AMRC

Michael Sy Uy to direct American Music Research Center

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Michael Sy Uy to direct American Music Research Center Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/22/2024 - 00:00

Marc Shulgold

Michael Sy Uy has been recently appointed the director of the American Music Research Center (AMRC) at the CU Boulder College of Music, and the newest member of our musicology faculty. A quick glance at the impressive biography of Michael Sy Uy begs two immediate questions—each eliciting chuckles from him during a call from his current office at Harvard University where he’s a music lecturer.

“[In the United States,] I pronounce my last name ‘Wee,’” he replies to Question No. 1, explaining that his family is Chinese-Filipino. “My parents immigrated from Manila and I was born in Las Vegas. I grew up in southern California.”

Question No. 2 addresses the bottom of his bio, which notes that Uy “biked across the United States, from California to Massachusetts, in 42 days.”

So, the obvious query: Will he peddle his way from Massachusetts to begin his new position in Boulder? More laughter. “Actually, I thought about it—but only for a minute.” Instead, he’ll pack his bags and drive west to assume a critical role at our college.

“The center provides an excellent opportunity for a researcher and professor,” he says. “In Boulder, I can immerse myself in the center’s archives, as well as incorporate the material in my teaching.”

Uy has a rich background in academia: He’s published a book on public and private arts funding and his other work appears in American Music, Journal of the Society for American Music, Journal of Musicology, and Music and Arts in Action. He’s also the recipient of several prestigious teaching awards and served as the Allston Burr Resident Dean of Dunster House and Assistant Dean of Harvard College from 2017 to 2023.

Uy is enthusiastic about the wide-ranging responsibilities and activities ahead of him. “I want to gain a deeper understanding of how the center operates and learn from its remarkable previous directors,” he says. “From them, the advisory board and others, I can think about how best to realize the center’s mission and how to achieve the goals of helping students and the community engage with our archival material. Perhaps our amazing performers within the College of Music students and faculty can showcase this music.

“I look forward to working with both undergraduate and graduate students, and I hope to continue to raise the profile of the AMRC.”

Uy also speaks in admiration of the college’s universal musician mission to develop well-rounded, multiskilled students. “I think the work of the center ties in with this mission perfectly,” he says. “Through what we do, what we research and what we write, we can all learn more about ourselves.”

“We should remember the AMRC’s location and history as part of the ‘American West,’” he adds. “Integral to our work will be documenting, preserving and performing the contributions of Native Americans, Chicanos, Asian Americans and African Americans. This is what America really looks and looked like.

“At the AMRC, we can support this research, preservation and history sharing.”

The first person in his family to attend college in the United States—earning a bachelor’s at the University of California, Berkeley; a master’s at Oxford University; and a doctorate at Harvard University—Uy identifies as a member of the BGLTQ community and a person of color who’s committed to a more socially just world. He is an avid coxswain, runner and peony farmer.

Welcome!

Our gratitude to Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Austin Okigbo who served as interim director of the American Music Research Center this past academic year.

Uy will join the College of Music’s musicology faculty as an associate professor and assume leadership of the AMRC this fall, bringing to his new responsibilities a rich background in musicological research as well as a broadly-based perspective on academic administration.

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New Alex Craig and Christina Lynn-Craig Living Music Award to be granted spring 2023

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

New Alex Craig and Christina Lynn-Craig Living Music Award to be granted spring 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/01/2023 - 00:00

Kathryn Bistodeau

The College of Music’s American Music Research Center (AMRC) announces a new award, set to be granted for the first time this spring: The Alex Craig and Christina Lynn-Craig Living Music Award celebrates the works of late composer Alex Craig. Craig earned a bachelor’s degree in music history and master’s in composition at CU Boulder, and held the position of staff accompanist at the College of Music from 1976 until 2011.

This biannual award is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, and supports the performance of Craig’s compositions housed in the AMRC Archive in Norlin Library’s Rare and Distinctive Collections. Learn more and apply by April 7.

For undergraduate and graduate students, a new biannual award celebrates the works and legacy of late composer Alex Craig.

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Graduate student researchers explore Pueblo’s Soundscapes

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 04:40:29 +0000

Graduate student researchers explore Pueblo’s Soundscapes Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/24/2023 - 21:40

It was a busy fall for the American Music Research Center (AMRC)!

One of the many efforts underway is the Soundscapes of the People project. Two CU Boulder PhD students—Lydia Wagenknecht and Ben Cefkin—are working on this project alongside AMRC Director Susan Thomas, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Austin Okigbo and CU Boulder alumna Xóchitl Chávez, the first Chicana tenure track assistant professor in the music department at the University of California, Riverside. Both students are studying ethnomusicology and have been working on the project since summer 2021.

