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.
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.
NEH grant helps research Pueblo, Colorado’s music history (May 18, 2022, UC Riverside)
Soundscapes of the People: A Musical Ethnography of Pueblo, Colorado was recently recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities with a nearly $130,000 Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research grant. The project director and principal investigator is Susan Thomas, professor of musicology and director of our American Music Research Center; co-principal investigators are Austin Okigbo, associate professor of ethnomusicology at our College of Music; and alumna Xóchitl Chávez, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside.
Annika Socolofsky will turn soothing lullabies into feminist anthems at the Pulitzer (May 17, 2022, St. Louis Public Radio)
Assistant Professor of Composition Annika Socolofsky creates feminist-rager lullabies for a new queer era inspired by traditional nursery rhymes and lullabies. She will release “Don’t Say a Word” as an album later this year and will perform with song cycle with six members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
