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Composition and Theory

A Year of Success

This year’s graduation marked the end of a particularly fruitful year for the Department of Music graduating class, current students, and alumni.

 

David Gerard Matthews Recieves Artist Opportunity Fellowship

David Gerard Mathews (PhD 2011, comp/theory) was recently awarded an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council to study the onde Martenot in Montreal with ondist Geneviève Grenier. We asked David to tells us about how he became interested in this unique instrument and how his time of study will help him achieve his creative goals.

I’ve been interested in the ondes Martenot ever since I discovered Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony as a teenager. I kept encountering the instrument at different points after that: as undergrad, I became very interested in the music of Tristan Murail, who both plays and writes for the ondes Martenot, and Radiohead, who has also utilized it extensively.

Garcia Helps Launch New Music Festival

The HEAR/NOW Festival of New Sound will unfold over two days, on April 13 and 14, and many Department of Music alumni, students, and faculty will contribute. Federico Garcia (PhD 2006) has played a leading role in organizing the festival in partnership with the Kelly Strayhorn Theater and Alia Musica Pittsburgh, the composer performer collective Garcia helped found.

Fela Sowande Singers Perform Sacred Music by Nigerian Composers

The debut of the Fela Sowande Singers, led by music department alum Oyebade Dosunmu, will take place at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Tuesday night, April 10 at 8 p.m. The singers will perform a concert of sacred music by Nigerian composers.

Jonghee Kang's Music on PSO Student Composer Readings

Congratulations to Pitt graduate composer Jonghee Kang who has been selected as a participant in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's 8th Annual Student Reading. The reading session takes place on Saturday March 31st at Heinz Hall at 10 p.m. The PSO will read Kang's work Will You Take Me Home (When the Spring Wind Blows)? along with music by composers from Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne, and West Virginia Universities.

JACK Quartet Review

JACK Quartet performed a sold-out concert at the Warhol on Saturday night with a program that included the world premiere of music department faculty member Amy Williams' Richter Textures, a work written for JACK through a commission from the Fromm Foundation.

Eric Moe Wins Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award

Eric Moe is one of six winners of the 2012 Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award. The Pitt Chronicle reports that,

In his letter to Moe, the chancellor wrote, “With more than 80 works to your credit, your music is widely performed by the most accomplished soloists and ensembles in the U.S. and internationally. Your diverse output includes works for large orchestras, chamber music, solo instrumental, vocal and choral, electroacoustic, and multimedia compositions. Your colleagues laud your accomplishments, calling you ‘one of the most consistently impressive and compelling musicians working today’ and ‘one of the most accomplished and successful composers of his generation...

Success for Bomi Jang

PhD student Bomi Jang’s composition, Three Little Pieces for Piano, was performed as part of a solo piano recital by Pablo Amorós at The XVIII Ciclo de Music Contemporanea de Malaga on January, 16, 2012 (Malaga, Spain).

David Hidek's Multifaceted Career

David Hidek (BA 2008) may be the only person we know who has heard his orchestral music played by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and seen his hip hop video splashed over the jumbotron at PNC Park.

Media Roundup for Jazz Seminar and Concert, Feldman Symposium and Mini-festival, and Sweeney Todd

Music at Pitt is starting November off in a big way and local media have taken notice. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published previews of the Jazz Seminar and Concert and Sweeney Todd, while the City Paper conducted extensive interviews with Jan and Amy Williams in anticipation of the Morton Feldman Symposium and Mini-Festival.

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