagues, and the support of a research status grant and sabbatical leave.”</p> <p>Long is continuing her study of the tonal language of Renaissance music; her most recent project explores how music pedagogy informs counterpoint and tonal structure in the music of English composer William Byrd.</p> <p>The Wallace Berry Award is named for late Canadian-American composer and music theorist Wallace Berry, co-founder of the Society for Music Theory.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Honor recognizes 91ֱ�� professor’s 2020 book on tonality.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-12-20T12:00:00Z">Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erich Burnett</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/megan-kaes-long" hreflang="und">Megan Kaes Long</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/image/megan_long_by_tanya_rosen-jones_0.jpg?itok=V42aB055" width="760" height="569" alt="Megan Kaes Long"> </div> Fri, 17 Dec 2021 19:33:43 +0000 eburnett 384191 at /news/oberlin-conservatory-implements-innovative-approach-music-theory-teaching <span>91ֱ�� Conservatory Implements Innovative Approach to Music Theory Teaching</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-12-16T09:22:36-05:00" title="Thursday, December 16, 2021 - 09:22">Thu, 12/16/2021 - 09:22</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>91ֱ�� Conservatory’s legacy of music theory pedagogy dates to the 19th century, and its faculty in the decades that followed authored numerous textbooks on the subject.</p> <p>Over the past 150 years, approaches to teaching music theory at 91ֱ�� have experienced a subtle and ongoing evolution, including changes in the music used for teaching and the skills students have been challenged to acquire.</p> <p>Today, 91ֱ�� graduates go on to perform a wider range of music than ever before. And change is needed once again.</p> <p>Beginning in fall 2021, 91ֱ�� implemented a revised curriculum that significantly broadens the scope of music studied by first-year theory students. The transition aligns with contemporary conversations among music theory scholars, but represents a significant departure from traditional music theory education across North America.</p> <p>In particular, the focus of the conservatory’s first-year theory courses has expanded, from a longtime emphasis on musical concepts of harmony and phrase as they apply to Western classical music, and toward a more wide-ranging application of concepts such as rhythm, meter, timbre, and texture as they apply to everything from film music to popular and global musical styles.</p> <p>The study of music theory revolves around concepts and compositional structures involved in creating music, as well as examination of music’s impact on the listener. Until now, very little of the curriculum had evolved with the evolution of music itself.</p> <p>“We have been teaching—and all conservatories are still teaching—the curriculum we inherited from the 19th-century conservatory,” says <a href="/node/6866">Megan Kaes Long</a>, an associate professor of music theory and one of numerous faculty architects of the division’s new emphasis.</p> <p>At 91ֱ��, the most recent substantive changes to the written theory curriculum happened in the mid-20th century. In 1956, newly adopted core classes included Music Theory I through IV—a structure that remained in effect until this year. Soon after that revision of some 65 years ago, the music used in those theory classes changed: 91ֱ��’s faculty published yet more theory textbooks that incorporated what they felt was the best material for promoting musicianship—<em>real</em> music by recognized composers, rather than artificial exercises developed by theorists.</p> <p>“Our field is changing, and for very good reasons,” says Long. “The music our students will be performing is not the same music our previously constructed curriculum was created to address.”</p> <p>Put another way: Music students everywhere have been trained to learn their craft solely through the prism of those who created it long ago and from a relatively limited perspective: that of the Western European composer of the 17th through 19th centuries. The new approach aims not to erase the innumerable contributions of those composers, but to free up space for the exploration of a wider variety of repertoire, styles, composers, and movements.</p> <p>“What we’ve been training our students to do for so many years is to become experts in Austro-German music, but musicians today don’t just play German music,” says professor <a href="/node/6881">Jan Miyake</a>, chair of 91ֱ��’s <a href="/node/3326">Division of Music Theory</a>. “<em>Decentering</em> is a word we like to use. We’re trying to decenter the German canon to make room for other things.”</p> <p>At 91ֱ��, extensive studies in music theory are a core component of every conservatory major, with each student taking a total of at least four semesters of theory and four semesters of aural skills. Collectively, these courses deepen students’ understanding of how music is constructed and foster more meaningful engagement. The goal is to send graduates into the world with a more practical understanding of how to apply these concepts in their musical lives and to the variety of styles in which they may perform.</p> <p>“The reenvisioning of the music theory curriculum is part of a suite of efforts underway in the conservatory to broaden the&nbsp;aesthetic priorities represented in school,” says Dean of the Consevatory <a href="/node/49511">William Quillen</a>. "These efforts align with strategic work underway across campus, including the <a href="/about-oberlin/presidential-initiative-racial-equity-and-diversity">Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity</a>, <a href="/about-oberlin/one-oberlin">One 91ֱ��</a>, and more. Through this work, we’re looking to widen the cultural aperture of the school—in the classroom, on the stage, and more—further expand the range of opportunities available to our students, and further support them to thrive—creatively, intellectually, and personally—as artists and citizens in the 21st century.”</p> <p>As in past years, conservatory students who arrive at 91ֱ�� with experience in music theory may elect to complete a placement test to opt out of the conservatory’s entry-level theory course (titled MUTH 120 in the <a href="https://catalog.oberlin.edu/content.php?catoid=43&amp;navoid=2884">91ֱ�� course catalog</a>). Unlike in past years, all conservatory students are required to complete both Introduction to Musical Analysis (MUTH 131) and Deepening Musical Understanding (MUTH 132).