Kristine Forney (Musicology) has a scholarly article entitled “Renaissance Piety and Ceremony: Antwerp’s Speellieden at Work” published in Instruments, Ensembles, and Repertory, 1300-1600: Essays in Honor of Keith Polk, edited by Timothy McGee and Stewart Carter (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2013).
Dr. Forney also has recently published a new edition of her textbook; The Enjoyment of Music, 2nd Essential Listening Edition (W. W. Norton) appeared in March 2013.
Alumni Nic Chafee & Justin Padilla, and bassist Chelsea Stevens will be teaching a “Summer Session @ The Woodshed.” The camp gives middle school and high school students an opportunity to become a “studio musician” for a week.
This workshop focuses on the styles prevalent in the modern recording studio, including film music, pop/rock, contemporary jazz and world music. Emphasis is placed upon the particular demands of the recording studio, including sightreading, playing to click or picture, multitracking, overdubbing and idiomatic improvisation.
This year, they are adding a second week of curriculum that is focused on jazz and improvisation. For further info, follow this link.
Alumnus James Yoshizawa will be a guest artist at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. James will teach percussion classes, play for dance classes, and perform with outstanding players in concerts every night in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
Alumnus Valerio Morucci (Musicology MA 2011) won the prestigious Ingolf Dahl competition for the outstanding paper by a graduate student at the joint meeting of the Pacific Southwest and Northern California American Musicological Society this weekend at UCLA.
Valerio’s paper entitled, “Secular Patronage at the Orsini Court: Music, Poetry, and the Rhetoric of Early Monody,” presented groundbreaking evidence that will change our understanding of the evolution of opera in the late 15th century. He is currently a PhD student at UC Davis.
Alumnus Ryan Brown is the inaugural recipient of the Hoefer Prize, named for former San Francisco Conservatory of Music Trustee Jacqueline Stanhope Hoefer. The prize is a commission to write a new work for the BluePrint New Music Ensemble. The award also covers a week-long residency of rehearsals, seminars, and master classes in preparation for the work’s premiere performance next spring. At that time the work will also be recorded.
Alumnus David Ortega (MM Composition 1995) completed his Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2004. David is a critically acclaimed composer and sound designer with 17 years of experience in the video game industry. David’s music and sound can be heard on over 100 million sold products ranging from video games, television, mobile devices, and toys. David most recently composed the theme song and all in-game music for Disney’s #1 app store games “Where’s My Water” and “Where’s My Perry” for iOS and Android.
He also recently co-authored a paper with Dr. David Pincus, Associate Professor of Psychology at Chapman University, entitled “Orbital decomposition for the comparison of multiple categorical time-series.” in Stephen J. Guastello and Robert Gregson (Eds.), “Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences: Real Data.” Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press/Taylor and Francis.
Alumni Jon Bradley and Nic Chafee played in the backup band for Wu Tang Clan at Coachella. They performed many tunes from their classic album (this is its 20th anniversary) “Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” in front of a crowd of 90,000.
This past weekend, alumnus Chris Wabich was guest artist with the university of Montana percussion ensemble and steel band playing the music of the band “gong” and premiering his own panorama tune “Tarzan and Jane.” He also presented a clinic with Brad Dutz at the CA day of percussion in Fresno.
A video clip of their performance at the Day of Percussion is here.
Nathan Stark wil be performing the role of Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni at Madison Opera. MadOpera interviewed him, asking him 10 questions. Some of the highlights are below.
3. A live music performance I’ve attended that I will never forget is:
It has to be the first professional opera I ever saw - La Traviata at LA Opera. I was spellbound afterward. I knew I wanted to have a career in opera after that experience.
Alumna Marina (Harris) Hirsch sang the soprano solos in the Brahms’ Requiem with the Marin Symphony April 14 and 16th. Marina is in her second year as an Adler Fellow after completing the Merola Program and the San Francisco Opera.