CCM Alumnus Returns for World Premiere concert:nova Performances

Michael Ippolito (BM Composition, 2003) returns to Cincinnati this month for a collaboration with concert:nova, an innovative chamber music collaboration featuring members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble will present the world premiere of a new work by Ippolito on “Cello+,” a concert featuring two cellists and their respective romantic partners, plus a few other friends.

Ippolito is currently an assistant professor of composition at Texas State University. His works have been performed by the Chicago Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony and many more. He has received awards from both the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he earned fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival and the Copland House’s Cultivate program. In addition to his studies at CCM with emeritus faculty member Joel Hoffman and current CCM professor Michael Fiday, Ippolito studied with John Corigliano at the Juilliard School.

The two musical couples featured on the program are violinist Stefani Matsuo and cellist Hiro Matsuo, with CCM faculty clarinetist Ixi Chen and her husband, cellist Ted Nelson. Also featured are concert:nova artistic directors Henrick Heide, flutist, and Michael Culligan, percussion.

“Cello+” will be presented at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2019 at Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202. Tickets range from $25 to $30 and can be purchased via the concert:nova website.

concert:nova is a boundary-pushing ensemble that challenges the audience to engage with the music in various ways. It’s mission is to transform hearts, minds and communities through thought-provoking musical exploration. The musicians collaborate with a cavalcade of interdisciplinary artists from all over the city, region and globe in a diverse array of surprising venues to create provocative, intimate, interactive, and unforgettable experiences that remove the barrier between the artists and the audience.

Learn more about concert:nova at concertnova.com.

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Story by CCM graduate student Alexandra Doyle

Alumni Spotlight: Brian Katona, MM Choral Conducting 2002

Story by CCM Associate Director of Alumni Relations Jamie Muenzer. Originally published online at alumni.uc.edu/ccm/katona.

Choose a college. Get through courses, tests and performances. Graduate and never look back. Right?

Well, we hope not.

And we are especially fortunate that Brian Katona (MM Choral Conducting, 2002) keeps choosing to look back. “I worked with conducting alumni while I was in school, had access to all kinds of professors, and wasn’t restricted to only doing one thing,” Brian says. “The College-Conservatory of Music was an incredible resource to both learn and play.” And as an Emmy Award-winning documentary film score composer, Brian felt it was important to eventually come “home” and pay it forward.

Similar to many students going into the creative or performing arts, Brian started his Master’s at CCM somewhat unsure of his ultimate path. Documentary filmmaking wasn’t even on his radar. But as a true testament to the well-rounded nature of CCM’s programs, there was an incredible amount of crossover with many other departments — Musical Theatre, Dance, Acting, Opera — and he found himself conducting many of the shows in Corbett Auditorium while expanding his own personal preference and repertoire.

And thanks to a master class he attended, Brian caught the bug for documentary film scoring. Soon after the workshop, he traveled to the renowned Aspen Music Festival for The Susan and Ford Schumann Composition Film Score program, and the field has been his driving passion ever since. Thinking back on this time, he says the faculty at CCM were especially encouraging, helping to develop both his composing and conducting craft.

CCM to Film: Coming Full Circle
Having worked on award-winning films ranging from The Town that Disappeared Overnight to The Builder, Brian says film scoring is about creating a connection with the imagery through sound. “As a film composer, you’re trying to capture moments through music, sometimes in scenes with very little dialogue. It’s a challenge, but you become so drawn to the story.”

Spending most of his time composing in his home studio in Newtown, Pennsylvania, Brian works with footage provided by the production companies and uses both computer-based and live instruments to create the musical score. He says each project is a brand new adventure and challenge. When he approached CCM to teach a master class, he hoped to share some of the same trials and joys of film scoring that he’s encountered. “And selfishly, it’s so nice to connect with younger composers,” he adds. “By sharing their thoughts and fresh creative ideas they often teach me as much as I teach them.