</p> <p>In their second year, all conservatory students complete two additional specialized theory courses at the 200 level. One of those courses is required to focus on analysis of post-tonal music, which began to emerge in the late 19th century. The new 200-level curriculum also accommodates greatly expanded opportunities for exploration of topics aligned with students’ individual interests and career goals.</p> <p>Beyond the required two years of music theory study, students will have access to a broad range of music theory courses at the 300 level and above, which may be required as part of their major or taken as part of a minor in music theory or as free electives.</p> <p>This significant change in approach also extends to students in <a href="/node/3231">Jazz Studies</a>, who take the standard sequence of four music theory courses, as well as two additional courses in jazz theory, one of which satisfies a requirement for a 200-level course. The biggest differences lie in the practical application of what will be learned in those first-year theory courses, with their increased emphasis on jazz-centric concepts including hypermeter, form, groove, and swing. “This is a big benefit for jazz students, and one that frees up a bunch of opportunities for flexibility,” says Long.</p> <p>Also new this year are additional resources to ensure that all students—regardless of their high school background in music theory—begin their 91ֱ�� careers on relatively equal footing. The conservatory offers a summer course, called <a href="/conservatory/oc-global/music-theory-jumpstart">Music Theory Jumpstart</a>, taught by music theory professor <a href="/node/6876">Joseph Lubben</a> and available online through <a href="/conservatory/oc-global">OC Global</a>, the conservatory’s virtual learning platform. The course is offered free of charge for 91ֱ�� Conservatory students, who often place out of entry-level studies after taking it.</p> <p>“The interesting thing about music theory is it’s a fairly young discipline, and it’s been invested in a relatively small number of problems for a long time,” says Long. “And so you start digging into things that we’ve always taken for granted—like <em>what do melodies do?</em>—and you realize that no one has actually thought very deeply about this problem, and that when you start to think about it, it’s very, very interesting.</p> <p>“I had to learn a lot to prepare for this curriculum,” she adds, “and I have a PhD in music theory!”</p> <hr> <p>91ֱ�� Conservatory’s music theory curriculum revision continues the institution’s ongoing efforts to expand curricular diversity and support inclusion. Learn more about 91ֱ��'s commitment in the&nbsp;<a href="/about-oberlin/presidential-initiative-racial-equity-and-diversity">Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity</a>&nbsp;and the <a href="/dean-of-the-conservatory/racial-equity-diversity-action-plan">conservatory’s&nbsp;Racial Equity and Diversity Action Plan</a>.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Expanded offerings build a wider variety of analytical skills, with enhanced opportunities for specialized study.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-12-20T12:00:00Z">Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erich Burnett</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/megan-kaes-long" hreflang="und">Megan Kaes Long</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jan-miyake" hreflang="und">Jan Miyake ’96</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/joseph-lubben" hreflang="und">Joseph Lubben</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Professor Jan Miyake leads a music theory class in a Bibbins Hall classroom at 91ֱ��.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/image/rs66151_janmiyakeclassroom-003.jpg?itok=KPa_1fKx" width="760" height="569" alt="teacher laughing with students in a classroom."> </div> Thu, 16 Dec 2021 14:22:36 +0000 eburnett 383886 at /news/richard-hoffmann-composer-and-protege-arnold-schoenberg-dies-96 <span>Richard Hoffmann, Composer and Protégé of Arnold Schoenberg, Dies at 96</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-07-15T11:06:09-04:00" title="Thursday, July 15, 2021 - 11:06">Thu, 07/15/2021 - 11:06</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Richard Hoffmann’s Viennese heritage provided a cherished link to many of the great Western composers. Family ties provided Hoffmann with another crucial link: to one of the 20th century’s most fertile musical minds.</p> <p>A professor of composition at 91ֱ�� Conservatory for 50 years, Hoffmann imparted his wisdom upon generations of 91ֱ�� students, unwaveringly firm in his approach to his craft—and equally so in his conviction that every composer must chart their own musical course.</p> <p>Born in 1925, Hoffmann was already a prodigious violinist in his native Vienna by the time the spread of Nazism forced his family to relocate from Austria to New Zealand when he was 10. He completed an undergraduate degree at the University of New Zealand, then arrived in Los Angeles in 1947 to study composition with his cousin, the great serialist composer Arnold Schoenberg. From 1948 to 1951, Hoffmann served as Schoenberg’s secretary and editor, while continuing his postgraduate studies in musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles.</p> <p>In 1951—the year of Schoenberg’s death—Hoffmann began lecturing in music theory at UCLA. Three years later, he became an assistant professor of composition and music theory at 91ֱ��, where he remained for the duration of his career.</p> <p>Hoffmann married Joan Flint ’60 in 1957. That same year, he completed a summer lecture tour of New Zealand that also served as a showcase for his outspoken style. At one point, he railed against the nation’s import restrictions on American records, a condition that resulted in the populace buying readily available British records—thereby placing undue emphasis on British music, in his estimation. He told <em>The Auckland Star</em> at the time that such trends were inappropriately elevating the stature of relatively unknown composers such as Benjamin Britten and Arnold Bax.</p> <p>“I have no knowledge of popular music,” Hoffmann noted to <em>The Star</em>, calling out the music of Elvis Presley in particular. “I hear it on the radio, but I usually turn it off.”