Building blocks of human betterment
“While there’s no playbook for the unprecedented and the unknowable, by channeling collective despair into collective creativity, we become artistic entrepreneurs, contributing to society in impactful ways.” In this year-end reflection on triumphs over turmoils, Dean Davis offers his perspective on music as essential to human betterment.
Browse previous editions of the Dean's Downbeat,
a regular communiqué from Dean John Davis.
The Music of Pueblo (June 6, 2022, Coloradan)
Our Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Susan Thomas and alumna Xóchitl Chávez—assistant professor in the music department at the University of California, Riverside—partner to preserve the diversity of music in Pueblo.
World-class classical music comes to Boulder's Chautauqua this summer (June 21, 2022, Westword)
The Colorado Music Festival was founded in 1976 by College of Music Professor Emeritus Giora Bernstein. “Within two years, the festival moved to the then-recently restored Chautauqua Auditorium, where it won the first of five ASCAP Adventurous Programming Awards.” The College of Music’s Takács Quartet will be the festival's artist-in-residence.
Quartet promotes inclusion in classical music (May 22, 2022, 9News)
Recently graduated members of the Ivalas Quartet, the College of Music's Graduate String Quartet in Residence, discuss their mission to elevate underrepresented composers and break up stereotypes that have followed classical music through the years. The quartet strives to give lesser-known but just-as-talented composers their shot in front of audiences. Specifically, the group gives artists like George Walker, an African American composer, and Jessie Montgomery, a female African American composer, their time next to pieces by Beethoven.