After connecting with Professor of Commercial Music Production professor Tom Haines and learning of his advanced Film Scoring class, Brian saw the perfect match. And for seniors pursuing their Bachelor of Music in Commercial Music Production, it was the perfect opportunity. Students would work with Brian over the course of a three-session Skype master class to develop their own scores for a documentary film. The catch: It was a film Brian had already worked on, stripped of the music.

“It was up to the students to create their own interpretation of the mood the film should take on,” Brian says. “By the third session, they were presenting to me and I was providing feedback on some really amazing scores. The students demonstrated a wide variety of musical styles ranging from the traditional classical approach to scores that had elements of jazz and pop. Regardless of style, each score fit very well and gave a unique and powerful emotional subtext to the film.” The workshop has gone so well that Brian says there might be one more session in the works.

If Brian’s career path is any indication, all it takes is one workshop or master class to alter the trajectory for the rest of your life. His hope for students? Find that spark.

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Brian Katona is an Emmy® Award-winning composer, orchestrator, arranger, and conductor. Recent film/television credits: The Builder (Emmy Winner for best musical composition), A Hope For Hartly (Best Melodic Theme, Garden State Film Festival), PEI Kids: Generation Change (Film: Broader Vision Award, Garden State Film Festival), The Town That Disappeared Overnight (Film: Two time Emmy Winner, Garden State Film Festival Winner), Biserici De Lemn Din Romania (SEEFest Official Selection), I Throw Rocks (Film: Maumee Film Festival Winner), My Spirited Sister (Sitcom). Theater credits: Jesse James: Dead or Alive. Commercial recordings: The Voice of Christmas: “The Night Before Christmas,” A Christmas Journey: “I Wonder What I’ll Get for Christmas.” Published concert music (Imagine Music): Anthem for the Patriots, Space Battle, Space Fantasy, When I Hear Music, An Irish Blessing.

Soundcloud: @emlaproductions
Homepage: www.facebook.com/emlaproductions/

CCM’s Thinking About Music Lecture Series Resumes on Friday, Jan. 26

Each semester, CCM welcomes distinguished experts for a series of free musical discussions and lectures. This spring, the Thinking About Music lecture series will present four free public talks, beginning with a presentation on cross-disciplinary  approaches to music and mobility by Harvard University Professor of Musicology Kate van Orden this Friday, Jan. 26.

Sponsored by the Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Fund of the Cambridge Charitable Foundation, these music theory and history discussions feature diverse topics presented by distinguished experts from all over the United States and are designed to engage participants’ imaginations and to consider music in new ways.

This semester’s lecturers also include Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music Professor Douglas Shadle (Feb. 9), Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Professor Kyle Adams (March 23) and Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University Professor Datta Ram Purohit (March 30).

Since its inception in 1997, the Thinking About Music Series has presented nearly 130 lectures and one symposium by guests from a number of different colleges, universities, schools of music, foundations, institutes, museums and publications.

The subjects of the lectures have covered historical musicology, music theory and ethnomusicology, along with the ancillary fields of organology, dance, music business and law, cognitive psychology, and the philosophy, theology and sociology of music.
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SPRING 2018 JOSEPH AND FRANCES JONES POETKER THINKING ABOUT MUSIC LECTURE SERIES

2:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
SONGS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES: CROSS-DISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO MUSIC AND MOBILITY
Kate van Orden, Harvard University
Location: Baur Room
Admission: FREE
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2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
FINDING FLORENCE PRICE: ON ARCHIVES AND SPECTRAL LEGACIES
Douglas Shadle, Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University
Location: Baur Room
Admission: FREE
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CANCELLED 2:30 p.m. Friday, March 2
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
ANTHOLOGIZING ROCK AND ROLL: RHINO RECORDS AND THE REPACKAGING OF ROCK HISTORY
Daniel Goldmark, Case Western Reserve University
Location: Baur Room
Admission: FREE
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2:30 p.m. Friday, March 23
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
HOW DID CHROMATICISM BECOME AN ‘-ISM’?
Kyle Adams, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Exploring theories of chromaticism from classical antiquity through the early eighteenth century.
Location: Baur Room
Admission: FREE
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2:30 p.m. Friday, March 30
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
FOLK MUSICIANS AND THE TRADITIONAL THEATER OF UTTARAKHAND, INDIA
Datta Ram Purohit, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University
Location: Baur Room
Admission: FREE
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Event Information
Unless otherwise indicated, all Thinking About Music lectures take place in the Baur Room of CCM’s Corbett Center for the Performing Arts, which is located on the campus of the University of Cincinnati.

