Britsburgh! Pitt Grad Students, Faculty, and Alumni at Cambridge University

From August 12–14, current graduate students, faculty, and alumni from Pitt’s Department of Music descended on Churchill College, Cambridge for a symposium and festival titled Bridging Musicology and Composition: The Global Significance of Bartók’s Method. The symposium and festival were sponsored by the Centre for Intercultural Music at Churchill College which is directed by Akin Euba, Pitt’s Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music. Independent scholar Margit Hawellek and composer Philip Thompson (PhD ’02, composition and theory) co-directed the event on behalf of Professor Euba and CIMACC.

Professor Dr. László Vikárius, director of the Bartók Archive in Budapest, gave the keynote lecture outlining how Bartók’s ethnomusicological studies influenced his composition. During the paper sessions, ethnomusicologists and musicologists explored Bartók’s influence on emerging trends in intercultural music, while composers and performers addressed the challenges of creating and presenting music that draws on multiple cultural traditions. Paper sessions were led by Pitt graduate students Oyebade Dosunmu, Charles Lwanga, and Ayo Oluranti, alumni Sr. Marie Agatha Ozah (PhD ’08, ethnomusicology) and Philip Thompson, and Pitt violin instructor and orchestra director Roger Zahab.

IonSound Project’s Robert Frankenberry joined Zahab at the piano in a recital of music for violin and piano by Bartók, Eric Moe, J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Philip Thompson, Judith Weir and Zahab's own work. Frankenberry also performed as a vocalist in Akin Euba’s Three Yoruba Songs for baritone, piano, and iyaalu (talking drum) with Ayo Oluranti on talking drum and Chatham University’s Rauline Rovkah at the piano. Zahab and Charles Lwanga premiered Lwanga’s composition for violin and djimbe. Another recital featured performances of several of Ayo Oluranti’s vocal compositions by soprano Temitope Egbeyode-Ajayi.

During Akin Euba’s time as Mellon Professor, Pitt’s Department of Music has drawn a host of talented graduate students from around the globe who are interested in his concepts of intercultural musicology and composition. Many of these students, current and former, continue to pursue and expand on Euba’s ideas in their creative and scholarly work. The CIMACC symposium and festival provides a significant international platform through which to further explore and expand this substantial musical trend.