FACULTY NEWS

Atar Arad’s piece Tikvah for Viola Solo, which was commissioned by the Bayericher Rundfunk for the 2008 Munich International Competition, was premiered this September at the competition by all five semi-finalists to a critical acclaim. "In writing Tikvah (“hope” in Hebrew) for the 2008 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, I had in mind the tragic events that took place in this city during the 1972 Olympics,” said Arad. “Along with the fallen athletes, I want to dedicate this music to ALL innocent victims of senseless violence, regardless of their ethnicity or beliefs. I also want to express hope for a better world—a world in which conflicts are resolved in peace, dignity, and respect for human lives".

Patrice Madura Ward-Steinman’s major research study “Vocal Improvisation and Creative Thinking by Australian and American University Jazz Singers: A Factor Analytic Study” was just released in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Volume 56, No. 1 (Spring 2008). Madura investigated factors underlying vocal improvisation achievement and relationships with singers’ musical backgrounds. Participants were 102 college students in Australia and the U.S. who performed three jazz improvisations and one free improvisation, and were rated by three judges on rhythmic, tonal, and creative thinking criteria. She found: (a) a significant difference between jazz and free improvisation achievement, (b) extensive jazz study and listening were significantly correlated with vocal improvisation achievement, (c) extensive classical voice lessons were negatively correlated with free improvisation achievement, (d) three factors were found to underlie jazz improvisation: jazz syntax, vocal creativity, and tonal musicianship, and (e) three factors were found to underlie free improvisation: musical syntax and vocable/syllable creativity.

John Poole is working with IU music informatics professor Chris Raphael on a proposal titled "Real-Time Planning of a Conductable Orchestra,” which has received a three-year, $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Click here for more.

Mimi Zweig worked with Raphael on the Feb. 2007 Informatics Philharmonic project. Click here for more.

STUDENT NEWS

Pianist Alexandra Gorlin-Crenshaw, student of Edmund Battersby and Jean-Louis Haguenauer, received a Fulbright-Lusk Grant, a Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, and an Alfred Cortot Ecole Normale de Musique Award to study in Paris during the academic year 2008-2009. She will study with David Lively and Alain Planes, focusing especially on modern and contemporary French music.

Pianist Rod Clemmons is now president and CEO of Verdict Entertainment in New York City. He's also the producer of Hangin' Out With My Baby, a new CD that will be given out to new mothers at hospitals across the nation as part of "New Baby, New Music," a joint promotion with a major infant product manufacturer (the company will be made public when the campaign launches). Click here for more.

Sean Shepherd, BM'01, PD'02, spent Spring 2008 as the Deutsche Bank Fellow in Music at the American Academy in Berlin. In May, the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic presented his music in an evening-length concert of his chamber works, and, in June, a new work, Seagulls on High, was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival. In 2009, the National Symphony will include Metamorphoses, with Brad Lubman conducting, on its New Music Week festival, and Oliver Knussen premieres a new work with the Cleveland Orchestra.