News & Notes
.jpeg)
Prof. Michael Noone directs a series of concerts in Salamanca Cathedral, Salamanca, Spain
Music Department Chair, Prof Michael Noone, directs a series of concerts, recordings, and videos of Golden Age sacred music in Salamanca cathedral, Spain.
Treasures of Renaissance music from the Burns Library revealed by renowned Dutch ensemble Cappella Pratensis.
In the Fall of 2024, the renowned Dutch ensemble Cappella Pratensis visited Boston College for a residency that included concert performances in St Mary's Chapel, workshops with BC students, and a series of video recordings of Medieval and Renaissance treasures from the Burns Library. Cappella Pratensis are world-leaders in performing early music from its original notation. In this video, their expert singers perform the Kyrie from a Mass composed by Spanish Renaissance composer Cristóbal de Morales (c. 1500-1553) from the Burns Library exemplar of a choir book printed by Jacque Moderne in 1546 (see https://moralesmassbook.bc.edu).
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I2OzlGCd_I
Show More.png)
Cappella Pratensis at Boston College
Members of the vocal ensemble Cappella Pratensis spent the last weekend in October recording sacred works from the Burns Library collections of rare Medieval and Renaissance music sources. The Netherlands-based ensemble will present a workshop/masterclass in Gasson 100 on Tuesday October 29 at noon and a concert featuring Dufay's Ecce Ancilla Domini mass in St Mary's Chapel at 7:30 pm on Tuesday October 29. All welcome!
Farewell to Richard Shaughesssy
Thank you Richard for 23 Years at Boston College.
Bridges ESOL Chorus is directed by Prof. Riikka Pietiläinen Caffrey
ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Chorus students are directed by Prof. Pietiläinen Caffrey who is featured in the "Collaboration Spotlight" article. Prof. Pietiläinen Caffrey is the community coordinator and Bridges ESOL Chorus director for this program. Read the full article published in the Chorus Journal, October 2024 issue.
Congratulations to Anna Wittstruck on her new published article
Prof. Anna Wittstruck’s article, "Embodying Eroica: Pregnancy and Performativity on the Podium," has been published by Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, as part of the 2024 volume. You can read the full published article here.
European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma 2024 - Concert Listing
This year’s 80th anniversary conference-concert-commemorations will take place between July 31st - August 2nd, 2024.
Prof. Ralf Gawlick’s oratorio on the Sinti and Roma, O Lunge Drom (The Long Road), will be performed on August 1st, 2024 in the Krakow Philharmonic: https://www.roma-sinti-holocaust-memorial-day.eu
Then, on August 2nd, international delegations and representatives will assemble in Auschwitz I (Stammlager) for a Commemorative Act of Parliamentary Representatives & Political Leaders organized in cooperation with the International Organizations and with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It will be a closed event with high media coverage in the “Theater Building’” in Auschwitz I, used after 1942 to store the Zyklon B gas. For this commemoration, Florian Berner (cellist from the Alban Berg Ensemble Wien) has been invited to perform a Tombeau (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DeTDdIYeRc) which I composed for solo cello along with the Sarabande from Bach’s 5th Cello Suite.
Show MoreFall 2024 Auditions for Boston College Symphony Orchestra and Instrumental Chamber Music Program.
Audition for the Boston College Symphony Orchestra and Instrumental Chamber Music Program!
For placement into the Boston College Symphony Orchestra and/or an instrumental chamber music group, all students (new and returning) should play one 10-min audition in the first week of the semester. Your audition will serve as BOTH your orchestra audition and your chamber music audition; students may indicate which musical ensembles they are interested in on the audition survey (see below).
Auditions for BCSO (or BCSO + Chamber Music) will be held in Lyons Hall Room 427 at the following times:
• Sunday, August 25, 6-10 pm (directly following the Music Department Performing Ensembles Welcome Reception in Lyons 423 from 4:30-5:30 pm - all are welcome to attend!)