</p> <p>Though gifted on the violin and proficient at the keyboard, Hoffmann composed almost exclusively without the aid of instruments. He earned acclaim for his Duo for Viola and Cello at the 1956 Darmstadt Festival of Contemporary Music, and subsequently made waves there with his Piano Concerto (1957) and Piano Variations No. 2 (1960). He was a regular contributor to 91ֱ��’s annual Festival of Contemporary Music, the 1951 creation of then-Dean of the Conservatory David Robertson and an early indicator of 91ֱ��’s enduring commitment to new music.</p> <p>Throughout his career, Hoffmann wrote extensively on composers of the Second Viennese School, among them its founder Schoenberg, as well as Anton Webern and Alban Berg. (Of particular interest to Hoffmann was the mysterious shorthand used by Berg in annotated scores of Schoenberg.)</p> <p>While 91ֱ�� remained his home, Hoffmann frequently took to the road for extended periods, often with his young family in tow. He dedicated a sabbatical leave in the 1960-61 school year to studying and creating electronic music in Vienna, followed by a 1962-63 trip during which he served as one of a team of editors of the first complete edition of Schoenberg’s work, while completing a string trio of his own.</p> <p>His travels also included a 1970 Guggenheim Fellowship devoted to composing in Berlin, studies toward the critical volume of Schoenberg’s opera <em>Von heute auf morgen</em> (1972), research at the Schoenberg Archives in L.A. (1973), presentation of a paper at the Third International Schoenberg Congress in Vienna (1977), and a second Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts awards that supported work in Vienna and Cambridge, Massachusetts (1977-78). By then, Hoffmann’s focus had turned to completing a work for quartet with computer-generated portions that were recorded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The project became his String Quartet No. 4; it was dedicated to Austrian violinist Rudolf Kolisch, a pioneer in the performance of string quartets by Schoenberg and his contemporaries, who died in 1978. The work was performed at the 1984 International Computer Music Conference at the Pompidou Center in Paris.</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right"><img alt="Richard Hoffmann." height="524" src="/sites/default/files/content/conservatory/images/richard_hoffmann_courtesy_oberlin_college_archives.jpg" width="350"> <figcaption>courtesy 91ֱ�� College Archives</figcaption> </figure> <p>In the early 1980s, Hoffmann composed and studied in Vienna on sabbaticals, and taught under a Fulbright grant at the Musicological Institute of the University of Vienna, on the topic of serious American music of the 20th century. It was a genre he came to view as all but extinct.</p> <p>“Serious music, like the church, is finished,” he declared to <em>The Plain Dealer</em>’s Wilma Salisbury in 1992, his words tinged with a measure of his trademark searing wit. “We don’t have an audience for serious music. My hope for the future is that we will have robots rather than audiences. They will be programmed when to applaud. If they don’t like the music, they will walk out and slam the door.”</p> <p>For many years, Hoffmann led annual student trips to Vienna, where they studied composition and analysis, German language at the Goethe Institute, and visited the graves of masters including Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms. Initially a Winter Term experience, the trips were expanded by Hoffmann to unfold over a semester, in response to his concern that a period of several weeks was simply not enough time for such immersive study.</p> <p>“I take the students to Vienna not only for book knowledge, but to get them closer to what music can be,” he told <em>The Plain Dealer</em>. “It’s a tremendous experience for them. It’s lots of fun for me to go back.” Hoffmann spoke to the newspaper from the posh apartment he called home each time he visited Vienna—the same apartment where Schoenberg developed his twelve-tone technique in the 1920s.</p> <p>Steven Cahn ’81, a former piano major at 91ֱ�� and a professor of music theory at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, was among the students who took part in Hoffmann’s first Winter Term trip to Vienna, in January 1980.</p> <p>“That was a very powerful experience for me,” Cahn recalls. “For Richard to be in Vienna, it was always a very emotional experience for him, and we were all moved by the things he was moved by.” The trip nurtured Cahn’s own love of Schoenberg, whose music he performed on his senior recital at 91ֱ��, with guidance from Hoffmann.</p> <p>“From my cohort, there was a great feeling that Richard did a tremendous amount for us and helped everyone in very meaningful ways,” Cahn says. “He was quite exceptional in caring for his students.”</p> <p>A self-described maverick, Hoffmann expressed no patience for his colleagues who composed minimalist music, or for those whom he felt harbored insufficient knowledge of the repertoire. He also railed against the incursion of financial factors on the creative process.</p> <p>“I only write music if I want to,” he said in 1992, in reference to the premiere of one of his works for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. “I am not interested in writing commissioned pieces for money.” Hoffmann was absent from the premiere performance; he was teaching his 91ֱ�� students in Vienna.</p> <p>For many years, Hoffmann provided an aesthetic counterpoint to his 91ֱ�� composition colleague Randolph Coleman, an acolyte of John Cage who—unlike Hoffmann’s emphasis on craft—embraced extended discourse about musical concepts and experimentalism. Despite their contrasts, the two composers maintained a deep respect for one another and shared an open-mindedness toward the approaches favored by their students—among them Pulitzer Prize-winner Christopher Rouse ’71, who studied with both professors.</p> <p>In addition to his early teaching at UCLA and his half-century career at 91ֱ��, Hoffmann was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1965-66), Victoria University (1968), Harvard University (1970), the University of Iowa (1976), and Vienna University (1984). His numerous honors included a Fromm Music Foundation commission (1960), faculty membership in Pi Kappa Lambda (1960), and recognition by the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1966).