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….
The Fromm Music Foundation Announces 2022 Commission Recipients, Prize Winners, and Project Grant Recipients
The Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University is pleased to announce the 2022 commission and project grant recipients, as well as the winner of the Fromm Music Foundation Prize. 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…
NYT features Samora Pinderhughes’s new album
The New York Times writes “In the past few years Pinderhughes, 30, has been breaking out well beyond the Bay Area, and with the release of ‘Grief,’ he’s emerged as one of the most affecting singer-songwriters today, in any genre.”…
Alumna Natalie Hodges’s book Uncommon Measure in NYT
Describing Uncommon Measure, Natalie Hodges’s (AB ’19) collection of essays and memoir, reviewer Alexandra Jacobs writes “[C]ertainly in Hodges’s prose, you can sense a great freeing-up, what in her original discipline is called rubato, a rare ease. In words, as she could not in notes, she seems able to fruitfully process a tough past and…
Lift Ev’ry Voice Weekend reviewed in I CARE IF YOU LISTEN
Reviewer Greg Nahabedian attended the April webinar showcasing Eileen Southern’s work as well as the choral concert featuring the Aeolians of Oakwood University as guest performers, writing that the entire weekend was “a reminder that music can be as joyful and celebratory as it is intellectually challenging.” They particularly highlighted the premiere of a piece…
Esperanza Spalding wins Best Jazz Vocal Album at the Grammys
Esperanza Spalding won her fifth Grammy for her eighth studio album, Songwrights Apothecary Lab. Read more at Billboard!…