• Monday, August 26, 10 am-12:30 pm; 1:30 pm-2:30 pm; 5:30-10 pm
• Tuesday, August 27, 9:30 am-12:30 pm; 1:30 pm-2 pm; 8 pm-10 pm
• Wednesday, August 28, 9:30 am-1:30 pm (BCSO Open Rehearsal in Conte Forum Band Room at 7:15 pm - all are welcome to show up and play!)
• Make-up times (please use as last resort): Thursday, August 29, 11 am-12 pm; 1-2 pm and Tuesday, September 3, 10 am-12 pm
Additional audition times for students interested in chamber music ONLY will be offered on Wednesday, September 4, 10 am-12 pm and 1-2 pm, location Lyons Hall Room 406.
To audition for BCSO and/or Chamber Music, please follow the instructions below:
1. Please sign up for an audition time using this sign-up sheet.
2. Before your audition time, please have filled out this survey.
3. Please prepare the following:
• String players: 3-5 min of solo playing of your choosing.
• Wind players: 2 short contrasting pieces (one lyrical, one technical), and a chromatic scale.
• Percussion: your audition time will just be a one-on-one conversation, with a chance to play on instruments at our first rehearsal.
• Pianists: 3-5 min of solo playing of your choosing. Please be prepared to sight-read.
The Boston College Symphony Orchestra meets on Mondays (strings only and/or sectionals) from 7:30-9 pm in Lyons 423, and on Wednesdays (full orchestra) from 7:10-9:40 pm in Conte Forum. The first BCSO rehearsal, which will take place on Wednesday, August 28, at 7:15 pm in Conte Forum, is open to any interested students who would like to play; the final roster will be determined and announced at the end of the week and seating/part assignments by the second rehearsal.
Small instrumental chamber groups (2-6 people) rehearse on their own and receive weekly coachings from a faculty member, scheduled at the discretion of the group and coach.
.jpg)
O Lungo Drom (The Long Road) Essay
The Long and Boundless Road: Classical pianist and author Simon Tedeschi reflects on the power of art, having been inspired by Ralf Yusuf Gawlick’s 2022 oratorio O Lungo Drom (The Long Road), recently released by Decca Australia. This article originally appeared in Limelight's June 2024 issue and has been republished with their permission. Read the original article at https://limelight-arts.com.au/features/the-long-and-boundless-road/ Read the full essay.
Painting by Jos Jackson titled "Unfinished Journey"
Show More
Prof. Ralf Gawlick receives award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council - Grant for Creative Individuals
Prof. Ralf Gawlick is among the inaugural recipients of a new grant award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. O Lungo Drom has just been awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for Creative Individuals, the highest state honor/grant for the arts.
Here is the link to the recipients (Ralf Gawlick-Music) in all categories.
Show More
Congratulations - Class of 2024!
Gospel Choir 'Voices of Imani" concert
Voices of Imani Gospel Choir presents Melodies from Heaven: a celebration of spirituals and gospel music directed by Shannon Jacob. This concert will take place on Saturday, April 20 at 6:00pm in the Cabaret Room, Vanderslice Hall. The choir will be accompanied by a band composed of professional musicians in the local gospel scene.
The story behind "O Lungo Drom" (The Long Road) - Interview with Prof. Ralf Gawlick
The story behind the oratorio " O Lungo Drom" (The Long Road) composed by Prof. Ralf Gawlick. Read the extensive interview with the composer of "O Lungo Drom" published in the "Boston Musical Intelligencer". The oratorio "O Lungo Drom" will premiere at Boston College on April 6th, 2024 performed by the Alban Berg Ensemble.
A Spirituals and Gospel Festival on Friday, February 23, 2024 featuring Boston College Professor, Shannon Jacob
The Spirituals and Gospel Festival is a concert for the entire family, celebrating the history of these art forms and their significance in the musical lineage of African-American music. The District has invited Professor Shannon Jacob, choral conductor, composer, and educator, to work with our students during the week of February 20.