</p> <p>Hoffmann retired from 91ֱ�� in 2004, his tenure matching that of influential composition and organ professor George Whitfield Andrews (1883-1932) as the longest in the conservatory’s 155-year history. In retirement, Hoffmann continued to live less than a mile away from campus, in the home he had built in 1964 almost entirely out of aluminum, from its heavily insulated walls to its bathroom cabinets. The design dovetailed with his long-held fascination with Europe’s influential architecture trends of the 1920s and ’30s.</p> <p>Despite the close proximity, his interactions with the conservatory were few. He contented himself with regular lunches in downtown 91ֱ�� with his contemporaries, a revolving cast that invariably included Coleman and Emeritus Professor of Conducting John Knight. To others, they represented a window into the very history of music itself.</p> <p>“Richard’s students saw him as an authentic connection to the world of modern Europe—its aesthetics and ethics—and as someone who could see through facades and get to the essence of things,” says Cahn.</p> <p>Not even Hoffmann himself was spared. “When he turned 90,” Cahn adds, “my wife asked him how he came by all this energy he had, to which he responded: 'It’s all fake.'”</p> <p>Hoffmann died June 24, 2021. He was 96. He is survived by a son, Peter, and by a daughter, Anna, 91ֱ�� Conservatory’s longtime manager of Summer Programs. He was preceded in death by his wife and his son Paul.</p> <p>Hoffmann's archive of letters, musical scores, recordings, and other communications will be housed at the <a href="https://exilarte.org/en">Exilarte Center</a> in Vienna.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Fifty-year teaching career at 91ֱ�� included annual student trips to his native Vienna.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-07-15T12:00:00Z">Thu, 07/15/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erich Burnett</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3341">Conservatory Faculty</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2412">Obituaries</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33331">Composition</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/contemporary-music" hreflang="und">Contemporary Music</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">courtesy 91ֱ�� College Archives</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/image/richard_hoffman_1967_courtesy_oberlin_college_archives.jpg?itok=Ab6ZZo8S" width="760" height="570" alt="Richard Hoffmann."> </div> Thu, 15 Jul 2021 15:06:09 +0000 eburnett 350106 at /news/expressing-vulnerability-through-music <span>Expressing Vulnerability Through Music</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-03-24T14:45:53-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 24, 2021 - 14:45">Wed, 03/24/2021 - 14:45</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A few months ago, Özüm Pamukçu ’23 explored her ability to become fully vulnerable. Her journey led to the production of two original songs and a thirst for more.</p> <p>Like most 91ֱ�� students, Pamukçu returned home in January for <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/winter-term/about">winter term</a>. The annual program allows students to pursue interests outside of 91ֱ��’s regular course offerings. For four weeks Pamukçu, who returned to Istanbul, Turkey, was immersed in music.</p> <p>Studying in a different country, although rewarding, can be extremely challenging, admits Pamukçu. In her first year at 91ֱ��, she says she felt like a big part of her identity was defined by being&nbsp;an international student, which made it harder to explore herself beyond borders and labels. Pamukçu found support in the college’s international student community, and learned that many of her peers, who would become close friends, had similar experiences.&nbsp;</p> <p>She nurtured her ability to accept and talk about vulnerability as a participant in 91ֱ��’s <a href="/religious-and-spiritual-life/pastoral-care-and-counsel">Barefoot Dialogue program</a>, where Pamukçu also serves as a facilitator. The program brings small groups of students together to meet and choose vulnerability as a more beneficial way to draw out differences and encourage deeper listening. It is a technique Pamukçu uses in her music.</p> <p>“I love losing the notion of time when making music—my brain temporarily turns into a blank page. I feel beyond daily worldly concerns and just feel in that exact moment,” says Pamukçu, a <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/musical-studies">musical studies</a> major.</p> <p>By the end of winter term, Pamukçu composed, sang, recorded, and produced two original songs—one in Turkish and one in English. The project also afforded her the time to learn to record using MIDI keyboards, improve her vocal mix and mastering skills, and use of Logic Pro X, a high-quality&nbsp;digital audio workstation.&nbsp;</p> <p>In her first song, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/ozumpam/little-istanbul-1" target="_blank"><em>Little Istanbul</em></a>, Pamukçu sings about carrying the concept of home as a burden. Her voice rhythmically echoes over a soft succession of chords. “<em>It’s cold in Ohio, colder than it ever gets at home,” </em>she sings from her room in Istanbul.<em> “It’s lonely here. I’m craving for what is left of home. Staring at the road won't get me too far from the cornfields.</em>”</p> <p>An anguished&nbsp;melody lingers over her second composition, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/ozumpam/kiz-basina" target="_blank"><em>Kız Başına</em></a>, as Pamukçu expresses in Turkish the hardship of growing up as a woman in a patriarchal society.</p> <p>“Expressing vulnerability is quite natural for me because I’ve been involved with many different forms of art from such a young age,” she says. “What’s challenging is making your vulnerability public. With social media and artists being so focused on highlighting their strongest, prettiest, and best selves, we, as the audience, are not used to witnessing vulnerability.&nbsp;</p> <p>“My creative process starts by me talking, humming, and playing to myself about topics that have significance in my life. I don’t imagine an audience hearing my voice while recording because I want my expression to be as real as possible.</p> <p>“However, my perception has changed a bit,” she admits. “I don’t see home as a burden anymore. It rather feels like something that gives me a wider perspective. It makes me and my music special.”