Associate Professor Nicholas Mathew and lecturer, senior fellow and musical instrument collection curator Carla Shapreau have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grants for research and preservation of the Department of Music’s rare and historical instrument collection. Mathew’s grant of $6,000 will go to the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment, storage furniture, and supplies … Continue Reading »
2018 Bloch Lecturer: Martin Matalon
Prize-winning Argentine composer and musician Martin Matalon will visit UC Berkeley in late April and early May for a pair of lectures, rehearsals with the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and a production of Foxtrot Delirium featuring “The Oyster Princess” by Ernst Lubitsch with UC Berkeley’s adventurous ECO Ensemble. Born in Buenos Aires in 1958, Matalon … Continue Reading »
UC Berkeley Music to Honor MLK Jr. on 50th Anniversary of Death
The UC Berkeley Department of Music will honor the 50-year mark of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 2018 with performances by student carillonist Leslie Chan and the University Gospel Chorus directed by D. Mark Wilson. Just after 12PM Pacific time the event will start with the tolling of 5.25-ton Great Bear Bell … Continue Reading »
Olly Wilson, 1937-2018
Olly Wilson, an esteemed music professor and composer passed away peacefully on March 12, 2018 in Berkeley, CA. Wilson was a prominent member of the UC Berkeley Music Department faculty from 1970 to 2002. He was a renowned composer and an indefatigable advocate for diversity in the Arts. “Olly was very important for the department, … Continue Reading »
Graduate student announced Composer-in-Residence at Ensemble Échappé
UC Berkeley Department of Music Graduate Student Selim Göncü’s has been announced Composer-in-Residence at Ensemble Échappé from 2018-2020. The announcement was made in November at Ensemble Échappé where his piece Widerklang made its US premiere. Born in Istanbul (Turkey), Göncü began his musical career studying piano as a child. After a year of study with … Continue Reading »
Melford’s Peformance on “Handful of Keys” Released
UC Berkeley Department of Music Professor Myra Melford’s acclaimed performances with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is now available to download. Entitled A Handful of Keys – A Century of Jazz Piano, the concerts chronicled the progression of jazz piano over the last century and featured works from the likes of Jelly Roll Morton, … Continue Reading »
5 Questions: Jimmy López Bellido
Jimmy López Bellido Ph.D. ‘12 is currently serving as Composer-in-Residence for the Houston Symphony Orchestra. You studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Lima, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki prior to UC Berkeley. How were the conservatories different from your experience in Berkeley? All those places are incredibly different from each other. In … Continue Reading »
Department Welcomes Delia Casadei
Delia Casadei, a musicologist specializing in 20th-century Italy has joined The UC Berkeley Department of Music as an Assistant Professor. A native of Italy, Casadei completed her undergraduate and Master’s degree at King’s College London. She earned her Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania, where she was awarded a Hopkinson Graduate Research Fellowship, a Mellon Humanities … Continue Reading »
Carillon Marks Centennial in November; Looks Toward Future
On Friday, November 3 the carillon bells located in Sather Tower (the Campanile) will mark their 100th anniversary. Although originally cast in 1915 by the John Taylor Bell-foundry of Loughborough, England the bells and were not installed in Sather Tower until 1917 due to delays caused by WWI. The bells were first played for three … Continue Reading »
Campus Partners with CNMAT to Launch Certificate in Design Innovation
Studying across disciplines and challenging conventions is something that has always been encouraged at UC Berkeley. Students’ coursework regularly spans across academia; but today’s world requires the ability to integrate knowledge and theory from multiple disciplines. Thanks to the launch of UC Berkeley’s Certificate in Design Innovation (BCDI), students will earn credit for taking courses … Continue Reading »
UC Berkeley Alum Donates Rare Instruments to Department
When David E. Fastovsky was a graduate student studying Paleontology at UC Berkeley in the 1970’s he was presented with the opportunity to play numerous rare instruments, including a prized Vuillaume viola in the Music Department’s rare instrument collection. “I told my current string quartet about the Vuillaume, and they were astounded – asking, ‘Did … Continue Reading »