On April 4th and 5th, BGSU Philharmonia director Dr. Emily Freeman Brown conducted the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester in a program of Bohemian Masters of the Classical Period. The web site is http://www.gso-online.de/
Prof. Broman and graduate students present at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Per F. Broman, Associate Professor of Music Theory, along with three graduate students, musicologist Jane Hines, composers Michael Kasinger and Carter Rice, will present research papers at the Music and Moving Image conference at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, May 31-June 2.
Hines’s “The Enchanted Concerto: World War II, Propaganda, and Musemes” analyses the use of the Hubert Bath’s composition Cornish Rhapsody in John Cromwell’s film The Enchanted Cottage (1945); Rice’s “Thematic Textures in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Films” shows the transformation of traditional Leitmotifs from the early Batman (1989) to The Dark Knight (2008); Kasinger’s “Sleight of Ear: The Use of the Unexpected in Film Scores” illustrates how carefully selected music acts a barrier between the audience and the cinematic events, controlling the emotional and intellectual response, by using Joel and Ethan Coen’ Burn After Reading (2008) and Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch (2011) as case studies; Broman’s “Mute the Bereaved Memories Speak: A Pasolinian Requiem” traces the close intertextual musical relationship between the Sven-David Sandström’s Requiem (1979) and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò (1975), which provides important keys to understanding the requiem.
BGSU Alum becomes president of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
|
The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music has hired Gregory Ruffer for the position of President/CEO. |
|
| Ruffer is a performing arts leader, conductor and voice teacher with a quarter century of experience in the field. He has served most recently as the Music Department Chair at the Patel Conservatory and Chorus Master for Opera Tampa, both at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida. In these positions, Mr. Ruffer was the administrative leader of a large, multi-faceted music department that included children’s music, Suzuki, youth orchestra, rock school, vocal arts, guitar, jazz and private lessons. He managed a department of nearly 50 music teachers and administrators, a professional opera chorus of 50 singers, and created and oversaw a large departmental budget.
Ruffer holds B.M. and M.M. degrees from BGSU. |
|
Prof. Pelletier plays with Empire Brass
Andrew Pelletier, Associate Professor of Horn, recently performed with the internationally recognized Empire Brass. The performance was April 14, 2013 at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, MI. Dr. Pelletier was invited by the group’s founder and leader, Rolf Smedvig, to join the group for this performance.
Alum Richard Alleshouse inducted into Norwalk HS Hall of Fame
Richard Alleshouse, B.S.’63, has had the honor of being inducted into the 2012 Class of Norwalk High School Hall of Fame, academic division. Richard has been on the faculty of BGSU and UT and taught orchestra students for 33 years, most recently retiring as Director of Orchestras in Sylvania, Ohio, schools. He is in his 48th year as Principal Double Bass of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and his first season with the orchestra was 1961.
The heartbeat of new music
Pop, rock, country, alt country, classical, jazz … today’s music can usually be classified by genre. But what exactly is “contemporary” or “new” music?
Defying musical definition, contemporary music composers often write pieces for classical instruments but take advantage of the technological advancements of today, creating sounds that can both emotionally move and challenge audience perceptions of what music can and should be.
New music is also currently enjoying a resurgence driven by younger composers and younger audiences looking for something new, said Kurt Doles, director of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music (MACCM) at Bowling Green State University.
For more than 40 years, BGSU’s College of Musical Arts has been at the leading edge of new music. As home to MACCM, an award-winning organization devoted to the study and promotion of contemporary music and technology, the University has been an active and prolific contributor to the national and international new music scene.
Faculty and graduate students from the University’s renowned contemporary music program will be taking that musical style from the Midwest to the Big Apple when they perform on April 3 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City’s Greenwich Village, presenting a program of varied and challenging new music. The music club is a venue for both nontraditional music and interactive media, which often go together.
The New York performance is a continuation of BGSU’s tradition. The program will include works by composers such as Sebastian Currier, Iannis Xenakis, Jon Christopher Nelson, Leroux, Jonathan Harvey, BGSU faculty composer Christopher Dietz and BGSU alumna Jennifer Higdon, winner of Pulitzer and Grammy awards. The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m.
“The mix we’re bringing is a broad range of music that showcases the versatility of the genre and the strength of the performers,” Doles said. “We have a good mix of both accessible and challenging works.”
Creating and performing new music requires a distinct musical skill set – the technical and creative demands are beyond typical classical music. In many ways, it is tied to the indie-rock movement, and while there has always been a small but loyal audience, the people finding it now are a younger, thoughtful, educated crowd interested in something unique, Doles said.
BGSU has developed one of the top programs in the country. Along with MACMM, Bowling Green maintains a robust composition program, a vibrant new-music-focused Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music curriculum, and hosts the annual Bowling Green New Music Festival, now in its 34th year, which has brought some of the leading lights of the new music world to campus. The New York performance represents the beginning of a greater outreach for the program.
Tickets to the show are $10, and are available at Le Poisson Rouge’s box office website, http://www.lepoissonrouge.com. LPR is located at 158 Bleecker St., on the site of the former Village Gate nightclub.
For more information, contact the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at 419-372-2685.