</p> <p>Pamukçu has played piano since she was a child. Throughout the years she has added the ukulele, classical guitar, percussion, <em>kemençe</em> (an Eastern Mediterranean stringed bowed instrument), and a little bit of <em>baglama</em> (a Turkish plucked stringed instrument). She says a working knowledge of these instruments has helped her to understand composition and songwriting on a deeper level.</p> <p>The music theory classes she took in&nbsp;91ֱ�� Conservatory as a non-conservatory major helped enrich the harmonic structure of her compositions, she says. Pamukçu also received valuable musical feedback in the&nbsp;Internalizing Rhythms class she took with <a href="/jamey-haddad" target="_blank">Jamey Haddad</a>, professor of advanced improvisation and percussion. Haddad, regarded as one of the foremost world music and jazz percussionists in the United States, also served as the advisor for Pamukçu’s winter term project.</p> <p>“I have a fondness for Turkey as I have been there many times performing with Paul Simon and [working on] other musical projects, including designing cymbals and zills. So when I meet a Turkish musician, I am always curious,” says Haddad. “Özüm mentioned that she was a singer and she loved her Turkish roots. When I asked her if she could sing me a song, she jumped at the chance.&nbsp;</p> <p>‘‘For me that is always a game changer. It [makes me think] what, if anything, we as a school or I personally can do for that person. Özüm took both levels of my Internalizing Rhythms class and outperformed most of the conservatory students. There was still work to do, but her stock had gone up considerably,‘‘ he says. ‘‘Most importantly her ability to perform and write the music that she had a real contextual experience with was becoming stronger.”</p> <p>If a professional producer had been on hand, Haddad&nbsp;says he is certain Pamukçu’s end results would have been at a higher level. “But that would have been the producer's job and not the same as the experience she had figuring it out on her own. Now after having done these things, it will be much easier for Özüm to put to use and understand the professional tools that a great producer would have done for her.”&nbsp;</p> <p>While she remains in Istanbul during spring semester, Pamukçu continues to work on many aspects of music: writing, singing, recording, arranging, and marketing, with interests in business and economics. She is studying music production with <a href="/ami-dang" target="_blank">Ami Dang</a>, visiting assistant professor of computer music and digital arts in the <a href="/timara">TIMARA Department</a>.</p> <p>As a first-year student, Pamukçu <a href="https://ozumsturkishmusic.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">completed a research winter term project</a> that explored the fundamentals of Turkish microtonal music and she practiced microtonal singing. And last semester, she and friend Ezra Rudel ’23 hosted Hijaz Forum, a <a href="https://www.wobc.org/">WOBC</a> radio show that focused on music from the Mediterranean and the Middle East, as well as its intersection with jazz and other genres. The pair hopes to lead a Balkan ensemble at 91ֱ��.</p> <p>“We miss Özüm on campus,” says Haddad, who views Pamukçu’s project as “a total success,” explaining, “I think [her winter term] project has taught her much about her capacity to produce music in a digital recording environment and record and perform herself, which ultimately starts a process of discovery. She is super intelligent, disciplined, and has compassion when dealing with other musicians—that is a real criteria I observe about my students when we perform in class.&nbsp;</p> <p>‘‘Talent is a free gift but being a compassionate human is the ultimate goal, and hopefully your talent will lead you to that realization.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-03-24T12:00:00Z">Wed, 03/24/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2402">Winter Term</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2396">International Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3328">Musical Opportunities for College Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33031">TIMARA</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25281">Musical Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/musical-studies" hreflang="und">Musical Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Kerem Albuyur</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/images-2021/istanbulturkey._photo_by_kerem_albuyurjpg-cover.jpg?itok=C4ID6C2M" width="760" height="570" alt="A wide photo of downtown Istanbul, Turkey."> </div> Wed, 24 Mar 2021 18:45:53 +0000 ygay 322431 at /news/megan-kaes-long-named-emerging-scholar-society-music-theory <span>Megan Kaes Long Named ‘‘Emerging Scholar’’ by Society for Music Theory</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-11-24T17:03:16-05:00" title="Tuesday, November 24, 2020 - 17:03">Tue, 11/24/2020 - 17:03</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="/node/6866">Megan Kaes Long</a>, an associate professor of music theory at 91ֱ�� Conservatory, has been named the winner of the 2020 Emerging Scholar Award, presented by the <a href="https://societymusictheory.org/">Society for Music Theory</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>.</p> <p>Long was recognized for her paper ‘‘<a href="https://academic.oup.com/mts/article/40/1/52/4972846">Cadential Syntax and Tonal Expectation in Late Sixteenth-Century Homophony,</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>’’ which was published in the spring 2018 issue of <em>Music Theory Spectrum</em>.</p> <p>She learned of the honor along with the rest of the world’s music theorists: It was revealed in early November at the society’s annual conference, which was presented on Zoom. ‘‘It’s just such a huge honor to receive this,’’&nbsp;she says. ‘‘Early music is a niche area in music theory, and to be recognized in this way is really exciting for me.’’</p> <p>Long’s paper explores the emergence of tonal languages in late-16th-century homophony by examining the ways in which phrase structure, meter, and cadential rhetoric produce “trajectories of expectation.” Her research centers on two homophonic, secular genres: the English ballett and the French <em>air de cour</em>, and she uses both to demonstrate how regulation of harmony and syntax transformed contrapuntal languages into tonal languages.</p> <p>‘‘The article looks at 16th-century popular songs from England and France and talks about the ways those songs create expectations for the listener; they ask musical questions, then provide musical answers,’’ says Long, who is fascinated by the ways in which early musical styles give rise to those that follow.