In February, the American Academy of Arts and Letters announced the 20 recipients of the 2024 Awards in Music. Among these, Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts Vijay Iyer was awarded a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship. The fellowships, two of which were awarded this year, are given annually to composers of extraordinary gifts….
Weilu Ge’s “FEED” wins Best Narrative at SAT Fest
Graduate student Weilu Ge was awarded Best Narrative for FEED, created as part of IMUU, at SAT Fest in Montreal. The film will be part of a screening event running March 27, 2024 through May 4, 2024 at the SAT dome in Montreal. IMUU is an artist collective that utilizes light as paint and music…
The Harvard Gazette: “Instruments of Change”
Several members from the Department of Music, including Professor Charrise Barron and Devon Gates (’23), recently sat down with Dylan Goodman from The Harvard Gazette to discuss their experiences as women in music. Excerpt: When she is not singing or playing the keys, Barron is researching and teaching courses surrounding ethnomusicology — the study of…
The Washington Post: “Vijay Iyer Wants to be Heard Loud and Clear”
Professor Vijay Iyer was recently interviewed by The Washington Post, where he discussed his latest release with collaborators Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey, “Compassion”. EXCERPT— As enchanted staircases go, the entry to the Village Vanguard is tough to beat. Duck down the steps and you’re walking into one of the most storied rooms in American…
Student Spotlight: Lucas Amory
Lucas Amory is a Music and German double concentrator, with a secondary in Government. He is also participating in the Harvard-New England Conservatory Dual-Degree program. “I play piano,” Lucas explains “and I started conducting while I’ve been at Harvard; those have been my primary pursuits, but I also sing in the University Choir as a…
Professor Vijay Iyer reflects on his Grammy-nominated trio’s ‘mystical’ start
“It was like the music came from nowhere and revealed itself to us” Earlier this month, Professor Vijay Iyer was interviewed by the Harvard Gazette regarding his GRAMMY-nominated album Love in Exile. Vijay Iyer remembers the moment when his trio’s Grammy-nominated song was born in a New York recording studio. It started as a repeating…
The Fromm Music Foundation Announces 2023 Commission Recipients, Prize Winners, and Project Grant Recipients
The Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University is pleased to announce the 2023 commission and project grant recipients. 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…
Professor Alejandro L. Madrid receives Humboldt Research Award
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…