These events are free and open to the public. All event dates and programs are subject to change. Visit ccm.uc.edu for the most current event information.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

CCM’s Thinking About Music Series is sponsored by the Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Fund of the Cambridge Charitable Foundation, Ritter & Randolph, LLC, Corporate Counsel; along with support from Interim Dean mcclung’s Office, the Graduate Student Association and the Division of Composition, Musicology and Theory at CCM.

Professor Douglas Knehans’ New Choral Music Album Receives Rave Reviews

Lux Dei features new works for choir composed by CCM Norman Dinerstein Professor of Composition Scholar Douglas Knehans and sung by the CCM Chorale, under the direction of CCM Professor Brett Scott. Recently released by ABLAZE Records, the new album has garnered praise in multiple music reviews for its accessibility and beauty. 

Knehans’ “Lux Dei” choral music album is available for purchase through ABLAZE Records.

“I’ve always admired composers who can write music that sounds modern but feels ancient,” wrote Jean-Yves Duperron in a review of Lux Dei published by the Classical Music Sentinel. “The contemporary style and technique make it seem new, different and fresh, while the general character of the writing allows for an overall outlook that takes you back through the centuries to the days of early music.”

The review applauds Knehans’ music for being “well rooted and accessible and always seems to hit an emotional nerve.” Duperron concludes that the new album “should be of great appeal to anyone interested in new choral music.”

Fanfare Magazine published Colin Clarke’s glowing review of Lux Dei in the March/April edition of the magazine. The review spotlights the CCM Chorale for its “rich, sonorous blend” in the “beautifully balanced recording.”

Clarke praises each of the album’s six stellar works, which includes Knehans’ Three Psalms — a prizewinner at the First International Sacred Choral Music Festival in the Czech Republic. Lux Dei also showcases Knehans’ Panis Angelicus, Epicideum Hathumode, Two Looks at Silence and Symbolum Apostolorum. Organist Christina Haan joins the CCM Chorale on Missa brevis, the album’s only accompanied piece.

“This is a radiant disc of music by a composer who is blessed with a tremendous imagination and who clearly has great affinity with writing for choir,” Clarke wrote. “There is a huge amount of beauty to be found here. Put simply, Knehans locates and amplifies the spiritual within the religious.”

Click to read the full reviews by Classical Music Sentinel and Fanfare Magazine.

Douglas Knehans. Photo by Tina Gutierrez.

About Douglas Knehans
Douglas Knehans is the Norman Dinerstein Professor of Composition Scholar at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has received awards from the American Music Center, the NEA, the Australia Council Performing Arts Board, Yale University, the MacDowell Colony, Opera Australia, The Cannes Film Festival, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The National Symphony Orchestra, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Meet the Composer and a host of others.

His music has been praised by the Washington Post as “beautiful,” by the Miami Herald as “wildly inventive,” by the Australian as “brilliantly catchy and eerily bright” and by Fanfare Magazine as “…effective…incisive… and hauntingly beautiful.”

Knehans’ music is available on ERM Media, Crystal Records, Move Records, New World Records and ABLAZE Records. His full biography is available online at douglasknehans.com.

For more information on CCM’s Division of Composition, Musicology and Theory visit ccm.uc.edu/music/cmt.

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Story by CCM graduate assistant Charlotte Kies

CCM Showcases the Music of Composer-in-Residence Tom Cipullo on April 12

CCM’s Guest Artist Series showcases the music of award-winning composer Tom Cipullo with a free concert performance on Wednesday, April 12, in the Robert J. Werner Recital Hall.