</p> <p>‘‘It’s an important antecedent to how we understand most tonal music in the classical period. This is my attempt to identify a link in that chain of evolution.’’</p> <p>In recent years, Long has benefited from opportunities to undertake grant-supported research of original source material—especially 16th-century music prints—in libraries across Germany, France, and Great Britain. Her devotion to poring over manuscripts in ‘‘depressing, windowless rooms’’—as she playfully refers to the experience—also informs her teaching back at 91ֱ��.</p> <p>“That research has given me a lot of opportunities to bring 16th-century objects into the classroom,” she says. “We talk a lot about how the materiality of these objects shapes how we understand the music. My students really appreciate that.”</p> <p>Long is the second member of 91ֱ��’s music theory faculty in the past three years to earn the title of Emerging Scholar; in 2018, Assistant Professor <a href="/node/49251">Bryan Parkhurst</a> <a href="/node/127126">was honored</a> by the Society for Music Theory for his article “<a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/journal-of-music-theory/article/61/1/59/14525/Making-a-Virtue-of-NecessitySchenker-and-Kantian">Making a Virtue of Necessity: Schenker and Kantian Teleology</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>,” which appeared in the April 2017 edition of the <em>Journal of Music Theory</em>.</p> <p>Earlier this year, Long published the monograph <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/hearing-homophony-9780190851903?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;"><em>Hearing Homophony: Tonal Expectation at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century</em></a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> (Oxford University Press), which probes how the regular rhythms and text setting of 16th-century popular song encouraged a kind of listening that we now think of as tonal.</p> <p>The article and book both grew out of Long’s doctoral research on the subject, which she completed at Yale University in 2014. “A lot of things came together all at once!” she says of her ongoing studies.</p> <p>In February 2020, Long was awarded a fellowship from the <a href="https://www.acls.org/">American Council of Learned Societies</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> that supports a research sabbatical for the current academic year. Her project, “Complicating the Modal Paradigm in the Music of William Byrd,” develops a historically grounded model of pitch structure in the music of the prolific Renaissance-era composer.</p> <p>“I’m looking at how he thinks about deploying pitch materials across the course of a composition and throughout his entire output,” she says. “A lot of my work this year is just analyzing all of his music—which takes a ton of time, because he wrote hundreds of pieces. But it’s been fun getting familiar with it, figuring out what the interesting questions are, and beginning to tug on those threads.”</p> <p>Through it all, Long remains ever grateful for the opportunities that have emerged during her time at 91ֱ��.</p> <p>“I have been extremely fortunate to receive research backing,” she says, “and 91ֱ�� has been incredibly generous and supportive.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-11-24T12:00:00Z">Tue, 11/24/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erich Burnett</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Honor recognizes 91ֱ�� music theory professor’s extensive study of late-16th-century music.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/megan-kaes-long" hreflang="und">Megan Kaes Long</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/image/megan_long_by_tanya_rosen-jones.jpg?itok=ABOUN9qo" width="760" height="569" alt="Megan Kaes Long."> </div> Tue, 24 Nov 2020 22:03:16 +0000 eburnett 313351 at /news/senior-sendoff-new-york-city-edition <span>Senior Sendoff—New York City Edition</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-01-21T13:55:59-05:00" title="Thursday, January 21, 2021 - 13:55">Thu, 01/21/2021 - 13:55</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>When 91ֱ�� Conservatory voice major Kyle Miller '19 auditioned to be a soloist in the 91ֱ�� College Choir’s fall semester performance of Stravinsky’s <em>Les Noces</em>, he had no clue that the ensemble would be taking that piece on the road to Carnegie Hall in New York City.<br> <br> On January 19, 2019, Miller will solo with the 91ֱ�� College Choir in a joint performance with the 91ֱ�� Orchestra on that historic concert stage. “I am excited to have the chance to perform with all my friends and colleagues where so many great artists have performed before,” says Miller. “It may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”</p> <p><img alt="Kyler Miller." class="obj-right" height="233" src="/sites/default/files/content/conservatory/images/kyle_miller_with_choir.jpg" width="350"></p> <p>After a number of rehearsals and a campus performance of <em>Les Noces</em>, Miller happily admits to both the obstacles he faces and the satisfaction he gets from working on this complex piece of music—the most difficult piece he’s ever learned. “From the metric instability and the numerous moving parts [a full percussion section, <em>four</em> pianos, chorus, and four vocal soloists] to the complexity of the Russian language,&nbsp;<em>Les Noces</em> proves to be challenging to pull off with grace.<br> <br> “Every time we finish running through the piece, it feels like we had just started. My whole performance is filled with persistent counting and stress, but when it all flows together, it doesn’t sound or feel like it.”</p> <p><img alt="Kyle Miller" class="obj-right" height="233" src="/sites/default/files/content/conservatory/images/kyle_miller_in_performance.jpg" width="350"></p> <p>The excitement of this semester is timed perfectly, as Miller heads toward graduation this spring. In addition to his upcoming Carnegie Hall appearance, he recalls two highlights of his 91ֱ�� experience: performing as Count Almaviva in Mozart’s opera&nbsp;<em>Le nozze di Figaro</em> and studying music theory with Professor <a href="/node/6841">Arnie Cox</a>. “My Music Theory I class was special because we didn’t spend all of our time analyzing music, but instead analyzing the <em>theory</em> of music, which has really influenced the way music affects me. Thank you, Professor Cox!”