MUSIC FACULTY NEWS

The department now has 16 professors and 33 full and part-time lecturers and applied faculty who teach performance and special topics. We have grown to fill our wonderful $21 million teaching, rehearsal and recital hall complex, which was inaugurated in 1997.

We invite you to visit our department home page at http://music.ucsc.edu, and hope you will also tour our facilities home page at http://music.ucsc.edu/facilities/facilties_pop.html.

Dean of the Arts and music professor Edward Houghton’s new transcription of Johannes Ockeghem’s Missa Ecce ancilla domini was featured earlier this month at the Ojai Festival. UCSC alum Kent Nagano, the renowned conductor of Los Angeles Opera, Berkeley Symphony and the Deutches Symphonie as well as 2004 artistic director of the Ojai Festival, chose Chanticleer, the San Francisco-based male choral group for this long-awaited premiere. For more on this story, see http://currents.ucsc.edu/03-04/06-14/nagano.html.

Music Professor Nicole Paiement recently guest conducted the Hollywood Bowl orchestra and members of the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood bowl in a concert honoring Wayne Shorter. She was also a guest conductor and gave master classes for the conducting diploma for Université de Sherbrooke in Montreal, and she guest conducted Honneger's Roi David for the Festival de Music Française in Sherbrooke this June. She recently conducted the American premiere of Hanna Kulenty's Flute Concerto at the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco. Her CD of Milhaud in America has come out with Helicon Records, including a commissioned work by Elinor Armor who was a student of Milhaud.

Music professors David Evan Jones and Nicole Paiement and music lecturer Brian Staufenbiel traveled to Seoul, Korea over Spring break, where Jones supervised the Korean premiere of Bardos, his first opera. The opera was produced by the Seoul Contemporary Opera Company, with Paiement as the guest conductor. Staufenbiel, who teaches voice and opera studies, provided stage direction. The title Bardos refers to the stages that the soul passes through after death according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. In addition to teaching composition and theory, Jones serves as Provost of Porter College (originally called College Five). For more on this story, see http://currents.ucsc.edu/03-04/04-05/korea.html.

Composer-theorist and music professor Paul Nauert participated in the international conference Around Set Theory, and his composition A Collection of Caprices was performed by pianist Marilyn Nonken, both as part of the Resonances Festival in Paris in Fall, 2003. Papers from this conference, including Nauert's talk, entitled "Timespan Hierarchies and Posttonal Pitch Structure: a Composer's Strategies," will appear in a future issue of Perspectives of New Music. For more on this story, see http://resonances2003.ircam.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=85.

Music professor David Cope, author of numerous books and articles on algorithmic composition, and creator of numerous computer-generated scores in styles ranging from Bach to Joplin and beyond is currently heading up the fourth UCSC Workshop on Algorithmic Computer Music. For further information, see http://summer.ucsc.edu/wacm/.

Music professor Hi Kyung Kim has had three premieres this past year. The large ensemble piece At the Edge of the Ocean (2001/2003 revised) was premiered by Earplay contemporary ensemble at the San Francisco International Arts Festival. The solo flute piece Instant Breath received a European premiere at Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland, and the string quartet Primitive Dance received its Korean premiere, performed by the New Asia String Quartet. In mid July, Kim’s choreographed multimedia work for Korean and western ensembles will be premiered at the Symposium of the International Musicological Society 2004 at Melbourne, Australia. This major work coordinates masters of Korean dance, bamboo flute and percussion with western musicians including music lecturers John Sackett, clarinet, William Winant, percussion, and Brian Staufenbiel, voice and stage direction. Art professor Elliot Anderson contributes visuals, and Professor Nicole Paiement conducts.