The week will culminate in a performance on Friday, February 23, 2024, at 7:30 PM in the Princeton High School Performing Arts Center, located at the corner of Walnut Lane and Franklin Avenue. The concert will feature Professor Jacob, all of the PHS choirs, community members, and a student praise dance ensemble.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Tickets may be purchased from PHS choral students or at the door. If the cost of admission would present a financial challenge for your family, please contact us at patricklenihan@princetonk12.org
Show More
The Marian Consort - Concert and Recital - Feb 13th and Feb 14th 2024
Tuesday, February 13th, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in St. Mary’s Chapel
A concert in St. Mary’s Chapel - A Mardi Gras celebration of Vicente Lusitano (fl. 1551) – the first published composer of African descent – A concert in St. Mary’s Chapel , Boston College, featuring eight voices from the British vocal group The Marian Consort directed by Rory McCleery
Wednesday, February 14th, 2024 at 12:30 p.m. in Gasson 100 (Iunch available at 12:00 p.m.)
A recital featuring eight voices from the British vocal group The Marian Consort (Rory McCleery, director) introduced by Prof. Michael Noone, Chair-Music Department
More information about The Marian Consort and their performances can be found in an article in the Boston College Chronicle, VOL. 31 NO. 10, page 2.
Prof. Anna Wittstruck - Winner of the American Prize in Orchestral Conducting for 2023
Anna Wittstruck, Associate Professor of the Practice in Music and Director of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra, has been named the winner of the American Prize in Orchestral Conducting for 2023 (college/university orchestra division).
Women of Note Concert - Motherlands: Belongings - A new composition by Shannon Jacob
The Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka has commissioned Boston College professor Shannon Jacob to create an original composition for their “Women of Note” concert, showcasing women composers. “Motherlands: Belonging,” will have its world premiere performance on October 14 in Colombo Sri Lanka. Jacob is the only contemporary composer whose work will be performed.
“Motherlands: Belonging” has its roots in Jacob’s reflections on living between two worlds, her native Sri Lanka and her current home in the United States. “Belonging, for me,” she explains, “is not necessarily associated with a place or objects, but with the people and experiences that shaped me at that point in time. Belonging is a feeling that is multifaceted, wrought with emotion, and is neither universal or linear. The privileges and disadvantages that come with our shared histories and the state of the world adds to its complexity.”
A Sri Lankan composer, music director, performer and educator, Jacob attended Bishop’s College, Colombo and holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Contemporary Writing and Production from Berklee College of Music. She currently serves as Assistant Director of Faculty Development at Berklee and as an Adjunct Lecturer in the African and African Diaspora Studies program at Boston College where she also directs the Voices of Imani Gospel Choir. Her compositions and arrangements range from classical, jazz, gospel and contemporary for the likes of Color Violeta, The Southeast Asian Choir Games, The Gustav Mahler Symphony Orchestra to theatrical productions and short films.
Jacob’s belief in the power of music education to unite us as citizens of the world has led her to study the ethnological context of music. She hopes her composition invites listeners to think about their own journey of belonging, and to encourage that feeling in others.
Established in 1958, the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka (SOSL) is one of the oldest orchestras in South Asia. The concert will take place Saturday, October 14th, 2023 at 7:00 pm at the Lionel Wendt Theater, Sri Lanka
Source: JSM promotions: jsmpromotions@gmail.com; Shannon Jacob: shannonjacobmusic@gmail.com
Show MoreProf. Michael Noone represents Boston College at the AMS-NE Fall 2023 Meeting
Music Department Chair, Prof Michael Noone, represents BC at the Fall meeting of the New England Chapter of the American Musicological Society hosted by Boston University's Center for Early Music Studies (30 September 2024). Professor Noone will present the results of his recent sabbatical research on Susana Muñoz (d. 1625), the most prolific printer of sacred music in early modern Spain.
https://www.newengland.ams-net.org/?page_id=1370
Congratulations - Class of 2023!