<br> <br> “I also really enjoyed playing the Count with 91ֱ�� Opera Theater. His rash character allowed me to distance myself a bit from the singing and focus on the drama in a bigger way than ever before. I was lucky to work with such fine faculty and talented peers, which added to the magic of that production.”</p> <p>Head to oberlin.edu/oberlin-in-nyc for complete details about the 91ֱ�� College Choir’s January 19 appearance at Carnegie Hall, part of 91ֱ�� Conservatory's 2019 New York City tour, featuring the 91ֱ�� Orchestra, the 91ֱ�� College Choir, and the 91ֱ�� Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-01-11T12:00:00Z">Fri, 01/11/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Conservatory Communications Staff</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Baritone Kyle Miller '19 concludes his 91ֱ�� career with a Stravinsky solo at Carnegie Hall.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2974">Conservatory Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2360">After 91ֱ��</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2370">Ensembles &amp; Orchestras</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=35596">Voice</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=32971">Opera Theater</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/vocal-studies" hreflang="und">Vocal Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">courtesy Kyle Miller</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/image/kyle_miller.png?itok=1n3EcJ7C" width="760" height="569" alt="Kyle Miller."> </div> Thu, 21 Jan 2021 18:55:59 +0000 eburnett 317421 at /news/bryan-parkhurst-honored-society-music-theory <span>Bryan Parkhurst Honored by Society for Music Theory</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-11-09T14:37:56-05:00" title="Friday, November 9, 2018 - 14:37">Fri, 11/09/2018 - 14:37</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="/bryan-parkhurst" target="blank">Bryan Parkhurst</a>, an assistant professor in 91ֱ�� Conservatory’s <a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" target="_blank">Division of Music Theory</a>, has been presented the Emerging Scholar Award for 2018 by the <a href="https://societymusictheory.org/">Society for Music Theory</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>.</p> <p>The honor, given for Parkhurst’s article “<a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/journal-of-music-theory/article/61/1/59/14525/Making-a-Virtue-of-NecessitySchenker-and-Kantian">Making a Virtue of Necessity: Schenker and Kantian Teleology</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>,” was announced at the group’s November meeting in San Antonio, where Parkhurst presented on the subject.</p> <p>Long fascinated by the writing of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, Parkhurst arrived at his subject while pursuing graduate degrees in music theory and philosophy at the University of Michigan.</p> <p>“He’s one of the most difficult philosophers to understand,” says Parkhurst, who joined the 91ֱ�� faculty in 2017. “His writing is very dense, and it has all sorts of philosophical jargon. It took me years to really feel like I understood it.”</p> <p>Heinrich Schenker’s writing, meanwhile, suffuses the work of all music theorists. “It comes into play in various ways in every day of our teaching,” Parkhurst says. “In reading Schenker, I came to notice that there is a lot of Kant in there. And many of Schenker’s positions become clearer once you notice all the Kant in his thinking.</p> <p>“There’s a lot of disagreement over what Schenker is saying and why he’s saying it. I found that it makes way more sense when you think of it in terms of Kant’s arguments. That’s essentially what I explored in my paper.”</p> <p>Parkhurst conducted most of his research and writing while living not too far from the epicenter of Kant’s and Schenker’s work many years earlier: in an apartment above a discotheque in Düsseldorf, Germany. The resulting chapter was included in Parkhurst’s dissertation at Michigan in 2014; the final project was published in the <em>Journal of Music Theory</em> in 2017.</p> <p>“The article itself is a little outside the mainstream of music theory work because it’s so philosophical,” Parkhurst says. “It was wonderful that the journal agreed to publish it in the first place, and then to have this panel of distinguished music theorists who thought its arguments were convincing. I was really gratified to win.”</p> <p>SMT’s selection committee, likewise, was gratified to celebrate Parkhurst.</p> <p>“This year’s Emerging Scholar Award in the category of Article honors an in-depth study of aesthetic and philosophical underpinnings of one of the most prominent theories of Western art music—Heinrich Schenker, a theorist about whom we thought we knew all there was to know,” the committee wrote.</p> <p>“The article shows that nothing could be further from the truth. The article is a rigorous philosophical inquiry into the ideal of ‘musical science,’ which Eduard Hanslick had posited a generation earlier but which he had not pursued himself. The article gives flesh to Hanslick’s absolutism by adopting the doctrine of 'final causation' introduced by Immanuel Kant to grasp the structure of biological organisms. The organicism of Schenker’s theory is reflected, famously, in analytical graphs, which depict the musical work as a tissue of organically necessary contingencies—but the article shows that things are never quite as straightforward as they seem.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2018-11-09T12:00:00Z">Fri, 11/09/2018 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erich Burnett</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Article probing the work of theorist Schenker and philosopher Kant explores previously uncharted territory.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2414">Faculty</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/bryan-parkhurst" hreflang="und">Bryan Parkhurst</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones ’97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/image/bryanparkhurst_by_tanya_rosen-jones.jpg?itok=RA5qCewi" width="760" height="572" alt="Bryan Parkhurst"> </div> Fri, 09 Nov 2018 19:37:56 +0000 eburnett 127126 at /news/brian-alegant-us-professor-year <span>Brian Alegant is U.S. Professor of the Year</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:02:04-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:02">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:02</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://new.oberlin.edu/conservatory/departments/music-theory/faculty_detail.dot?id=20541">Brian Alegant</a>, the 91ֱ�� Conservatory of Music’s Barker Professor of Music Theory, has been named the 2015 U.S. Professor of the Year for undergraduate institutions by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, or <a href="https://www.case.org/" target="_blank">CASE</a>.