Four CD recordings have been released in 03-04 by music professor Linda Burman-Hall, who continues to direct the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival. J.S. Bach: Two Faces of Genius is a solo harpsichord disc in which the Italian-inspired Toccata in G, Italian Concerto and Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue are contrasted with Bach's French Ouverture Suite (http://www.msrcd.com/LBHBach/Bach.html.) Erik Satie -Visions, performed on a restored Érard grand piano from 1875, focuses on the early solo works of Satie but also includes an early set of songs with music lecturer Patrice Maginnis, soprano (http://www.msrcd.com/1097Satie/1097Satie.html). By the end of June, Celtic Caravans will be available. This recording features Haydn's Scottish, English and Welsh songs and other arranged 'Celtic' works performed by soprano Julianne Baird with the Lux Musica ensemble, directed from the fortepiano by Burman-Hall (http://www.msrcd.com/1105Celtic/1105Celtic.html). Blending early music with ethnomusicology, and playing frame drum as well as early keyboards, Burman-Hall has also recently released Cantemir - Music in Istanbul and Ottoman Europe around 1700 , a collection of historical Turkish, Moldavian and European works associated with the life of Prince Cantemir, with new music honoring Cantemir by Lou Harrison and Yalçin Tura. This collaboration with Turkish national treasure Ihsan Özgen and his nephew, music lecturer Mesut Özgen and Lux Musica ensemble is available on the Golden Horn label (http://www.goldenhorn.com/display.php4?content=records&page=ghp019.html.)

Lou Harrison - Composing a World, a collaborative book and recording by music professors Leta Miller and Fredric Lieberman continues to win acclaim. Most recently, it has been reissued in an updated paperback format. For more on this story, see http://www.press.uillinois.edu. Several faculty have recorded solo or ensemble music by Harrison in recent years, including professors Paiement, Burman-Hall and Miller, as soloists or with UCSC lecturers such as clarinetist Mark Brandenburg, vocalists Brian Staufenbiel and Patrice Maginnis, and percussionist William Winant. Harrison, long regarded as a major composer of new works inspired by Asian music and early music, passed away in 2003 at the age of 85 (see http://www.ucsc.edu/currents/02-03/02-10/inmemoriam.html). Miller and music professor Amy Beal have published numerous articles on contemporary American music in recent issues of journals such as American Music and Musical Quarterly, Journal of Musicology, and other periodicals. (http://www.jstor.org/journals/07344392.html, http://www3.oup.co.uk/musqtl, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals/jm)

Music professor and Merrill College provost John Schechter has just co-edited Quechua Verbal Artistry: The Inscription of Andean Voices, a major interdisciplinary volume in the area of native South American studies, working with Latin American and Latino studies lecturer Guillermo Delgado and retired professor of anthropology and linguistics Louisa Stark. The volume, which focuses on Quechua (native South American) linguistics, cultural studies, comparative literature, ethno-history, and ethnomusicology, includes scholarly papers by internationally known scholars from nine countries. For more on this story, Schechter also just completed a major revision, to his "Latin America" chapter, for Worlds of Music, Shorter Version, 2nd edition. For additional information, see
http://currents.ucsc.edu/03-04/06-14/pubs.html#quechua

Music professor Karlton Hester’s book, Bigotry and the Afrocentric "Jazz" Evolution, has just been published by Global Academic Publishing at State University of New York, Binghamton. Hester meanwhile continues his active career as a composer-improviser on both flute and saxophones. For further information, see http://academicpublishing.binghamton.edu.

Lecturer in guitar Mesut Özgen recently performed “New Dimensions in Classical Guitar” as part of the UCSC Arts & Lectures series and again at the Mello Center as part of his activities as artist-in-residence. This innovative multimedia classical guitar project featured interactive computer images and animation by music lecturer Peter Elsea, video by Gustavo Vazquez of Film and Digital Media, and innovative lighting design by David Cuthbert of Theater Arts. The concerts offered world premieres of compositions written specifically for Özgen by internationally acclaimed guitarist Benjamin Verdery, Indian bansuri virtuoso and UCSC lecturer Deepak Ram, UC Davis composition professor Pablo Ortiz, UCSC alumnus and lecturer Chris Pratorius, and former UCSC music lecturer Robert Strizich. For more on this story, see
http://currents.ucsc.edu/03-04/03-01/guitar.html.

The UCSC Committee on Teaching recently honored music professor Anatole Leikin with an Outstanding Teaching Award. Professor Frederic Lieberman received an honorable mention. Leikin has just completed a three-year term as Music Department Chair.