Prof. Ralf Gawlicks work for solo cello "At the still point of the turning world" - concert on April 30th, 2023
Prof. Ralf Gawlick’s work for solo cello - At the still point of the turning world - will be performed as part of a discussion panel & concert celebrating the work of the great visual artist Samuel Bak (still prolific at 90) at the Pucker Gallery on Newbury Street on April 30. More information about the event on April 30th, 2023
Ralf Gawlick's new oratorio "O Lungo (D)rom" - World Premiere in Berlin
O Lungo (D)rom
World Première, Konzerthaus Berlin, October 23, 2022
Professor of Music Ralf Yusuf Gawlick's new oratorio O Lungo (D)rom (The Long Road) received its world première by distinguished soloists Johanna Zimmer (soprano), Georg Gädker (baritone), László Racz (cimbalom) and the Alban Berg Ensemble Wien in the renowned Konzerthaus Berlin on Oct.23.2022. The work sets the words of thirteen different Romani poets and writers in ten languages and Romani dialects, contemporary texts that deal with the centuries-old history of this continuously persecuted ethnic minority in Europe, addressing both the painful and hopeful moments. O Lungo (D)rom was the musical centerpiece of an international conference entitled Commemoration of the Holocaust against the Sinti and Roma ~ Current developments and challenges sponsored by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma organized for the 10th anniversary the inauguration of the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism. Keynote speakers included Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany and the oratorio's dedicatee Romani Rose, Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.
Broadcast link provided by Phoenix vor Ort* to the 10th anniversary ceremony of the inauguration of the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism in Europe, Berlin, 10/24/22:
https://youtu.be/v8JbG5mv0P0
*Phoenix vor Ort, a German news service on national television that informs about political and social events in Germany, Europe and the world.
https://dokuzentrum.sintiundroma.de/10-jahre-denkmal/
Spanish music magazine Scherzo features an article written by Prof. Noone
Spanish music magazine Scherzo features an article in which Professor Michael Noone details some of his recent findings about the Spanish priest-composer Sebastián de Vivanco (1553?-1622).
Salamanca Cathedral launches its own CD label with a recording masterminded by Professor Michael Noone.
Salamanca Cathedral launches its own CD label with a recording masterminded by Professor Michael Noone. Both the CD and the label were launched in a public ceremony in the cathedral's Chapel of St Catalina in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the death priest-composer Sebastián de Vivanco (1553?-1622). The CD brings together 25 musicians from three countries in first performances of works transcribed and edited by Prof Noone. Professor Noone's comments (in Spanish) about the CD and its wider significance have been published here. The event has been widely covered in Spanish media.
The Music Department is pleased to announce the publication of the first study of Cardinal Cisneros as a patron of music and the liturgy.
The Music Department is pleased to announce the publication of the first study of Cardinal Cisneros as a patron of music and the liturgy. Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436-1517) was a Franciscan who was twice regent of Castile. A politician who employed the new technology of the printing press to advance his reforming agenda, Cisneros was an enthusiastic patron of the arts, a liturgical reformer, and the founder of Spain's largest university, the Complutense. This new volume, published by the Institut d’Estudis Medievals of Barcelona's Universitat Autònoma in collaboration with Boston College, brings together specialists in Cisneros's engagement with music, the liturgy and the arts. The volume contains a chapter on musico-liturgical sources in Toledo cathedral during Cisneros's archiepiscopate in the Spanish primatial cathedral by Prof. Michael Noone. The book in pdf format may be downloaded gratis using this link.
BERGfest - A Festival of the Alban Berg Ensemble in Vienna, Austria with Prof. Gawlick
Prof. Ralf Gawlick participated in the rehearsals of his work “Imagined Memories” (Bîranînên Xeyali), for the concert “BERGfest: A Festival of the Alban Berg Ensemble Wien June 11 - 12, 2022. Imagined Memories for string quartet, composed by Prof. Gawlick, was performed by the Vienna-based Hugo Wolf Quartet (who commissioned the work and to whom it is dedicated). This work “Imagined Memories” (Bîranînên Xeyali), Prof. Gawlick’s musical memoir, explores the existentially defining interrelationship of “what was” and “what will be”. Time becomes a non-teleological space - our sense of self identity is shaped through the interconnectedness of past, present and future. The key agent for the formation of the identity is memory. Here is the link to the program BERGfest Vienna June 2022.