Soundscapes of the People explores the historical significance of Pueblo, Colorado, and the culture of the community there, particularly highlighting local music. This research initiative is funded by the National Endowment for Humanities and CU Boulder’s Research & Innovation Office and Office for Outreach and Engagement. The team spends time in Pueblo interviewing people and traveling to culturally significant places. For the graduate students, the project requires fieldwork in Pueblo, combing through the completed interviews and preparing them for University Libraries archives. Read the full story.

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Kedrick Armstrong conducts delayed premiere of Irene Britton Smith’s “Sinfonietta”

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Kedrick Armstrong conducts delayed premiere of Irene Britton Smith’s “Sinfonietta” Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/10/2022 - 00:00

Kathryn Bistodeau

Photo: In this brief video, meet Kedrick Armstrong and hear him share his discovery of Irene Britton Smith's “Sinfonietta.”

There’s no doubt about it, the career of Kedrick Armstrong—graduate orchestral conducting student—is quickly gaining momentum:

One of two CU music Buffs on The Washington Post’s “composers and performers to watch” list, Armstrong will conduct the world premiere of “The Factotum” with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in February 2023; meanwhile, closer to home, he’ll conduct the CU Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Irene Britton Smith’s “Sinfonietta” at Macky Auditorium next week.

Armstrong pulled “Sinfonietta” from the Helen Walker-Hill Collection in the American Music Research Center archives, and has been working on converting the original score to parts for an orchestra for over a year. “Immediately, I knew there was something in her language and in her writing that was different from anything that I had ever heard before, especially coming from a Black woman in the 20th century,” he says.

Smith was an elementary school music educator for most of her life and wrote “Sinfonietta” as her thesis project for her master’s program. According to Director of Orchestral Studies Gary Lewis, “It will likely be the first performance of the work since the year of its composition in 1956.”

Armstrong says he’s excited to conduct the overdue premiere, but also acknowledges a certain pressure that comes with the territory. “How do you interpret a work where there’s never been an interpretation before you?” he asks. “It feels like a lot of weight, but I continue to put myself in experimentation where you try something and you try again if it doesn’t go as you want it to.

“The biggest thing I hope audiences take away from this is that there is no ‘sonic monolith’ to Black music, even in classical music,” Armstrong adds. “There is such a wide variety of what Black composers are engaging with. I think that’s the key to opening up the door to true equity of Black composers, across the board.”

The CU Symphony Orchestra will perform “Sinfonietta”—along with Emilie Mayer’s “Faust-Ouverture” and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major—at 7:30pm on Nov. 16.

The career of Kedrick Armstrong—graduate orchestral conducting student—is quickly gaining momentum, including conducting the CU Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Irene Britton Smith’s “Sinfonietta” next week.

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American Music Research Center awarded grants, advances diverse music projects

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:00:00 +0000

American Music Research Center awarded grants, advances diverse music projects Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/27/2022 - 00:00

Kathryn Bistodeau

Photo: Soundscapes of the People, a collaboration between the University of Colorado Boulder and Colorado State University Pueblo, has collected 27 oral histories in the past year exploring Pueblo’s cultural music history. AMRC Director and Professor of Musicology Susan Thomas (middle)—who also serves as the College of Music’s Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity + Inclusion—and CU Boulder alumna Xóchitl Chávez (left)—who now teaches at the University of California, Riverside—visited Pueblo last month. Also pictured are musician Joe Bobian (second from left), musician Jason Wilson (middle) and CU Boulder Multimedia News Specialist Nicholas Goda (right). Thomas, Chávez and College of Music Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Austin Okigbo, along with their team, seek to have the histories digitally accessible to members of the public through CU and CSU Pueblo libraries by the end of the year. Photo credit: Xóchitl Chávez.

The College of Music’s American Music Research Center (AMRC) is bustling with activity as the school year begins. AMRC Director Susan Thomas—who also holds the positions of Professor of Musicology and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity + Inclusion at our College of Music—is spearheading various exciting projects, events and advancements at the center.

The AMRC was recently awarded multiple grants to fund its research, including from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Specifically, this grant is funding the digitization of the Grauman’s Theatres Silent Film Scores Collection, donated to the AMRC by Rodney Sauer, a musician himself.

“Starting this fall, we’ll be hiring a graduate student to begin working with those newly digitized scores,” says Thomas. “They’ll be working directly with Rodney Sauer to start creating premade score packets at the high school level.”

