We are delighted to announce that five graduating seniors have received special honors from the Department: Michal Dzitko, Hannah Edgar, Joshua Kaufman, Kim Kawczinski, and M. Will Myers.
Three of them will also receive special awards:
Hannah Edgar receives the Leonard B. Meyer Prize, for the BA thesis “Chicago on the Aisle: Claudia Cassidy’s Music Criticism and Legacy”
Hannah’s BA thesis concerns the life and work of Claudia Cassidy, an influential and long-standing music/theatre critic for the Chicago Tribune. The thesis considers Cassidy’s broad influence alongside the “golden age” of print media and radio, showing how Cassidy’s voice grew in proportion to the circulation of the Tribune in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. This is revolutionary work to show how influence is accumulated and deployed, and to pull back the curtain on the imbrication of the powerful people in art worlds.
Michal Dzitko receives the Menn Prize, for the BA thesis “Soundscapes of Color” (an opera and music installation)
Michael’s project takes the form of a chamber opera, for which the main inspiration is an 1874 book of typographic fonts. In translating this non-narrative libretto of single words into a musical event, Michal’s most important intervention is to spatialize the work. Dispersing singers and instrumentalists about the space, he allows audience members to walk about the space, essentially creating their own individual paths through the piece in space/time as the music unfolds.
Joshua Kaufman receives the Menn Prize, for the BA thesis “Junction” (a concerto for marimba and chamber orchestra)
Junction is a concerto for marimba and chamber orchestra, about eighteen minutes long, and is tarantella-like, with a catchy groove. The work will be published by PWM, Polish Music Publications, and premiered by the child prodigy percussionist Zofia Karandyszowska at the Warsaw Secondary School of Music in the 2018-19 season.
Congratulations!