Ensemble Plus Ultra, founded by Prof. Michael Noone, performed sacred music
The Ensemble Plus Ultra, founded by Prof. Michael Noone, performed sacred music by priest-composer Sebastián de Vivanco (d. 1622) in a series of events to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the composer's death, sponsored by the University of Salamanca and Salamanca Cathedral in Spain. See photo gallery.
Max Korman performs as Soloist at Pops on the Heights Gala
Max Korman, MCAS '23 performed as soloist at the Boston College's 30th Annual Pops on the Heights Gala alongside the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, conducted by Keith Lockhard. Read the full article by Paterson Tran; Photo: Molly Bruns, Heights Student Newspaper Staff
UNACCOMPANIED Project, An Invitation by Leo Eguchi
Listen and hear to Leo Eguchi about his new project "UNACCOMPANIED, an Invitation" UNACCOMPANIED is a project which aims to bring to life new works for solo cello by immigrant and first-generation American composers. Each composer is tasked with capturing something of their American identity in sound… capturing things gained by being here, as well as things left behind. The goal is to give voice to each individual’s story of being an ‘unaccompanied migrant,’ as a means to find what we truly share. The UNACCOMPANIED project premieres on October 22, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. at the Pao Arts Center in Boston, MA. (See link for tickets).
Seminario de Investigación 1 by Prof. Michael Noone
Prof. Michael Noone presents the results of his research into the role of Susana Muñoz in the printing of sacred music in early 17th-century Spain. Noone's presentation opens this year's Colloquium series at Madrid's Complutense University.
Congratulations to BC alumnus Michael Burke
Our warmest congratulations to Music Department alumnus Michael Burke. Michael has recently been appointed Digital Repositories Librarian at Berklee College. Well done, Michael!
Celebrating the 400th Anniversary - Sebastián de Vivanco - concert in a series of events organized by Michael Noone
The latest concert in a series of events organized by Prof Michael Noone to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of priest-composer Sebastián de Vivanco (1553?-1622) will take place on September 24 the Cathedral of Salamanca, Spain. The concert, organized by Michael Noone, will feature the Ensemble Plus Ultra founded by Noone and directed by David Martin.
Barbara Gawlick receives the 2022 Community Service Award
Congratulations to Barbara Gawlick for receiving the 2022 Community Service Award.
Barbara Gawlick has established the Music Outreach Program and through her long-term initiative she has ensured that the lives of area youths are enriched through music. Shown in this picture are BC President William P. Leahy, S.J., and Barbara Gawlick at the award presentation event.
(Photo: Lee Pellegrini). Read the full article in BCNews.
Emily Murphy published children's book "Goodnight Symphony"
Within the context of getting settled for bed, Goodnight, Symphony describes the unique sound produced by each instrument as they work together to create an experience that transcends language. The instruments' activity of playing during the day, followed by their nightly bedtime routine, reflects the comforting, familiar pattern in the life of a child. Goodnight, Symphony illustrates that creating something beautiful together can inspire the imagination, and provide us all with another dimension.
.jpg)
Warmest congratulations to the class of 2022!
International Day of the Roma - Concert in Heidelberg with Prof. Ralf Gawlick
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and reminiscence of the International Day of Roma, the Vienna-based Hugo Wolf Quartet performed Gawlick's string quartet "Imagined Memories" on April 7th, 2022 at 7 p.m. (CET) in the Palais Prinz Carl, Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma in Heidelberg, Germany. This concert was live-streamed. Link to the concert information in Heidelberg.
German Sinti and Roma. On the eve of international Romani Day (4/8), German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially recognized and apologized for "Das zweite Leid" (the second persecution) suffered by the Sinti and Roma after the war. Forty years earlier, on February 5-6, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt recognized the Nazi genocide of the Sinti and Roma. This paved the way for the enforcement of compensation for the survivors of the Holocaust and the recognition of the German Sinti and Roma as a national minority. The tireless work of chairperson Romani Rose and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, has brought forth noticeable and critical change in dealing with the minority in many areas of society. The official recognition on 4/7 is yet another significant step for the German Sinti and Roma community tomeet present and future challenges. See the link here with the speech from president Steinmeier, Jesse Jackson, Dr. Josef Schuster, Jacques Delfeld and others.
