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RESEARCH & CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

Our faculty and students engage in research and creative work that ranges from performances at the Kennedy Center to masterclasses in local schools, and from international conferences to community-centered workshops. Our scholarship results in recordings, articles, books and editions that reveal music’s beauty and complexity.

As individuals and in teams, our faculty perform across the globe, provide new research frameworks, engage students, explore archives and more. As performers, educators, composers and scholars, we create new knowledge and contribute to UMD's research enterprise.

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Panpipes & Ponchos: Musical Folklorization and the Rise of the Andean Conjunto Tradition in La Paz, Bolivia

Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Fernando Rios's book has been published by Oxford University Press.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Fernando Rios
Dates:
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Since the late 1960s, the Andean conjunto has served as Bolivia’s paramount expression of “national” folkloric-popular music. This book illuminates how this musical tradition obtained such an elevated status in Bolivia, arguing that it represented the culmination of over four decades of criollo-mestizo musical activities that framed Andean indigenous music as the roots of national culture. More broadly, Panpipes & Ponchos offers the first book-length study of the Bolivian folkloric music movement that chronicles how it developed in close dialogue with state projects and transnational artistic trends for the critical period spanning the 1920s to 1960s.

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Music That Tears You Apart: Jazz Manouche and the Qualia of Ethnorace

Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology Siv B. Lie published an article in the journal Ethnomusicology.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Siv B. Lie
Dates:
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Through talk and performance, participants in the genre of jazz manouche articulate Manouche (French Romani/“Gypsy”) ethnoracial identities. This article takes a semiotic approach to exploring how ethnoracial differences are perceived sonically and reified through language about jazz manouche guitar technique. By analyzing interlocutors' sensory descriptors such as power, rawness, and even the feeling of ethnoracial identity itself, this article reveals continuities between individual sonic perceptions of race and ethnicity and broader semiotic ideologies about race and ethnicity. These discourses can serve or compromise Manouche interests as they naturalize ideas about social difference.

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Beauty Crying Forth: Flute Music by Women Across Time

Associate Professor Sarah Frisof releases an album with Furious Artisans.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Sarah Frisof
Dates:
Publisher: Furious Artisans

On "Beauty Crying Forth," flutist Sarah Frisof and pianist Daniel Pesca present repertoire spanning one and half centuries for flute by female composers. Including music by Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger, Kaija Saariaho, Tania León, Shulamit Ran and Amy Williams, Frisof and Pesca, with guest cellist Hannah Collins, chart two parallel lineages: the evolution of flute repertoire from the Romantic era to the current day, and the overlooked role of female composers in shaping that repertoire.

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The Impact of Music Practice Instruction on Middle School Band Students’ Independent Practice Behaviors

Assistant Professor of Music Education Stephanie Prichard's article in the Journal of Research in Music Education.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Stephanie Prichard
Dates:
Publisher: Journal of Research in Music Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of music practice instruction on middle school band students’ ability to articulate and incorporate practice strategies. Participants were middle school band students at a large suburban middle school (N = 105). Using a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design, participants were divided into control (n = 53) and experimental (n = 52) groups. Participants in the experimental group received 3 weeks of practice strategy instruction during ensemble warm-up time, and the control group continued with their typical warm-up routine. Pretest and posttest data included self-reported practice strategy lists (N = 105) and video of individual practice sessions (n = 20). Both self-reported and video data were coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as pretest–posttest within-groups comparisons. Thirteen hours of video data were further analyzed using an observational measure of self-regulation. Analyses revealed that experimental group participants identified and utilized significantly more practice strategies following the instructional intervention. Posttest experimental group practice sessions also revealed a more mature approach to practicing, including more strategic behaviors, greater variety in musical objectives, and longer periods spent focused on short excerpts of music. Implications for future research and middle school instrumental classroom practice are discussed.

