Alejandro L. Madrid, the Walter W. Naumburg Professor of Music, has been awarded a Humboldt Research Award honoring his research and academic achievement. Professor Madrid is only the fifth musicologist to receive this award. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grants Humboldt Research Awards to internationally recognized researchers of all disciplines in recognition of their academic…
Elaine Fitz Gibbon: Music as Theater
How avant-garde performance redefines music’s possibilities Music Department graduate student Elaine Fitz Gibbon was recently featured on the Harvard Griffin GSAS website for her research on experimental music theater composition and performance. What the practitioners of [Musiktheater] began to argue is that the rituals of concert music are socially constructed. They . . . allow…
Fifteen Questions: Vijay Iyer on Cognition, Temporality, and Musical Community
Professional musician and Harvard professor of the arts Vijay Iyer recently sat down with Fifteen Minutes to chat about his career, his teaching philosophy, and the neuroscience of music. Excerpt: Iyer: “I’ve been very fortunate to, for the last 30-something years, to have been mentored by really visionary and generous Black musicians. And prior to that…
Clayton Stephenson Wins Grand Prize of Inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition
The Harvard Music Department is thrilled to announce that pianist and recent Harvard/NEC dual-degree graduate Clayton Stephenson ’23, won the Grand Prize of the inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, after a masterful final-round performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor. The 23-year-old virtuoso competed with two other talented pianists in the finals, performing…
Prof. Charrise Barron: “How Music Powers Protest”
The Harvard Gazette sat down with Professor Charrise Barron for a Q&A about her teaching, and current book project. GAZETTE: Could you talk about your current book project, which was the focus of your research leave? BARRON: My current book project is called “The Platinum Age of Gospel.” That’s 1993 to 2013. I’m naming that era…
Elson Lecture Recap: “In stutter, artist finds voice”
The Harvard Gazette featured JJJJJerome Ellis’ Elson Lecture for a recap writing, “Jerome Ellis embraces onetime ‘curse’ in works inspired by nature and Blackness.”…
Siriana Lundgren: Drag Bans in US History
Music Department Graduate Student Siriana Lundgren recently wrote an op ed for Teen Vogue titled Drag Bans in US History: Restrictions on Drag Performance Are Nothing New in States Like Montana. The piece was published June 30, 2023 and is available to read on the Teen Vogue website….
Professors Charrise Barron and Alejandro Madrid join the Music Department
The Music Department is excited to welcome Professors Charrise Barron and Alejandro Madrid to the faculty. Assistant Professor of Music Charrise Barron is an ethnomusicologist and scholar of African American religious and cultural history. Her research, writing, and presentations have explored a range of topics in African American music, religion, and culture. Her current…
ARTS FIRST Festival April 27–30
The Harvard Music Department is proud to announce the names of the music concentrators taking part in ARTS FIRST, Harvard’s annual festival of faculty and student creativity, taking place April 27–30, 2023. The full list of music participants, as well as the events they will be performing at, is below. For more information about ARTS…