.jpg)
German/European Premiere of Ralf Yusuf Gawlick's electro-acoustic work "Herzliche Grüße, Bruno - Briefe aus Stalingrad" (Best regards, Bruno - Letters from Stalingrad)
Prof. Ralf Gawlick's electro-acoustic composition "Herzliche Grüße, Bruno - Briefe aus Stalingrad" together with Chi-Chen Wu, Piano and Georg Gädker, voice, premieres on April 5th, 2022 in the Musiksaal of the Nürnberger Symphoniker, Kongresshalle, Nürnberg, Germany. Link to the concert information in Nürnberg. Blog to "Herzliche Grüße, Bruno"
Prof. Noone - Digitizing a Rare Volume of Sacred Music
Over the Spring Break, Music Department Chair Michael Noone and Digital Scholarship Librarian Matthew Naglak visited Miranda do Douro in NE Portugal to digitize a rare volume of sacred music. The altas-size choirbook was printed in 1620 in Salamanca and contains Masses, motets, and Magnificats by the Spanish composer Diego de Bruceña (d.1622). Although the original printrun of 40 copies was rapidly dispersed to the most important cathedrals throughout the Iberian peninsula, only one copy is known today. It is this recently-discovered copy that is the focus of Noone's visit to Miranda do Douro. The visit was supported by a competitive Academic Technology Innovation Grant grant awarded by Boston College's Academic Technology Advisory Board. One of the unexpected results of Noone's recent work on early 17th-century sacred music is that one woman — Susana Muñoz — was the driving force behind the press that issued more books of sacred Latin polyphony than any other in early modern Spain. Noone and Naglak's visit to Miranda do Douro has been covered by the Portuguese press and the project is expected to lead to a webpage dedicated to the volume. Music preserved in the choirbook will be heard, for the first time in 400 years, in a concert in London performed by the Renaissance Singers under the direction of David Allinson on April 2. Press coverage of Professor Michael Noone's digital humanities research project concerned with women printers of sacred music in early modern Iberia.
.jpg#)
Prof. Noone shares his recent research "Infantas's sacred Music"
In Ucles (Spain), on 25 November, Music Department Chair, Prof Michael Noone, shares his recent research into Spanish composer, theologian, and diplomat Fernando de las Infantas (1534-ca. 1610). Atypical among Renaissance composers, Fernando de las Infantas was a wealthy nobleman whose published theological treatises were banned by the Inquisition. In 2004, Noone recorded the first CD devoted in its entirety to Infantas's sacred music. In Ucles he will speak on his project to publish a critical edition of Infantas's complete sacred music.
Lifetime Achievement Award awarded to John Finney by Choral Arts New England
The Music Department invites everyone to join with us in heartfelt congratulations to John Finney who has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Choral Arts New England.The full ceremony may be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CygcOlFsBKE
Gospel Workshop - Fall 2021
In association with AADS, the Music Department is delighted to announce a new course: Gospel Workshop AADS 2290 / MUSP 1770. Lecture: Tuesday 6:00 pm - 6:50 pm. Practicum: Tuesday 7:00 pm- 8:00 pm & Thursday 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
BC Symphony Orchestra violinist - Nova Wang
Music minor and Boston College Symphony Orchestra violinist Nova Wang's arrangement of "For Boston" goes viral.
https://www.bcheights.com/2021/03/28/wangs-arrangement-of-for-boston-strikes-a-cord/
Show More
Congratulations to the BC Flute Ensemble and their founder/director Judy Grant!
