News
Carol Ann Muller Joins Other Musicians, Poets, and Scholars to Create a Sampling of South African Jazz
The article by Giovanni Russonello from the New York Times explores South Africa’s profound relationship with jazz music, with its roots in apartheid’s racial oppression when used as a symbol of resistance. South African jazz continued to evolve post-apartheid to be embraced by a new generation of musicians. Muller introduces her pick, “Cape Genesis: Slave Labor” by Kyle Shepherd, within the article. Each song’s description is accompanied by a Youtube link as well for listening.
Katherine Scahill Awarded 2024 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Penn Music's Katherine Scahill has been named one of 22 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellows for 2024. administered by the Institute for Citizen's & Scholars. The award will fund her upcoming dissertation, "The gendered politics of religious authority in Thai Buddhism: Voice, embodiment, and sonic efficacy in the movement for female monastic ordination." From the Institute for Citizens & Scholars:
Penn Music Scholars Win Salvatori Awards for Research in Italian Culture and Society
Penn Faculty members Mauro Calcango and Mary Channen Caldwell and Graduate Student in Historical Musicology Renée Olo were among those given a Salvatori Award from the Center for Italian Studies. The Salvatori Award is an annual research grant endowed by the late Henry Salvatori (EE 23) to support short-term planned research projects pertaining to Italian culture and society. Congratulations to the recipients!
Mary Channen Caldwell Discusses Jewish Music and Musicians in Medieval France in Recent Interview with the Katz Center
Mary Channen Caldwell Discusses Jewish Music and Musicians in Medieval France in Recent Interview with the Katz Center Natalie Dohrmann, Associate Director of the Katz Center, spoke with 2023–24 Katz Center fellow and Penn Music Professor Mary Channen Caldwell about her research on music, conversion, and the global Middle Ages. Read the Interview Here
Penn Music Ensemble in Residence and Faculty Recieve 2024 SACHS Program Grants
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation provides grants and other forms of strategic support to artists, faculty, cultural centers, students, and other arts advocates at Penn. As a strong arts advocate, they support hundreds of projects within the University of Pennsylvania. This past 2024 boasted the largest application pool to date. Out of these applicants, Penn Music proudly congratulates our community members that haven been awarded grants for their projects!
Tyshawn Sorey Awarded 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Music for “Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith)”
Tyshawn Sorey Awarded 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Music for “Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith)” President Assistant Professor of Music and Composer Tyshawn Sorey has been awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his work, “Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith).” The Pulitzer Prize in Music is given to a “distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year”
Penn Music Graduate Students Dive Deep into Ethnomusicology
This semester, graduate students in Carol Muller’s Deep Listening: Ethnographic and Anthropological Approaches course interviewed community leaders, scholars, and musicians to engage in the field of ethnomusicology as a way of knowing sound/music making in the contemporary world. Readings and conversations discussed post-colonial engagement with indigenous knowledge systems, the non-human animal world, the natural environment, and sound recording technologies to explore the history of Black music in Philadelphia and all the way to Makhanda (Grahamstown), South Africa.
Winners of the 2024 Penn Music Composition Competition Announced
Each year, the Music Department invites Penn undergraduate and graduate students to submit original composition for the David Halstead Music Prize, Hilda K. Nitzsche Prize in Music, and Helen L. Weiss Music Prize. Entries are reviewed by Penn Music composition factually and winners are awarded $600 each. Congratulations to the winners:
Graduate Students Flannery Jamieson and Sarah Le Van Present Their Research at Global Medieval and Renaissance Studies Colloquium
First-Year Graduate Students Flannery Jamieson and Sarah Le Van presented their research regarding Women, Agency, and Desire. The Global Medieval and Renaissance Studies (GMRS) Colloquium is an annual interdisciplinary event showcasing student research on various aspects of the medieval and early modern periods. In past years we have featured papers on a range of topics in Art History, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, English, History, Music, and Russian and East European Studies.
Anna Weesner Receives Fromm Foundation Commission
Each year, the Fromm Music Foundation accepts applications for commissions of new music, and awards commissions to fourteen American composers. The Fromm Music Foundation commissions represent one of the ways that the foundation strives to support the creation of new musical works and bring contemporary concert music closer to the public.