Faculty News Updates
March 20, 2009
Jeffery Beigel
Professor of Piano Jeffery Beigel, with Hal Leonard Student Piano Library, released a new edition of Schumann’s Scenes From Childhood (Kinderscenen) Op. 15. As editor, Beigel also recorded an accompanying CD for this edition. The book can be ordered from Hal Leonard.
George Brunner
George Brunner, director of music technology at the conservatory and founder of the International Electroacoustic Music Festival, premiered his piece The Last Flash of Light Before the Beginning for flute and electronics in March 2007 at the Yamaha Piano Salon in New York. Brunner's piece was the recipient of the first Forecast Music Commission from the Forecast Music Group, a New York–based ensemble dedicated to the performance of new music.
In January 2009, Brunner received a second commission for a new work from the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB). Begun in Bourges during the three-week residency in January 2009, the work was completed in April 2009 in New York. Based on Shakespeare's play Macbeth, this piece, Lady Macbeth, portrays Lady Macbeth's ambitious rise, lust for power and eventual descent into madness. Lady Macbeth was written for soprano Monica Harte, who will sing the world premiere.
Lady Macbeth was chosen from 735 submissions to be one of the featured pieces in the final concert of Synthèse 2009 in France. The performance will be at the Palais Jacque Coeur at 9 p.m. on June 6, 2009.
Tania León
Brooklyn College Distinguished Professor of Music and Director of Composition Tania León was among the 189 select artists, scholars and scientists awarded a prestigious 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship. Recently León created a ballet for the Dance Brazil company, with the world-renowned director of choreography Carlos Dos Santos, Jr. The work focuses on the Afro-Brazilian traditions of candomblé and its deities. León was chosen from a pool of 2,800 applicants from 78 different fields ranging from playwrights and sculptors to biologists and scholars of the humanities. Since the Guggenheim Fellowship's inception in 1925 the foundation has awarded more that $256 million in fellowships to more than 16,250 people. León, as a recipient of this fellowship, joins the prestigious company of composers Aaron Copland, Milton Babbit, George Crumb and Elliott Carter. Her ballet premiered in spring 2009. More information is available on the Tania León website.
David Grubbs
David Grubbs, assistant professor of music, has two releases on CD: Peter Weiss. Die Ästhetik des Widerstands (Hörverlag 12xCD, 2007), a release of a Radio Bavaria radio play containing an original score by Grubbs, and Souls of the Labadie Tract (Blue Chopsticks BC17 CD, 2007), co-produced with Susan Howe. His recent publications include: Don’t Look Back, "Modern Painters" (December 2006 – January 2007) and "Oscillating With Lucier," in the Brooklyn College ISAM Newsletter, vol. XXXVI, no. 1, fall 2006.
Douglas Hedwig
Brooklyn College Brass Ensemble Director Douglas Hedwig presented the program "American Brass Music 1850–1870" with the Brooklyn College Brass Ensemble for CUNY TV in March 2007.
Bruce MacIntyre
Conservatory Director Bruce MacIntyre received the Murry Koppelman Professorship (2008–10) in 2007 in recognition of his commitment to the Brooklyn College campus and to the community.
Michael Rogers
After 39 years of serving the Conservatory of Music, Michael Rogers, adjunct professor of piano, retired in spring 2007. Rogers was the last of the "mighty four" piano faculty serving the conservatory in its earlier, halcyon days of the 1970s, when Agustin Anievas, John Challener and Paul Jacobs were also teaching piano here. We all wish him the best in his retirement.
Jeffrey Taylor
At the November 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society in Quebec City, Jeffrey Taylor, professor of music and director of the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music, was presented the Claude V. Palisca Award for Earl “Fatha” Hines: Selected Piano Solos, 1928–1941. His meticulous solo transcriptions were published by A-R Editions last year in its MUSA series, vol. 15. The Palisca Award “honors each year a scholarly edition or translation in the field of musicology . . . deemed by a committee of scholars to exemplify the highest qualities of originality, interpretation, logic and clarity of thought, and communication.” We congratulate Professor Taylor for this special national honor and recognition in the field of musicology.
Back to Fermata — Spring 2009
