Conjuring the future
An exciting new multimedia collaboration between Professor Bob Pritchard and Turning Point Ensemble imagines one possible future for humanity — and points to another for classical music performance WATCH: Synapses (6:15) An oboist wanders barefoot in near-darkness. He plays a string of searching notes, trails off, and begins again, elaborating the melody. He stops, peers. […]
Music as Medicine: An Interview with UBC’s Dr. Shimi Kang
Director of Orchestral Activities Dr. Jonathan Girard speaks with UBC’s Dr. Shimi Kang about the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health, and the healing power of making and listening to music.
International Women’s Day at the UBC School of Music
It’s International Women’s Day! Cheers to the amazing women in our School of Music community — thank you for being trailblazers in life and music and an inspiration to us all. Here are some recent highlights from our faculty and alumni. Dr. Hedy Law spearheads first Cantonese Music course in North America “I had the […]
High Notes | Fall 2020 Edition
High Notes | Fall 2020 FEATURES Finding Our New Normal School of Music faculty, students, and alumni explore new ways of making music — and staying upbeat — during the COVID-19 pandemic Dehcho: A Musical Journey Down the Mackenzie River Professor of Cello Eric Wilson teams up with UBC academics and Dené leaders on a […]
Taking inspiration from Beethoven—and the pandemic
Award-winning composition faculty Dr. Dorothy Chang and Dr. Jocelyn Morlock talk about writing music in dialogue with Beethoven, creating art in a pandemic year, and what it means to be a contemporary composer By Tze Liew This year promised to be an auspicious one for faculty composers Dr. Dorothy Chang and Dr. Jocelyn Morlock. As […]
Alumni Making Waves: Isolation Commissions, opera in virtual reality, and a cabinet position
In November, B.C. Member of Legislative Assembly Anne Kang (BMus’99) was named Minister of Advanced Education and Skill Training in Premier John Horgan’s new cabinet. She previously held the position of Minister of Citizens’ Services. Dr. Linda T. Kaastra (BMus’90, PhD’08) published Grounding the Analysis of Cognitive Processes in Music Performance: Distributed Cognition in Musical Activity […]
New Faces and Faculty Milestones
Congratulations to Professor of Music Theory Dr. John Roeder who recently celebrated 35 years at the UBC School of Music, and congratulations to Professor of Voice and Opera Nancy Hermiston and Professor of Musicology Dr. David Metzer, who both joined the quarter-century club this year! The School of Music welcomed two new full-time faculty members […]
Finding our new normal during the pandemic
School of Music faculty, students, and alumni explore new ways of making music — and staying upbeat — during the COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people all over the world to adjust to the challenging new normal of social distancing and self-isolation. For musicians, this can be especially tricky. Without our usual outlets […]
Catching Up With Our Students: Songs of Comfort, new commissions, an SSHRC grant, and a percussion fundraiser
Viola student Lucy Strauss was awarded an Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Explore grant over the summer for her telematic performance research, supervised by Prof. Marina Thibeault and Dr. Bob Pritchard. Her research explored themes of musical heritage and distance through improvised works for viola/mbira, dancer, and pre-recorded audio and video clips. Performed using […]
Research and Publications: New grants, Art Song pedagogy, Baroque composer Gregor Aichinger
Professor of Musicology Dr. Alexander Fisher edited a new edition of the Baroque composer Gregor Aichinger’s Lacrumae Divae Virginis et Joannis in Christum a cruce depositum (Tears of the Blessed Virgin and John at the Deposition of Christ from the Cross). A cycle of eight motets published in 1604, the composition takes the form of […]