The BC Flute Ensemble has been chosen to perform on the World's Largest Flute Choir Showcase Concert! The BC Flute Ensemble premiered online on March 3 at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention 2021. The first piece on this video highlights three of our graduates from the Class of 2020 since Covid-19 restrictions prevented their senior year special performance last spring. Please click hyperlink to listen to the Boston College Flute Ensemble. (begins at 0.09)
.jpg)
Prof Watchorn's new recording of J. S. Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations (BWV 988)
The Music Department is excited to receive news of Prof Watchorn's new recording of J. S. Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations (BWV 988). This new release is the latest in Peter Watchorn's large project of recording the entire solo harpsichord output of Johann Sebastian Bach. Offered in memory of Greg Miller, long-time partner of the artist and supporter of the project, this particular release also documents the standing-room-only concert devoted to the complete Goldbergs at Boston College's St. Mary's Chapel, 3 October, 2019.
Prof Barbara Gawlick receives a Corcoran Center Community Engagement award
The Music Department is delighted to announce that Prof. Barbara Gawlick has received a Corcoran Center Community Engagement award to support her efforts working virtually with music outreach and teaching in the community. The Corcoran Center Community Engagement Awards support virtual community-focused teaching and research in Boston Neighborhoods that have been most impacted by COVID-19. These communities are often on the opposite side of the digital divide from Boston College.
The Boston College Music Outreach program, under the direction of professor Barbara Gawlick, has been serving underprivileged and socio-economically disadvantaged children and teens since 2012. This program recruits Boston College students to provide music lessons/music tutoring in two inner-city schools in Allston/Brighton communities. Students volunteer to teach keyboard lessons in an after-school program at the Gardner Pilot Academy and lead keyboard labs and band instrument lessons at the Thomas Edison K-8 school.
Despite the pandemic, BC students selflessly continue to provide virtual music lessons in these schools, thus critically contributing to the education of nearly 100 children/teens, who otherwise would neither have access nor the ability to afford music lessons. These lessons go well beyond learning music; they also serve as an invaluable mentorship program that profoundly affects both the children and BC students. The Corcoran Center Community Engagement Award as well as Service and Justice grant play an essential role in these difficult times by providing for the purchase of needed instruments, music materials and books required for virtual teaching and learning. These BC grants and the efforts of all involved in the Music Outreach truly exemplify Boston College’s commitment to service as expressed in the university motto "Men and Women for Others".
Show More.jpg)
The Music Department announces the publication of a new book "Liber magnificarum (1607) Sebastián de Vivanco" edited by Michael Noone and Graeme Skinner
The Music Department announces the publication of a new book by Prof Michael Noone and Graeme Skinner. The 300-page volume is an edition of, and commentary about, a book of magnificats by Sebastián de Vivanco, a priest-composer of the High Renaissance.
Sebastián Vivanco (ca. 1550-1622) stands, without doubt, as one of the most neglected composers of the Spanish Golden Age. Ironically, the greatest contribution to this neglect is the accident of his having been born in Avila at about the same time as that other colossus of Spanish music from Avila, Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). Blinded, perhaps, by the stunning brilliance of Victoria, scholars and performers alike have been slow to discern an equally bright star sparkling in the same constellation. For two decades, from 1602 until his death in 1622, Vivanco occupied simultaneously the two most prestigious posts in Salamanca to which any musician could aspire: University Professor of Music and Cathedral Chapelmaster.
In 2002, Michael Noone conducted a series of concerts in the UK (London and Cambridge) and Spain that led to an award-winning CD recording of Vivanco’s sacred polyphony. Deeply impressed by the consistently high quality of Vivanco’s sacred music — in particular his magnificat settings — Noone embarked on a project to bring the composer’s music to a wider public by making editions of Vivanco’s music for both scholars and performers. In the process, Noone’s study of the sources of Vivanco’s music eventually led to an unsuspected discovery: that while all modern studies of Vivanco’s music had attributed the printing of his works to Tavernier, it was in fact Tavernier’s wife, Susana Muñoz, who was the ignored and unsung force behind the printing of sacred music by Vivanco and his contemporaries.
With his book of Magnificats (1607), Vivanco began a collaboration with the Flemish printer Artus Tavernier and his wife Susana Muñoz that would eventually see two further altas-sized luxury polyphonic choirbooks containing Latin liturgical music by Vivanco, together with volumes of music by polyphonists Juan Esquivel (c. 1563-after 1612) and Diego de Bruceña (1567-1623). Noone’s research into the printing of music in early 17th-century Salamanca reveals the hitherto unsuspected agency of a remarkable woman. Through successive strategic marriages to three key figures in Salamanca’s thriving printing trade, Susana Muñoz built a firm that in the period 1602 to 1625 issued more than 120 titles and that dominated the printing of Latin liturgical music in early modern Spain.