Additionally, in 2023, Thomas will teach a DMA seminar with Sauer on silent film scoring. Students will work with the digitized collection, learn about the history of silent film scoring and learn how to use those materials to make scores.

Another inspiring project—Soundscapes of the People: A Musical Ethnography of Pueblo, Colorado—received funding from a National Endowment for the Humanities Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research Grant. The team involved has already collected more than two dozen oral histories of Pueblo’s diverse musical traditions from musicians there.

“It’s really exciting to be able to build on the support we’ve received from CU Boulder’s Office of Research and Innovation and the Office of Outreach and Community Engagement who funded the first two years of this project,” Thomas says. “[The NEH grant] allows us to be involved with this community and do this really important music research through the beginning of 2025.”

College of Music graduate students are often involved in the AMRC, working on both the Soundscapes and Grauman’s Theatres projects. Conducting graduate student Kedrick Armstrong, for example, was awarded the Susan L. Porter Fellowship to fund his research focused on Black female composers.

“In the AMRC collections, the Helen Walker-Hill collection comprises music by Black women composers. One of the reasons Kedrick came to CU Boulder was because that collection was here. He was particularly interested in a composer by the name of Irene Britton-Smith,” explains Thomas.

Armstrong created a working score for the orchestra by using a manuscript in the AMRC collection, as well as a few parts housed in the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago. On Nov. 16, Armstrong will conduct the CU Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Irene Britton-Smith’s Sinfonietta.

Thomas herself was recently awarded The Joseph Negler Endowed Chair in Music, which was established in 2000.

“That gift is an indispensable part of why the center is able to do what we do,” says Thomas. “Obviously, it’s a tremendous honor and an important reminder about how we can leave a legacy in our work. What we do doesn’t have to be ephemeral—we can make a lasting impact.”

Negler passed away on June 4, 2022. The College of Music community is deeply saddened by his passing and is grateful for his enduring support.

The American Music Research Center is bustling with activity as the school year begins. Discover what’s new!

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Innovation + inclusivity

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Innovation + inclusivity Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/18/2021 - 00:00

John Davis

[Photo: In our newly expanded Imig Music Building, Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano Alexandra Nguyen and Dean John Davis converse.]

At the College of Music, we’re working to ignite innovation in our programs and activities to attract and retain the next generation of artists and audiences. But for such innovation to thrive, we must also create a culture that’s inclusive and welcoming of diverse influences, perspectives and experiences.

I’m proud of the college’s heartfelt commitment and intentional focus on Diversity, Equity + Inclusion (DEI), including an endowed fund for immediate, flexible support of DEI initiatives at the College of Music and a newly established endowed fund to foster DEI specifically through our American Music Research Center (AMRC). Additionally, we recently established a DEI scholarship funding program that directly benefits diverse students for the duration of their time at CU. Such supports are often the deciding factor for diverse applicants in choosing CU Boulder’s Silver + Gold over other top music programs across the country.

As Thanksgiving approaches, we have so much to be grateful for—a new, award-winning home and progress toward developing universal musicians through enhanced education. But without a deeply embedded culture of belonging that encourages dialogue and reflective listening, and that inspires our students, faculty, staff and greater community beyond our comfort zones, there’s little hope of sustaining our momentum toward shaping the future of artistry.

The good news is that we have a strong foundation for DEI work and we’re seeing progress in programs like our Diverse Musicians’ Alliance where our students and staff are working together to empower underrepresented artists. Our faculty are stepping up, too. I’m stunned by how much has changed within our curriculum and repertoire, representing many more diverse composers and arrangers. There is so much repertoire to explore that we’ve never heard before on campus, but we’re hearing it now—in our solo repertoire, our chamber music repertoire, and our ensembles of all sizes and genres. Almost every College of Music concert, symposium and presentation emphasizes diverse music, and our theory and ear training curricula now include the different tonalities and rhythms of musics from all parts of the globe.

This week, the CU Philharmonia Orchestra performed Jessica Mays’ “Anthem for Go,” and earlier this month, our Roser Piano + Keyboard Program hosted a master class and two guest lectures as part of a doctoral seminar on diverse piano literature. In October, our Entrepreneurship Center for Music hosted an evening with the Boston Public Quartet that included a student-led discussion of DEI in the chamber music world, followed by a concert of works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and other People of Color) composers Jessie Montgomery, Florence Beatrice Price and Jeraldine Herbison. Additionally, the AMRC recently brought together leading scholars in American music studies to explore how borders—whether geographic, political, social, sonic, performative or temporal—impact music making. Another recent AMRC event—a public talk by Dr. Xóchitl C. Chávez—highlighted the social and cultural realities of migrant community-based brass bands from Oaxaca, Mexico. Meanwhile, among many other College of Music DEI happenings, including our upcoming Annual Distinguished Lectureship in Diversity, the AMRC’s Soundscapes Project continues its work to document, preserve and engage diverse musical and cultural influences in and around Pueblo, Colorado.