Described by Opera News as “a shrewd dramaturge as well as a compelling composer,” Cipullo will spend three days in residence at CCM, coaching singers, pianists and instrumentalists from April 10-12, 2017.

Cipullo’s residency will culminate in a public performance featuring 26 of CCM’s stars-of-tomorrow. The concert’s program includes Cipullo’s Insomnia for vocal quartet and piano; The Husbands for soprano, baritone and piano; Late Summer for soprano and piano and the Entr’acte from Glory Denied for cello and piano, as well as other works. View full concert repertoire online here. 

Tom Cipullo at the Liguria Study Center in Bogliasco, Italy. Photo by Hedwig Brouckaert.

About Tom Cipullo
Hailed by the American Academy of Art and Letters for music of “inexhaustible imagination, wit, expressive range and originality,” composer Tom Cipullo is the winner of the 2016 Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize from SUNY/Potsdam. He is also the recipient of a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2013 Sylvia Goldstein Award from Copland House and the 2013 Arts & Letters Award from the American Academy.

Cipullo has received commissions from dozens of performing ensembles and singers, and he has received fellowships and awards from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Liguria Study Center (Italy), the Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain) and the Oberpfaelzer Kuenstlerhaus (Bavaria).

The New York Times has called his music “intriguing and unconventional,” and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has called him “an expert in writing for the voice.” Cipullo’s music is published by Oxford University Press and Classical Vocal Reprints and recorded on the Naxos, Albany, CRI, PGM, MSR, GPR, Centaur and Capstone labels.

Cipullo has composed orchestral works, solo piano pieces and a vast quantity of vocal music, including over 200 songs and several vocal chamber works. His song cycle Of a Certain Age won the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Art Song Award in 2008. Cipullo’s first opera, Glory Denied, has enjoyed numerous productions, and the Fort Worth Opera recording on Albany Records was cited by Opera News as among the best of 2014. Reviewers have hailed the work as “terrifically powerful… superbly written” (Fanfare), praising its “luminous score (Washington Post),” and noting “the dramatic tension was relentless (Opera News).” Cipullo’s second opera, After Life (libretto by David Mason), has been called “a finely wrought exploration of the role of art in times of grave crisis (Washington Post)” and “unfailingly inventive (Opera News).” Recorded on the Naxos label, After Life is the winner of the 2017 the Domenick Argento Chamber Opera Composition prize from the National Opera Association.

Cipullo received his Master’s degree in composition from Boston University and his B.S. from Hofstra University, Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors in music.

Performance Time
8 p.m. Wednesday, April 12

Location
Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Admission
Admission to this performance is FREE. Reservations are not required.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the campus of the University of Cincinnati. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

CCM gratefully acknowledges the Philippe Fund for their generous support of Mr. Cipullo’s residency.

Professor Wins Outstanding Publication Award from Society for Music Theory

The Society for Music Theory Publications awarded CCM Associate Professor of Music Theory Catherine Losada the 2017 Outstanding Publication Award for an article that casts light on the often obscure workings of music by French composer Pierre Boulez. Her article titled “Complex Multiplication, Structure, and Process: Harmony and Form in Boulez’s Structures II” was published in Music Theory Spectrum.

“A key to comprehending the musical products of recent times involves confronting the elusive issue of their structure,” Losada said.

Catherine Losada will travel with other CCM faculty members and students to present research at the European Music Analysis Conference in June.

Her research focuses on Boulez’s music and compositional techniques from 1955 to 1970, specifically addressing his innovative approach to musical structure. The article highlights aspects of structural organization that have been overlooked in Boulez’s music and suggests ways of formally defining aspects of his style.

“There is an urgent need for detailed study of Boulez’s works from the 1950s through the 1960s to draw a more comprehensive picture of the underlying structural features of his musical language,” Losada said. “The complexity of the techniques and purposefully oblique references in his writings have obscured the music’s structural basis and inhibited serious analytical inquiry.”

