News
The BBC sits down with Tyshawn Sorey to discuss his latest composition, "Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)"
The BBC recently sat down with Sorey at the University of Pennsylvania to discuss his latest composition, "Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)".
Music Department Faculty and Staff Receive 2022 Grant Awards from The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation
In its fifth year, The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation awarded 49 grants over the course of the year, for a total of $288,000 in funding. We're pleased to share that of those grant recipients are three people who work in the Penn Music Department!
2022 Annual Composition Competition Winners Announced
The UPenn Composition faculty has awarded the following prizes this year in the annual composition competition: Erin Busch - Hilda K. Nitzsche Music Prize for 'Ensure Proper Drainage’. Ania Vu - Helen L. Weiss Prize for ‘Lost within Letters' for soprano, alto flute, violoncello. Nathan Courtright - David Halstead Music Prize for ‘Light sent back bent’ for percussion quartet.
Professor Mary Caldwell's First Book Released by Cambridge University Press
Professor Mary Caldwell's first book, Devotional Refrains in Medieval Latin Song has been released by Cambridge University Press. In this book, Caldwell explores the nature of refrains and what they do in medieval song, concentrating on the musical practices of religious communities attached to churches, abbeys, and schools.
Professor Mary Caldwell awarded Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society
Professor Mary Caldwell has been awarded a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society to work on her second book, Saintly Song: Musical Hagiography and the Medieval Cult of St. Nicholas. The award will support research in European archives and libraries next summer.
Kristopher Bendrick Receives 1st Prize at 2022 ASCAP/SEAMUS National Conference
Kristopher Bendrick, Ph.D. candidate in Composition, was awarded 1st prize in the 2022 ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commissioning Competition for his work progressively smaller TVs, solo for soprano, flute, and piano with electronics.
Erin Busch Receives Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students
Erin Busch, Ph.D. candidate in Composition, received a Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students. Busch is one of ten recipients, chosen for the year 2022.
Flannery Cunningham Premiers Composition dowsing//divining as Part of MATA Presents
Flannery Cunningham, (Ph.D. candidate in Composition), presented the world premiere of her piece, dowsing//divining, a chamber work for viola, cello, (Erin Busch, Ph.D candidate in Composition), and mezzo-soprano, as part of MATA Presents in their first live concert since 2019. dowsing//divining is sonic exploration of transformation and persistence in which every sound affects the rest and notation is created in the moment of performance
Shelley Zhang Organizes Event Exploring Historic Collaborations Between Chinese and American Musicians
Often hailed as the father of Western classical music in China, Li Delun 李德伦 was a conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and advocate for the arts in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). From 1946 to 1949, Li was a Communist guerilla musician for the Communist Party of China during the Chinese Civil War. Following the establishment of the PRC, he served in various artistic leadership roles in Beijing, including as conductor of the Central Philharmonic.
Shelley Zhang featured on Penn Today's 'Understand This...' Podcast
In the latest episode of Penn Today’s ‘Understand This …’ podcast series, Obed Arango of the School of Social Policy & Practice, alongside Shelley Zhang, (Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology, and a Wolf Humanities Center Graduate Fellow, discuss migration, the arts, and identity. Listen to the podcast on Penn Today's website.