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 New faculty

Music Department has recently hired two outstanding new scholar-performers who will join the faculty during the coming academic year. Dard Neuman, a 2004 Ph.D. from Columbia University specializing in North Indian Classical music, is traditionally trained as a performer on the sitar. As an anthropologist-ethnomusicologist interested in colonialism, nationalism, and technology and performance, his presence will broaden our offerings in world music as he provides critical direction for programs and courses funded by the Indian Music Endowments. Nina Treadwell, a recent Ph.D. from University of Southern California, specializes in 16th and 17th century musi c and performs elegantly on lute, theorbo and historical guitars. Her publications consider Italian theatrical music, often from the perspective of gender studies. Professor Ben Carson, a composer-theorist with interests in music cognition, joined the faculty in fall 2003. Collaborating at La Jolla’s Neurosciences Institute and UC San Diego where he received his Ph.D., Carson has developed cognition-oriented approaches to form and counterpoint. Three of Carson's compositions for piano were featured this month in an evening concert by visiting faculty member John Mark Harris at the New England Conservatory's "Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance." Seven essays about Carson's music
(by Carson and by Christopher Williams) and the pieces performed at the NEC event were published recently in the Bard College "Open Space Magazine" Number 5 (Fall 2003).

Post-doctoral scholar Avi Tchamni is teaching beginning theory and musicianship and conducting research in algorithmic music this year and next.

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 Retired faculty

Professor emeritus Gordon Mumma, composer and pioneer in the field of electronic music and founder of the UCSC electronic music studios, is now retired and living in Victoria, British Columbia. New World Records has recently published a five-volume series of recordings from the legendary 1961-68 ONCE Festival (which Mumma co-founded). The collection contains many early works by Mumma and the hefty accompanying booklet features a short essay by him, a substantial historical overview of the festival by Professor Leta Miller, and some fabulous photos of the youthful Mumma. For further information, see http://www.newworldrecords.org.

Professor emeritus Sherwood Dudley, musicologist, editor, and founding director of the UCSC orchestra and opera programs, has retired to his home overlooking Santa Cruz, where he recently hosted his entire family at a celebration of his mother’s 100th birthday. Dudley has been busy making choral arrangements since retiring from UCSC two years ago. His latest is a mixed-choir arrangement of the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, which Sherwood has set to the Agnus Dei text. The piece will be given its first performance this December by The Choral Project, a choir of world-class professional quality based in San Jose. Current members include two UCSC Music Department graduates: Denise Owen and Suzanne Duval. Two other Music Department alums, Mark Forry and Gabrielle Stocker, are former members. Information about the upcoming season will be posted at www.choralproject.org.

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 ENSEMBLE NEWS

UCSC Opera, directed by music lecturer Brian Staufenbiel with orchestra conducted by music professor Nicole Paiement, recently completed performances of Kurt Weill’s 1947 opera Street Scene, an American opera that blends operatic tradition with blues and Broadway. Street Scene is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning play by Elmer Rice with book by Elmer Rice, lyrics by Langston Hughes and music by Kurt Weill. UCSC's production was presented through a special arrangement with the Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatre Library in New York. The cast included UCSC graduate and undergraduate student singers, recent graduates of UCSC's Music program, and community members.

 UCSC Chamber Singers, conducted by music professor Nicole Paiement, performed a special outreach early music concert at the historic Carmel Mission that featured Renaissance and Baroque works from England and France. For more on this story, see http://currents.ucsc.edu/03-04/02-02/concert.html. In addition to her role as conductor of UCSC’s Orchestra and Chamber Singers, Paiement is the founding artistic director of the California Parallèle Ensemble, which specializes in performing contemporary music . With the Parallèle Ensemble and the UCSC Chamber Singers, she completed a fourth recording of music by Lou Harrison that will include the reconstruction of his Mass to Saint Cecilia and many première recordings of short works. Professor Paiement is also the Artistic Director of the BluePrint Project in San Francisco, a series of new music concerts and collaborations. This season's highlights included John Adams's Chamber Symphony; a celebration of music by Lou Harrison (including some newly discovered works); Harbison's Mirabei Songs and the world premiere of Jonathan Russell's revised Chamber Symphony.

«UCSC West Javanese and Balinese Gamelans presented an evening of traditional and new work in May. With lecturer Undang Sumarna, visiting artists Pa Atik Rasta Prawira and Pa Otong Rasta led a Sundanese wayang golek (rod puppet) show, and and music professor Linda Burman-Hall led the Balinese gamelan angklung in temple music, new music by former artist-in-residence Wayan Suweca, and a music to accompany the prize-winning Balinese dancer Komang Widiasari.