.jpg)
Prof. Ann Lucas wins "Bruno Nettl prize" award
The Music Department warmly congratulates Associate Professor Lucas who was awarded the prestigious "Bruno Nettl prize" by the Society for Ethnomusicology at their recent annual meeting. The "Bruno Nettl prize" is given to the best monograph that illuminates the relationship between the history of Ethnomusicology and the history of music writ large. This year, the award was given to Associate Professor Ann E. Lucas for her book Music of a Thousand Years. Beyond the prize's recognition of important contributions of scholarship, this year's award is especially appropriate since the late Bruno Nettl himself was first and foremost a scholar of Persian music.
Iran’s particular system of traditional Persian art music has been long treated as the product of an ever-evolving, ancient Persian culture. In Music of a Thousand Years, Ann E. Lucas argues that this music is a modern phenomenon indelibly tied to changing notions of Iran’s national history. Rather than considering a single Persian music history, Lucas demonstrates cultural dissimilarity and discontinuity over time, bringing to light two different notions of music-making in relation to premodern and modern musical norms. An important corrective to the history of Persian music, Music of a Thousand Years is the first work to align understandings of Middle Eastern music history with current understandings of the region’s political history.
Our heartfelt congratulations to Professor Lucas!
Show More
Faculty highlight
Congratulations to Assistant Professor Daniel M. Callahan for being awarded the 2019 Alfred Einstein Award and the 2019 Philip Brett Award for his article "The Gay Divorce of Music and Dance: Choreomusicality and the Early Works of Cage-Cunningham," published in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Summer 2018, Vol. 71, Number 2, pp. 439–525.
"The Alfred Einstein Award honors a musicological article of exceptional merit, published during the previous year in any language in any country by a scholar in the early stages of his or her career who is a member of the AMS or a citizen or permanent resident of Canada or the United States. This year’s pool of nominees shows a strength and excellence in music scholarship that foretells a very bright future for our field. This year’s winner wrote a brilliant article that is a genuinely original contribution to music studies, but also to modern dance studies and LGBTQ+ history. The author’s analysis of music-movement is a model of historically-informed and contextualized choreomusical analysis, clearly founded in a thorough investigation of a breadth of sources that includes letters, videos, photographs, existing scholarship, and analyses of both music and choreography. The clarity of writing, the author’s passion, and the clarity, sophistication, and strength of the argument make this an exceptional work of scholarship. The article shows that the early collaborations between John Cage and Merce Cunningham were not abstract in nature, but rather, heavily programmatic. The author’s analysis and revisionist origin story of Cunningham’s Revivalist/”Preacher” solo from Appalachian Spring significantly revises the scholarly record and offers a new interpretive framework for understanding this iconic work."
Citation as read by the chair of the Alfred Einstein Committee.
Show More
Terezin Music Foundation - June 2019 track of the month
"Flowers for Terezin" by Thomas Oboe Lee, composer and member of the music faculty at Boston College. More information available here.
Featured premiere: "Best Regards, Bruno"
Check out the Campus Arts section of the March 14 BC Chronicle issue
The 52-minute piece, scored for baritone, 2 pianos and archival sound montage, premières on Saturday, March 30 in First Baptist Church, Newton, MA.
Best regards, Bruno - Letters from Stalingrad is an electro-acoustic work conceived from the last two letters written by the composer's young uncle (19), Bruno Gawlick, before being listed as missing in action in late December 1942. The listener moves through time and space via a soundscape that integrates archival sound recordings with live spoken word, two seperate piano parts and the prophecy of the sung voice. The resulting work is unique and in its intimacy and profound reflections represents a fierce anti-war memorial.
Click here to read more.
Show More
Professor Michael Noone invited to lecture on Spanish Sacred Music in Granada, Spain