Yet we recognize that there’s more work—more positive disruption—ahead of us before we can claim ubiquitous inclusivity in our college’s culture, classrooms and curricula. Achieving DEI isn’t a fast fix or a quick win. It’s an ongoing effort that requires both big and small steps over time. It’s work that my colleagues and I have dedicated ourselves to. And it’s a transformative movement for greater student success that I’m incredibly thankful to be a part of.

Enjoy Fall break!

“We have a strong foundation for DEI work and we’re seeing progress [...] but there’s more work—more positive disruption—ahead of us before we can claim ubiquitous inclusivity in our college’s culture, classrooms and curricula.”

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New endowed fund to foster DEI through American Music Research Center

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0000

New endowed fund to foster DEI through American Music Research Center Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/08/2021 - 00:00

John Moore

Abel Chavez considers himself “a disciple for paying it forward.”

From a life-changing visit to his Los Alamos, New Mexico high school by fellow trumpeter Doc Severinsen of The Tonight Show … to meeting his future wife as students at CU Boulder … to John Davis mentoring Chavez’s son, Armando, on the jazz saxophone long before Davis would go on to become Dean of the CU Boulder College of Music—Chavez has much to be thankful for over a lifetime that’s been equal parts blessings and tragedy.

“One moment your life can be turned upside down and inside out,” says the retired longtime telecommunications government affairs director from Pueblo. “But music is such an important part of our well-being. It can be a therapy for a woman who is experiencing postpartum depression. It can be a therapy for people struggling with Alzheimer's and dementia. It was and still is therapeutic for me.”

Chavez’s heart is so full from the joy of music, family, faith and philanthropy, you might never know how often it has been broken. Chavez lost his wife, College of Music alumna Rebecca Beardmore Chavez, in a 1996 auto collision. Their daughter, Briana Lee Rees, passed away unexpectedly in 2018.

“But I was able to bounce back,” Chavez says, “by using music and philanthropy as a way of healing.”

Chavez established a music scholarship endowment to honor Rebecca in 1996 and made another major contribution in 2018 to pay tribute to Briana. The Rebecca Beardmore Chavez/Briana Lee Rees Music Education Scholarship Endowment has benefitted 80 students to date and is currently valued at more than $110,000.

And in November, Chavez created a new $25,000 endowed fund to foster Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts through the College of Music’s American Music Research Center (AMRC). AMRC Director Susan Thomas calls Chavez’s support for the AMRC’s DEI efforts “inspirational.”

Chavez’s resume is long and impressive: More than 40 years at CenturyLink and all its telecom predecessors. First Hispanic chairman of the board of the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce. Chairman of the board of the Parkview Medical Center. Board member of the United Way of Pueblo, Pikes Peak United Way, Pueblo Symphony and many more.

He joined the College of Music’s advisory board in the 1990s with the goal of improving facilities. Now that the $57 million addition to the Imig Music Building has placed CU Boulder among the top public music programs in the nation, Chavez—as a member of the AMRC's advisory board—has turned his attention to opening more doors to Hispanic, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) student artists.

Chavez has known for all his life what it’s like to be part of an underrepresented community. Even though Pueblo is 51 percent Hispanic, “we still have issues around diversity, equity and inclusion,” he says.

“The bottom line here is that we have a real opportunity to use the American Music Research Center as a uniting force to bring together people of different cultures, ethnicities, perspectives and walks of life. I see this work as not only educational, but as a strategy to improve the environment in which persons of color are pursuing their educations at CU Boulder.”

Chavez doesn’t look at giving of his time—or his money—as a moral responsibility. It’s in his DNA. “Life is so precious,” he says. “I think the best way we can show our kindness and caring for others is by helping them.”

Learn more about DEI activities at the College of Music and consider supporting the American Music Research Center.

“We have a real opportunity to use the American Music Research Center as a uniting force to bring together people of different cultures, ethnicities, perspectives and walks of life. I see this [DEI] work as not only educational, but as a strategy to improve the environment in which persons of color are pursuing their educations at CU Boulder.”

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