Harvard University Department of M usic MUSICnewsletter Vol. 18, No. 1 Winter 2018 Chase, Spalding Named Professors of the Practice Harvard University Department of Music 3 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138 617-495-2791 music.fas.harvard.edu INSIDE 3 Talking with Kate Pukinskis 4 Cuba-Harvard Connection 5 Braxton Shelley's Holy Power Foundation. courtesyPhoto MacDowell of Sound don’t believe that there’s a model for speranza Spalding joined the fac- 6 Faculty News the 2017 musician,” Professor of the ulty of the Department of Music 6 Graduate Student News Practice Claire Chase recently told an as Professor of the Practice, with “Iinformal gathering of undergraduate and gradu- Ean appointment that began in July 2017. 7 Alumni News ate students of the Music Department. “I believe Spalding will begin her teaching with two 10 Library News there are many modalities. I like that term because courses this spring: Songwriting Workshop 11 Undergraduate News modalities move. To be inspired by change is and Applied Music Activism. ideal in an organization, whether it be a band, Four-time Grammy award-winner, 11 David Dodman organization, school—it’s a way of being. Show jazz bassist, singer-songwriter, lyricist, 12 Bernstein's Young People's Concerts me an important artistic movement where artists humanitarian activist, and educator, Spald- didn’t struggle or come up with new modalities.” ing has five acclaimed solo albums and Chase, a MacArthur Fellow, co-founded the numerous music videos to her name. She is International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), recognized internationally for her virtuosic and with them has world-premiered well over singing and bass playing, her impassioned 100 works and helped create an audience for new improvisatory performances, and her cre- music. This fall she is teaching her first course ative capacities as both a composer and in the Department—Music 185, 21st-Century lyricist. Spalding’s artistic practice involves Ensemble. a unique synthesis of elements and aesthet- What’s exceptional to our time, believes ics from jazz, fusion, rock, funk, soul, R&B Chase, is our ability to be interconnected. And (rhythm and blues), and Brazilian musical this interconnectedness includes the audience. For traditions, as well as theatrical elements her, making music includes taking responsibility and lyrical storytelling. She is a creative art- Department Chair for building an audience for it. ist and performer simultaneously. Perhaps Suzannah Clark “There’s no such thing as someone who’s just her most iconic performances are those Director of Administration an artist,” says Chase. “We are advocates. Artists for which she was the laureate-invited Nancy Shafman have always been self-organized, produced and singer and bassist at the Nobel Peace Prize Newsletter Editor nourished each other’s work, and worked to create Ceremony and subsequent concert, when Lesley Bannatyne continued, p. 2 continued, p. 2 [email protected] Chase, continued Spalding, continued We are patterned, through training, to say there’s tradition and invention, and that President Barack Obama won the Peace they're in some way opposing. They are actually two wings of the same creature, and Prize in 2009. In addition to her Grammys, she has they constantly inform, nourish, balance and evolve one another. —Claire Chase been the recipient of such other awards as new spaces that didn’t exist before. Collectiv- a central cultural function of an orchestra, to the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding ity is not a new phenomenon.” provide a gathering place for many musics, Jazz Artist, Boston Music Award for Jazz This, she explains, is how ICE did it. many facets of a community. Artist of the Year, Smithsonian Ameri- “In 2000, at Oberlin, we students com- Three more Music 185 student concerts can Ingenuity Award for the Performing missioned 5 pieces and worked for a year on will follow The Great Learning, with students Arts, Soul Train Music Award for Best them. We were going to perform in a 750-seat performing, getting the word out, and work- Contemporary Jazz Artist/Group, Frida hall. Everyone said it was impossible to fill ing collaboratively with audiences. Chase Kahlo Award for Innovative Creativity, and those seats for new music. But why not? We acknowledges that this is more than simply ASCAP Foundation Jazz Vanguard Award. did it. It took a year. The hall was over-filled performing, but she encourages students to As a passionate educator, she taught bass and raucous, it was alive. The idea for ICE take it on. “When you’re in college,” she tells in private lessons, ensembles and classes at came from that initial concert.” the students, smiling, “Do stuff. You have so Berklee College of Music from 2005–2008 Chase and her Music 185 students also much time. I know you’re busy, but it’s a dif- immediately on the heels of