Strings news

This spring’s Outstanding Graduating Senior award goes to composition major Nelson Walker. Congratulations to Walker and all our outstanding 2022 grads!

In a delayed celebration of the College of Music’s 100th anniversary, the CU Symphony Orchestra will perform a specially commissioned work by renowned composer Christopher Theofanidis. “The one thing you can do is create something that represents you—a musical poem that you leave behind for others to enjoy and perform,” says the Grammy-nominated composer whose “On the Bridge of the Eternal” will debut in Macky Auditorium on April 26.

To support our students’ and our community’s musical development, the College of Music offers summer session courses and richly varied summer programming.

In this edition of our monthly Dean’s Downbeat, John Davis reflects on our students’ successes, introduces new violin faculty—welcome, Alex Gonzalez!—and celebrates Susan Thomas’ BFA Excellence Award. Transcending pandemic burnout, “our faculty offer anchorage through their teaching excellence, and their wonderfully consistent artistic achievements as performers, composers and researchers,” he writes.

On Feb. 20, flutist Courtney Badura (BM '23) and violinist Reuben Kebede (AD '22) took the "gold." Congratulations!

Brooklyn, New York-based saxophonist, composer and improviser Aakash Mittal is collaborating with current master’s student MarieFaith Lane on a project blending Hindustani and Western classical music.

As part of a weekend honoring diverse women composers, join us for a full orchestration of “Seven Miniatures for Piano” comprising seven standalone pieces—each of which reveals different facets of Florence Price’s creative personality. CU Boulder student and alumni composers completed the orchestrations.

As 2021 comes to a close and I reflect on my first year as Dean, I’m filled with gratitude for our College of Music family and all we’ve accomplished in a new and evolving hybrid learning environment. I’m especially proud of our progress to ensure an increasingly welcoming spirit within our beautifully expanded Imig Music Building.

MarieFaith Lane, a current graduate student and Holiday Festival 2021 concertmaster, offers a first-person perspective on the spirit of this weekend’s community event.

“I have had an extremely rewarding musical career and now—after more than 50 years of being a musician and a music teacher—I am celebrating my good luck, getting my start at CU Boulder.”