The Department of Music Visiting Committee Colloquium Series brings leaders from across the fields of music theory, history, composition, and ethnomusicology to present their work to faculty and graduate students. More
"There is really no substitute for this kind of real-time interaction..."
The Department of Music Performance Program headquarters will reside in the newly constructed David and Reva Logan Center for the Arts beginning March 2012. Read more.
The Countdown Begins: David and Reva Logan Center for the Arts
Scholars "have tended to ignore a sizable number [of Masses] that were meant for Christ, mainly because so many of these are built on secular songs." Read more.
Professor Anne Robertson Researches Secular Music for Sacred Audiences
The University Jazz X-tet, under the direction of Mwata Bowden, navigates personnel changes and influences student's careers over the years. Read more.
University of Chicago Jazz X-tet Turns 16
Performed by Ensembles-In-Residence Pacifica Quartet and eighth blackbird, this all-Sofia Gubaidulina program includes the world premiere of A Pilgrimage of Four, commissioned for Contempo. Read more.
Ensembles-In-Residence Pacifica Quartet and eighth blackbird Celebrate Sofia Gubaidulina
Rigor, Creativity, Innovation
Positioned at the heart of a world-renowned academic institution, the Department of Music offers graduate degrees in Composition, Ethnomusicology, and Music History and Theory. The Department also offers an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in Music. Complementing them is a lively performance program that involves undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students.
Latest News and Announcements
It's Alive! Department Launches New Website
New aspects of the site include rotating features that highlight news, departmental achievements, and upcoming performances; a news feed; a new calendar; and the capacity for departmental audio and video postings.
tableau.uchicago.edu | Crossover Music
Whether the setting is a medieval abbey or a Broadway stage, “I have always had a very strong sense that music exists in spaces,” says Anne Robertson, the Claire Dux Swift Distinguished Service Professor in Music. Her scholarship on the liturgical and secular music of the Middle Ages explores these spaces deeply, showing how politics, theology, art, and architecture shaped music, especially in medieval France.
arts.uchicago.edu | X marks the spot for jazz innovation, exploration at UChicago
In a universe of jazz quartets and quintets, sextets and septets, you might assume a band calling itself an “X-tet” has an undefined number of members. And in the case of the University of Chicago’s Jazz X-tet, that surface definition applies.
Lise Waxer Prize Awarded to Recent PhD Luis-Manuel Garcia
Recent PhD Luis-Manuel Garcia was just awarded the Lise Waxer Prize, which recognizes “the most distinguished student paper in the ethnomusicology of popular music” (awarded by the Popular Music Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology).
Mexican Choreographer Claudia Lavista Joins Department as Mellon Resident Artist
In 2011-12, the Music Department is tremendously excited to welcome Mexican choreographer Claudia Lavista as Mellon Resident Artist in conjunction with the new Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry.
Legendary Composer Sofia Gubaidulina Awarded Honorary Doctorate
In June of 2011 the Department was deeply honored and tremendously excited to be able to sponsor the first honorary doctorate ever given to a composer or indeed any creative artist.
Eminent Composer Augusta Read Thomas Appointed University Professor
At this writing our new University Professor of Composition, Augusta Read Thomas, has just had the world premiere of her University of Chicago-commissioned violin duo double helix played to immense acclaim at the dedication ceremony of the new Joe and Rika Mansueto Library. What an honor for us!
Seth Brodsky Appointed Assistant Professor of Music
Assistant Professor Seth Brodsky comes to us after five years of teaching at Yale. Brodsky is especially interested in how contemporary composers fantasize and shepherd their affiliations with the musical past, both consciously and unconsciously, work that his taken him into new kinds of psychoanalytic studies, and for new reasons.
Visiting Committee Brings Leading Scholars to the Department
This year we are proud to host a number of visitors to the Department, including composer Jan Radzynski, musicologist Emilio Ros-Fábregas, music theorists Jan Philipp Sprick and Martin Eybl, and ethnomusicologist Svanibor Pettan.
Will White, AB 2005, takes post as Assistant Conductor of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Will has just won a major conducting audition, and has been offered a position as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Cincinatti Symphony Youth Orchestra. He will be moving to Cincinnati over the summer, and will begin his position with the CSYO next fall.
Post-doc Paul Steinbeck to be assistant professor at Syracuse University
Paul Steinbeck accepts tenure-track position at Syracuse University, where he’ll be an assistant professor of musicology in the Department of African American Studies.
An impromptu reunion for Howard Sandroff and former students
A concert in honor of John Eaton’s 75th Birthday brought together a host of University of Chicago alumni composers and their instructor Howard Sandroff for an impromptu reunion in March of 2010.
Celebrate Sofia Gubaidulina
Considered the most influential living composer, the Department of Music is pleased to share in this historically significant concert at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on February 15, 2012. Shulamit Ran, artistic director. Tickets: 312.334.7777. More