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Annapolis Opera Has Named Craig Kier as the New Artistic and Music Director

Annapolis Opera and its Board of Trustees announced today that Maestro Craig Kier will become the company's next Artistic and Music Director.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Craig Kier
Dates:


Annapolis Opera and its Board of Trustees announced today that Maestro Craig Kier will become the company's next Artistic and Music Director. Craig Kier will succeed Ronald J. Gretz, who announced his retirement in February 2019 after serving as Artistic Director of the Annapolis Opera for 37 years. Kier will assume his role on July 1, 2020 and opens the Annapolis Opera 2020-2021 season conducting Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. Kier will continue to serve as the director of the School of Music's Maryland Opera Studio alongside his new role.

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School of Music Faculty Published in Musical Quarterly

William Robin's (musicology) article, "Horizons ’83, Meet the Composer, and New Romanticism’s New Marketplace," was recently published in the journal Musical Quarterly.

School of Music

Author/Lead: William Robin
Dates:

William Robin's (musicology) article, "Horizons ’83, Meet the Composer, and New Romanticism’s New Marketplace," was recently published in the journal Musical Quarterly. Drawing on archival research, the article explores the ramifications of the New York Philharmonic's 1983 Horizons festival, and its theme of New Romanticism, on the world of contemporary composition.

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Andrea Brown Presents Clinics at National Conferences

Andrea Brown (conducting & ensembles) has presented three different clinics at various conferences in the past six months.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Andrea E. Brown
Dates:

Andrea Brown (conducting & ensembles) has presented three different clinics at various conferences in the past six months. In May, she presented “Mentoring Female Leaders” at the CBDNA Athletic Band Directors Conference in Seattle, WA. In August, she presented “Using Technology to Improve Kinesthetic Skill Learning & Confidence of Music Conductors” at the Oxford Conducting Institute International Conducting Studies Conference in Sydney, Australia. In November, she presented “Yes, It Matters! Moving to Match What We Teach and Hear” at the VMEA In-Service Conference in Hot Springs, VA.

SOM Faculty Gives Keynote Lecture at Chinese Musicology Conference

Barbara Haggh-Huglo (musicology) gave one of three invited keynote lectures with translation into Chinese at a triennial Chinese musicology conference on Western music at the China Conservatory in Beijing on November 9.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Barbara H. Haggh-Huglo
Dates:

Barbara Haggh-Huglo (musicology) gave one of three invited keynote lectures with translation into Chinese at a triennial Chinese musicology conference on Western music at the China Conservatory in Beijing on November 9. During her stay in Beijing, she taught a graduate seminar class on Western plainchant and Parisian polyphony of the thirteenth century and attended some sessions of a conference on arts management education also held at the China Conservatory.

Ethnomusicology Faculty Member Delivers Paper on the Racialization of Romanies

Siv B. Lie (ethnomusicology) delivered a paper at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society in Boston on November 1.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Siv B. Lie
Dates:

Siv B. Lie (ethnomusicology) delivered a paper at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society in Boston on November 1. The paper, titled "Django in Paris: Curating Patrimony, Acoustic Territory, and Ethnoracial Marginality," explored the racialization of Romanies in a museum exhibition and was part of a panel called "The Guitar in History." She also participated in a roundtable titled "Ambivalent Populisms: Musical Politics and Policy in Contemporary Europe" at the annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology on November 7. Her contribution, "Cultural Activism's Living Legacies," explored the musical and activist history of a pro-Romani nonprofit in France.

Chris Gekker wins at The American Prize

Chris Gekker's (trumpet) CD "Ghost Dialogues" with Divine Art Records won 2nd place in the solo artist category at The American Prize.

School of Music

Author/Lead: Chris Gekker
Dates:

On October 3, The American Prize announced the award winners for 2018-19. Chris Gekker's (trumpet) CD "Ghost Dialogues" with Divine Art Records won 2nd place in the solo artist category. Also featured on the CD are Rita Sloan (piano) and Chris Vadala (tenor saxophone). Composers represented include Robert Gibson (composition) and alumnus Kevin McKee ’06 (M.M. trumpet).