graduating decided to answer the question of where their ferent kind of busy and you have a different from there with a Bachelor of Music. audience would come from directly. “It’s easy kind of time now.” to get stuck in the question of audience in the w abstract. We are going to learn by doing— Chase’s Density 2036 we’ll produce four concerts in four weeks.” First up was a performance of Cornelius On December 2, Chase performed a mara- Cardew’s The Great Learning at the Carpen- thon concert of works from Density 2036, her ter Center on November 2, where audiences 23-year project for which she is commission- were encouraged to play with the students of ing a new body of work for solo flute each 185, regardless of their experience or training. year until the 100th anniversary of Edgard “A performance doesn’t have to be a huge Varèse’s influential flute solo, Density 21.5, production,” Chase says. “Some will be short in the year 2036. She presented the full pro- happenings. All will have some element of grams from the first four years of the project. audience participation.” The commissions included works by Pauline Chase’s commitment to living compos- Oliveros, Vijay Iyer, 2017 MacArthur Fellow ers such as Cardew is deep: her Density 21.5 Tyshawn Sorey, and last year’s Pulitzer Prize- Claire Chase with students and members of the Har- project aims to create a new body of flute vard community collaborating on the development of winner Du Yun. This marathon gave Chase PAN, a new work for solo flute, electronics, and a large music over next 24 years. the opportunity to showcase the range of the ensemble of players. Chase and her co-creators Marcos “There should be no such thing as an project; Cal Performances at UC Berkeley Balter, Doug Fitch, and Levy Lorenzo, were in residence organization that promotes classical music sponsored the event. during the first week of fall term. that is not engaging with the music of today,” she says. “People think that is an extreme Alumni Appointments position but it’s only recently historically Monica Hershberger (PhD 17) has a one- Ian Power (PhD 15) was appointed As- that we’ve boxed ourselves so far into the year appointment at Central Connecticut State sistant Professor and Director of Integrated Arts corners of ‘museum repertoire.’ The oldest College, Sarah Politz (PhD 17) a one-year at the University of Baltimore. continuous performing arts ensemble in the appointment at Williams College, and Annie Julia Randel (PhD 05) is the new music US—the Handel and Haydn Society, right Searcy (PhD 16), a one-year appointment at chair and Associate Professor at the University of here in Boston —embraced both old and new University of Miami. Dayton. as symbiotic. Jose Luis Hurtado (PhD 09) was pro- Sabrina Shroeder (PhD 16) is currently “What would happen if major sym- moted to associate professor at University of New Assistant Professor of Composition at Simon phony orchestras did what the Brooklyn Mexico. Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Museum does every 1st Saturday and turned Luci Mok (PhD Nov. 14) began a tenure Arts in Vancouver, Canada. their halls and campuses into true commu- track position at the College of DuPage. Bettina Varwig (PhD 06) is now Univer- nity gathering spaces—the atriums, halls, Alexandra Monchick (PhD 11) received sity Lecturer in Music and Fellow of Emmanuel everywhere, and made it all free and open to tenure at California State University, Northridge. College at the University of Cambridge. the public? Imagine a city in which this was 2 Kate Pukinskis: Singer, Composer, Educator Latvian Folksongs” includes melodies from [by Michael Jackson] is an example, or, just her childhood: one is based on a lullaby she recently, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Almost heard every night, another on the song her Like Praying,’ where the text of the song family sang at birthdays. The challenge, she names the destroyed cities on Puerto Rico. says, is how to balance the original tune with He was giving voice to silenced places. The contemporary attributes. whole world relies on song to process, com- “Berio set folksongs. For me, those memorate, memorialize. were really great because he maintained the “In Music, Power, and the Collective character of the melodies, but all the things Voice I look at trauma and community surrounding the melodies brought them song, historically—how people have used into contemporary music. I always want to music to perform parts of their identity.” As an educator, it’s important to me to push the boundaries of what has been historically covered in music studies, to adjust what we do to reflect what we know now and are learning every day. keep what makes a folksong a folksong, and Pukinskis will teach this course in parallel at the same time I work to bring the music with Esperanza Spalding’s spring course, into the 21st century.” Applied Musical Activism.