In her article, Losada uses Boulez’s sketches for his music to show how pitch-class multiplication relates to the larger structures of his works, including Structures II. She also discusses this technique in the context of Boulez’s artistic style and development.

The fall 2017 issue of the Journal of Music Theory will include a second article on Boulez by Losada titled “Between Freedom and Control: Composing Out, Compositional Process and Structure in the Music of Boulez.” The publication will also include an article by CCM Assistant Professor of Music Theory Christopher Segall titled “Alfred Schnittke’s Triadic Practice.”

Losada and Segall will present their research at the European Music Analysis Conference in June. They will travel with CCM Adjunct Professor Matteo Magarotto and three music theory students (William Ayers, Gui-Hwan Lee and Soo Hyun Jeong), who will also present research at the conference. The international conference is a key evet in the field of music analysis and brings together researchers and other eminent academics from around the world.

Follow the Village News to read our upcoming story on CCM faculty and students as they prepare for the European Music Analysis Conference.

Learn more about CCM’s Division of Composition, Musicology and Theory online at ccm.uc.edu/music/cmt.

Composition Professor Writes New Work for Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s theme for its One City, One Symphony initiative is personal for the musicians involved — including Michael Fiday, associate professor of composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Focusing on the theme of “home,” the One City, One Symphony initiative is the CSO’s community-wide project that aims to unite people through music. The initiative’s Thanksgiving weekend concert features the world premiere of Fiday’s CSO-commissioned symphony alongside works from American composers Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and John Williams at 8 p.m. Nov. 25 and 26 at the Taft Theatre.

“Cincinnati has been my cultural home base for 14 years,” says Fiday, who began teaching at CCM in 2004. “In that time I’ve become close friends, acquaintances and colleagues with a good number of CSO musicians and gotten to know their sound quite well.”

CCM Professor Michael Fiday teaching a composition student. Photo by Andrew Higley.

Fiday, whose recent work with the CSO was featured in Movers and Makers magazine, chose to incorporate the “home” connection in symbolic ways. The piece’s title, Three for One, is an allusion to the One City, One Symphony initiative and how Fiday approached the orchestra.

There aren’t many solos in Three for One. Fiday treated the orchestra as if it were “a collective body moving together towards a common goal.”

He began working to create his 15-minute piece with the CSO in January 2016. Three for One isn’t a symphony in the traditional sense, Fiday says. He describes it as a three-movement work with a fast-slow-fast format that is similar to the emotional arc of a full-length symphony.

The three movements each focus on a family of instruments — woodwinds in the first movement, strings in the second and brass in the third. The other instruments join the fray to reinforce the sound as the music builds with the entire orchestra playing as one.

Fiday titled the first movement “starting over” and describes it as “brief, punchy and puckish.” The second movement, “presence/absence” is a slow elegy dedicated to composer Richard Toensing, a former teacher, mentor and friend of Fiday’s who passed away two years ago. “Twitter,” the final movement, is fast and split into two halves. Fiday describes the first half as “gossamer and transparent” and the second half as “fairly blunt and aggressive.”

The CCM-based composer brings his own unique style to the One City, One Symphony concert’s all-American program but also celebrates the American roots nested within the musical styles of all of the composers.

“I think it’s impossible for me, or any other American composer for that matter, to not have American elements in our work,” he says. “Sometimes we don’t even notice them because they’re bred so deeply in our bones.”

Fiday favors using perfect fifth harmonies, which create that great “open” sound that is instantly recognizable as American-bred. His love of jazz found its way into Three for One as well. Some of the “crunchier” harmonies in the piece harken back to legendary jazz artists Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk, Fiday says.

“The rhythmic profile, which is a very important element of almost all of my music, stems from my love for both jazz and popular music — music that is propulsive and energetic, yet also unpredictable.”

Although Fiday has been commissioned to write compositions for multiple organizations, including the National Flute Association and the American Composers Orchestra, Three for One is his first commission for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

“I’m very proud of the CSO for their increased interest in commissioning new music; a situation I think has improved greatly in the time I’ve been in Cincinnati, particularly during the past four or five years,” he says.

