Playlist: The Natural World
Our Playlist column features music curated by our faculty, students, and staff and focusing on an interesting idea or theme. In this column, School of Music staff member Dina MacDougall shares music inspired by the beauty and rhythms of the natural world. By Dina MacDougall We start our journey with melodies inspired by the lunar cycle, then […]
Update on the Fall Semester
Update (05/20/20): UBC has posted a number of resources for students as they prepare for the 2020-21 school year, including Quick Tips for Preparing to Learn Online, an update on what to expect from your September classes, and some (slightly older) information about housing. Dear students, By now you may have heard that for the […]
Playlist: Comfort and Joy
Our Playlist column features music curated by our faculty, students, and staff and focusing on an interesting idea or theme. In this column, Prof. Alexander Fisher, a musicologist and Early Music specialist, shares comforting and uplifting music from 17th-century Europe. When we are living through challenging times like these, music always provides something of a salve. Many of […]
High Notes | Spring 2020 Edition
High Notes | Spring 2020 FEATURES Liberating the Queen in Me In their new play The Queen in Me, soprano Teiya Kasahara (BMus’07) reimagines one of opera’s most iconic villains — and challenges the industry’s centuries-old prejudices From Aerosmith to Van Halen: How UBC helped shape the hard rock era In the 1980s, Vancouver was […]
Playlist: Cantonese Music
Looking back on the Cantonese music I grew up with, I’m amazed by how broad and varied a genre it is — from Cantonese opera to folk song to pop, it’s a well-loved global phenomenon that captures an important sense of identity, history and heritage for members of the Cantonese diaspora.
From Aerosmith to Van Halen: How the UBC School of Music helped shape rock music history
In the 1980s, Vancouver was a rock ’n’ roll mecca. High Notes talks to Prof. Nathan Hesselink and Sharman King (BMus’70) about the UBC alumni who made some of the era’s best and boldest albums possible Here’s a little-known fact: Vancouver is the birthplace of some of the most important rock ’n’ roll records of […]
Playlist: Little Mountain Sound
Our Playlist column features music curated by School of Music faculty, students, and staff. For the latest column, we invited professor of ethnomusicology Nathan Hesselink and bass trombonist and adjunct professor Sharman King to share some of their favourite tracks recorded in Vancouver. In the Spring 2020 issue of High Notes, they talk about how UBC helped shape […]
Remembering Hans-Karl Piltz (1923–2020)
We are sad to announce the passing of Professor Hans-Karl Piltz, a talented violist and teacher who helped shape the School of Music as it evolved from a small Bachelor of Arts program in the late 1950s to the large and thriving School it is today. Prof. Piltz was 96 years old. Prof. Piltz was […]
Alumni Making Waves: Solo shows, virtual orchestra, and a lifetime achievement award
Legendary Canadian composer and School of Music alumnus Alexina Louie (BMus’70) was awarded the 2020 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, in recognition of her groundbreaking orchestral and chamber works, film scores, and more. As the Canadian Music Centre notes, “Her distinctive style — a blend of Asian and Western influences — […]
Research and Publications: Italian voices in London, The Philosophy of Rhythm, and love songs
Dr. Claudio Vellutini’s new essay, “Interpreting the Italian Voice in London (and Elsewhere),” appeared in London Voices, 1820-1840: Vocal Performers, Practices, Histories, edited by Roger Parker and Susan Rutherford, and published by the University of Chicago Press. He also presented a paper entitled “Resisting Shakespeare? Felice Romani and Saverio Mercadante’s Amleto in Restoration Milan” at […]