</p> <p>Alegant’s honor follows a 2011 Professor of the Year award won by 91ֱ�� College Professor of History <a href="https://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/latin_american_studies/faculty_detail.dot?id=21265">Steven Volk</a>, making 91ֱ�� one of only a select few institutions in America to claim two U.S. Professors of the Year. Alegant is the first music professor to be so honored in the 35-year history of the award.</p> <p>Winners were announced in advance of a banquet held by CASE in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, November 19.</p> <p>“Brian is a brilliantly creative teacher and pedagogue who consistently inspires his students and colleagues,” says 91ֱ�� College President Marvin Krislov. “He is also an outstanding scholar and mentor, as well as an engaged citizen of 91ֱ��. Brian has strengthened this institution in so many ways through his generous and selfless service. We are all thrilled that he has received this great honor.”</p> <p>Alegant is a highly respected theoretician whose research interests include performance and analysis, pedagogy, and twelve-tone music. His study has been supported by numerous fellowships, and he is widely published in peer-reviewed journals. His book on the twelve-tone music of Luigi Dallapiccola (published by the University of Rochester Press) was met with widespread acclaim.</p> <p>Tireless in his quest to become more effective in every facet of his work, Alegant has cultivated an unusual phenomenon in higher education: music theory classes that are notoriously challenging—and students who endure wait lists to take part in them. Student assessments routinely cite Alegant for his brilliance, passion, fairness, and wit.</p> <p>“The whole idea for me,” he has said, “is to put the student in charge of his or her own learning.”</p> <p>"Brian reflects the great dedication of 91ֱ�� faculty to teaching at the highest level,” says Dean of the Conservatory Andrea Kalyn. “In a myriad of highly creative ways, he has facilitated the connection between performance and analysis for countless students, deepening their musicianship and advancing them on the path to artistry. We are absolutely delighted that his extraordinary work has been recognized with this award.”</p> <p>Central to Alegant’s methods are three practices he has developed over many years: "road maps," "scuba diving," and self-assessment. Road maps are written representations of how one hears a piece of music unfold in time, intended to enhance understanding; scuba diving is the practice of exploring a relatively small amount of content in great detail; and self-assessment refers to a system by which students are asked to reflect deeply on their own learning and assign their own letter grades. Years ago, Alegant nixed conventional midterms and final exams in favor of other, more innovative means of learning assessment. He has shared nuances of his methods at numerous presentations and articles throughout his career, as well as with colleagues in 91ֱ��’s college and conservatory.</p> <p>A professor at 91ֱ�� since 1996, Alegant also serves as chair of the conservatory’s Division of Music Theory, a position that makes him a mentor to 91ֱ��’s one-year post-doctoral instructors, each of whom has gone on to full-time work in higher education. In this capacity, Alegant has played a pivotal role in developing a generation of music theory educators.</p> <p>He has been similarly influential on his fellow colleagues on campus.</p> <p>“What distinguishes Brian from other master teachers is his willingness to share his insights and talents generously,” says Barbara Sawhill, a faculty member in 91ֱ�� College’s Hispanic studies department and director of 91ֱ��’s <a href="http://languages.oberlin.edu/">Cooper International Learning Center</a>. “He is not selfish with his own teaching gifts, and when asked he will volunteer his time and talent to observe classes, give support, and offer advice to fellow teachers—be they in the college or the conservatory.” Sawhill and Alegant have collaborated on numerous projects over the past decade, including a 2013 study on self-assessment that appeared in the journal <i>Engaging Students</i>.</p> <p>“Words cannot express how gratifying it is to be recognized for the decades I’ve spent perfecting my craft: learning how to help my students learn more deeply, speak music more fluently, take greater intellectual and interpretive risks, and embrace fully and unapologetically their artistic voices,” Alegant says of the honor.</p> <p>Alegant is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts (BM in piano performance), Temple University (MAs in music theory and music history), and the Eastman School of Music (PhD in music theory). He has been awarded the 91ֱ�� College Excellence in Teaching Award (2005), the Northeast Ohio Council of Higher Education Award for Excellence in Teaching (2005), the Eastman School of Music Teaching Assistant Prize (1985), and the Temple University Teaching Prize (1982).</p> <p>Alegant is one of four U.S. Professors of the Year selected for 2015, one each representing undergraduate, master’s, doctoral, and community college institutions. This year's field included nearly 400 nominees; all entries were judged by top U.S. instructors and other leaders in education.</p> <p>ABOUT CASE: The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is a professional association representing 3,670 educational institutions worldwide and the 81,000 advancement professionals who uphold their mission. Awarded annually since 1981, the U.S. Professor of the Year honors the most outstanding educators and mentors in the country. Sponsored by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it is the only program of its kind in America.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2015-11-19T12:00:00Z">Thu, 11/19/2015 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erich Burnett</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_760/public/content/news/image/alegantheadshot_0.jpg?itok=ixYDim3b" width="760" height="505" alt="Brian Alegant"> </div> Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:02:04 +0000 eburnett 9931 at