Fiday not only works to create his own new music but also fosters that creativity within his students. CCM has one of the nation’s top 10 music composition programs, according to the US News & World Report. Student composers enjoy opportunities to work with CCM ensembles and community organizations for hearings and performances.

Engaging one of CCM’s own composers exemplifies One City, One Symphony’s “home” theme, uniting the community through locally-made music. According to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, “By connecting music the CSO performs to themes relevant in our everyday lives, One City, One Symphony inspires us, provokes our thinking, and celebrates our shared humanity.”

For more information about the concert, visit www.cincinnatisymphony.org or call the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at 513-621-1919.

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Story by CCM graduate student Charlotte Kies

Tracing Tangueros: Alumna Co-Authors First English Study on Argentine Tango Music

During her first trip to Argentina over the holidays in 2000 Kristin Wendland (MM Composition, 1982) began exploring the complex relationship between dance and music in the Argentine tango. The interest she developed in the subject during that brief trip has blossomed into what can surely be called expertise. Wendland and her co-author, Kacey Link, just completed the first English-language foundational study on the tango, called Tracing Tangueros: Argentine Tango Instrumental Music.

Argentine Tango Ensemble Concert at Schwartz Center. Photo provided by Kristin Wendland.

After that initial trip to Argentina, Wendland began the research alone and returned to Buenos Aires for seven months in 2005 as a Fulbright Scholar.

“In that time, I absorbed many elements of Argentine culture, especially the music, through attending countless concerts and getting to know tango musicians,” Wendland said.

Those tango musicians are the tangueros mentioned in the title. Anyone with an expertise in tango, especially a tango musician or dancer, is a tanguero, or aficionado. After essentially becoming a tanguero herself, Wendland shared her knowledge in an article published in the College Music Symposium in 2007 titled “The Allure of Tango: Grafting Traditional Performance Practice and Style onto Art-Tangos.”

That same year, Wendland was invited to direct the College Music Society’s Tango Institute, where she met Kacey Link. They began to work together at the conference and eventually developed their ideas on tango into a book proposal. It took more than four years for that proposal to materialize into Tracing Tangueros, which was published by Oxford University Press in March.

Wendland has balanced the role of researcher and author while teaching as a senior lecturer at Emory University in Atlanta, where she coaches the Emory Tango Ensemble and teaches courses in Argentine tango, among other subjects.

Tracing Tangueros covers not only how to perform and interpret tangos authentically but also the genre’s historical development and guidelines to composing or arranging tangos. The book is supplemented by an extensive companion website, which includes musical recordings and videos that demonstrate tango performance practices. It is being sold in hardcover and ebook editions through the Oxford University Press.

“Kacey and I saw a need to write this book, since many musicians outside of Argentina are interested in playing tango music but really don’t know how to interpret it stylistically,” Wendland said.

“We hope it will give practicing musicians and scholars a solid stylistic basis to study, play, arrange and compose the music, while giving a more general reader an understanding of its history. We also hope it will lay the groundwork for future tango studies.”
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Story by CCM graduate student Alexandra Doyle

CCM Welcomes Pultizer Prize-Winning Composer Julia Wolfe for Residency in March of 2016

Composer Julia Wolfe. Photo by Peter Serling.

CCM welcomes 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe for a two-day residency on March 10 and 11, 2016. During her stay in Cincinnati, Wolfe will work with students in CCM’s Composition Department during their Composition Symposium.

“I’ve known Julia Wolfe since the early 1990s, when we both had residencies in Amsterdam,” explains CCM Professor of Composition Michael Fiday. “It’s such a thrill to be hosting her as a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer at CCM all these years later.”

In addition to her time with CCM’s rising artists, Wolfe will also attend the CCM Philharmonia’s annual “American Voices” concert at 8 p.m. on March 11, where Director of Orchestral Studies Mark Gibson will lead the ensemble in a performance of Wolfe’s 2004 work Cruel Sister.

