Department of Music graduate students Sara Gulgas and Jonathan received Outstanding Presenter awards at Pitt’s Grad Expo 2013. Gulgas and Shold, both studying musicology, will receive a $100.00 reimbursement for the purchase of materials or to defray travel/research costs.

Gulgas’ paper, titled “’Summertime’: Pluralism, Appropriation, and Signifying in Janis Joplin’s Lullaby,” explores the way Big Brother and the Holding Company covered the famous George Gershwin song. According to Gulgas, the band

“…pluralized Gershwin’s work by incorporating elements of baroque instrumental music, jazz, blues, and psychedelic rock.  Their cover version is an example of “musical signifying,” through references to J.S. Bach, the Tornadoes, and Billie Holiday, reflecting their pluralistic social philosophy.”

Jonathan Shold’s winning paper, titled “Why Listen to Animals? The Human-Animal Limit in Blended New Age Nature Recordings,” explores how blending nature recordings with instrumental music

“… risks mapping the concepts of nature and animal onto non-Western musical traditions.”

Congratulations to Sara and Jonathan for their accomplishments at this year’s Grad Expo.