A monumental half-hour piece inspired by an old English tale of the same name, Cruel Sister will be performed along with the world premiere of a new symphony by CCM Norman Dinerstein Professor of Composition Scholar Douglas Knehans and a concerto performance of Jennifer Hidgon’s Soprano Sax Concerto featuring CCM Faculty Artist and Performance Studies Division Head James Bunte.

“Julia’s music is both sensitive and visceral, and Cruel Sister is a powerful and bracing piece,” says Fiday. “We’re excited she’ll be here to spend time with our performers and our composition students. Can’t wait!”

Wolfe recently won the Pulitzer Prize for her concert-length oratorio Anthracite Fields, which chronicles the lives and hardships of miners in Pennsylvania’s coalfields. She has also regularly collaborated with and written for some of the world’s most recognized ensembles including the Kronos String Quartet, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Orchestra. She is also the co-founder of Bang on a Can, a New York-based community whose mission is to create and perform new music.

Later on this March, the Kronos Quartet and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will perform Wolfe’s My Beautiful Scream as part of this year’s MusicNOW Festival.

Learn more about Julia Wolfe by visiting juliawolfemusic.com.

CCM Students Simon Barrad, Natalie Douglass and Julia Seeholzer Receive Fulbright Grants

We are overjoyed to report that three of the University of Cincinnati’s five Fulbright Grant Recipients for 2014-15 are CCM students!

Congratulations to Simon Barrad, Natalie Douglass and Julia Seeholzer for this tremendous honor!

Simon Barrad is a recipient of the 2015-16 Fulbright Arts Grant to Finland. Barrad is musical arts masters candidate in CCM’s voice studies program. While in Finland, he will study, teach, and perform at the Metropolia University and Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and plans to use Finnish and American song as a bridge for cultural exchange. Barrad was inspired to apply for the Fulbright to Finland because of his interest in Finnish art song and because his grandfather’s family lives there. While a student at UC, Barrad has been a soloist at the Cincinnati Opera, sang the title role in Owen Wingrave for CCM Mainstage Opera, and has performed in various recitals and religious services. This week, he will be performing as Guglielmo in CCM’s Mainstage Production of Così fan tutte! Barrad earned a BM in Vocal Performance from CSU Long Beach. After completing his Fulbright grant, Barrad plans to return to the US to continue gaining performance experience.

Natalie Douglass is a recipient of the 2015-16 Fulbright Research Grant to Hungary. Douglass will graduate with her doctorate in Horn Performance from CCM this May. While in Hungary, Douglass will earn her Kodály Music Pedagogy diploma at the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, which she plans to use as postdoctoral research for her dissertation topic, aural teaching techniques for the French horn. While a student at UC, Douglass performed in Oman, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland and was the opening lecture at the International Horn Society Symposium in London. Douglass earned a MM in French Horn Performance and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After completing her Fulbright grant, Douglass plans to use Kodály methods to improve the way brass performance is taught to young performers.

Julia Seeholzer is a recipient of the 2015-16 Fulbright Arts Grant to Poland. Seeholzer is a masters candidate in CCM’s composition program. While in Poland, Julia will study at the Fryderyk Chopin University and plans to compose a cantata for the Musica Sacra choir. Julia was inspired to travel to Poland because of the country’s traditional and modern choral repertoire, which informs her own work. While a student at UC, Seeholzer served as the Secretary of the Society of Composers Club, Director of the Huls’ Angels Chamber Choir, Student Coordinator for the Midwest Composer Symposium, and as a mentor to undergraduate composition students.  Seeholzer earned a B.M. in Music Composition from Berklee College of Music. After completing her Fulbright grant, Seeholzer plans to return to the US to pursue a DMA.

Stay tuned to The Village News to learn even more about Barrad, Douglass and Seeholzer!

CCM students interested in applying for Fulbright grants or other similarly prestigious scholarships and awards can find resources and assistance for doing so in UC’s Office of Nationally Competitive Awards.

Get to know all of UC’s 2014-15 Fulbright Award Recipients by visiting uc.edu/nca/award-winners.