UCD School of Music
Scoil an Cheoil UCD
NEWS REPORT FROM October 2012
At the outset of the new academic year (2012-13), and with the first semester already well underway, it is a pleasure to record news of recent and forthcoming events in the School of Music and to welcome our returning and new cohort of undergraduate and graduate students.
Appointments
Ms Lisa Bennett has recently been appointed as Administrator of the School of Music and we wish her every possible success in this new post.
Performance
All three of the School's performance ensembles will be busily engaged in concerts this semester: of particular note there is the performance of Beethoven's ninth symphony in the National Concert Hall on 19 November 2012, a concert which will also feature a new work by UCD alumnus Seán Clancy. The performance will be conducted by Dr Ciarán Crilly. This landmark event will mark the tenth anniversary of the UCD Symphony Orchestra. For further details on performances please visit the web pages of the UCD Choral Scholars, UCD Philharmonic Choir and UCD Symphony Orchestra by following the links on the School's home page.
The School has also introduced a series of workshops in Gamelan performance under the direction of composer Dr Peter Moran (also a UCD alumnus) which are taking place in this first semester.
Further details are available by emailing music@ucd.ie or by contacting Dr Jones (jaime.jones@ucd.ie)
Research
On Saturday 20th October, the School will host a one-day workshop entitled Misneach ('Courage') organized by the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM Ireland) devoted to helping graduate students in cultural studies (including music, film and dance) which will take place in the UCD Humanities Institute. Further information on the event, including registration details, are available by contacting Sheryl Lynch at education@ictm.ie. Misneach Schedule available here.
This semester's seminars in musicology and on music in Ireland feature guest speakers including Dr Kevin O'Connell (Royal Irish Academy of Music) on 8 October at 3pm; Dr Evangelia Rigaki (Trinity College Dublin) on 15 October at 3pm; Mr Seán Clancy (Birmingham Conservatoire) on 22 October at 3pm; Professor Richard Steinitz (University of Huddersfield) on 5 November at 3pm [seminars in musicology]; Dr Patrick Zuk (Durham University) on 26 September at 3pm; Dr Catherine Ferris (DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama) on 3 October at 3pm; Dr Aileen Dillane (University of Limerick) on 10 October at 3pm; Professor Harry White (University College Dublin) on 17 October at 3pm [seminars on music in Ireland].
The eighth volume of The Musicology Review will be published in February, 2013 and further details are available by visiting the journal's website.
Two new books by members of the School of Music have been published since the last report on this web page: Mendelssohn Perspectives, edited by Nicole Grimes and Angela Mace (Ashgate, 2012) and Ancestral Imprints: Histories of Irish Music and Dance, edited by Thérèse Smith (Cork University Press, 2012). In addition, Desmond Earley published Sleepsong, an arrangement for Solo/SSATBB with Music Sales (London) and Hal Leonard (US) for the Novello Choral Pops series in July.
News of Staff
On 22 September, Professor Julian Horton gave a paper entitled 'Theory, Empiricism and the Analysis of Nineteenth-century Sonata Forms' at the Institute for Musical Research, Senate House, University of London as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Society for Music Analysis. Professor Horton was recently awarded the prestigious Westrup Prize in musicology for his article on John Field's piano concertos which was published in the journal Music and Letters in 2011. His article on 'Norm and Deformation in Mendelssohn's Sonata Forms', written with Paul Wingfield (Trinity College Cambridge), has appeared in Mendelssohn Perspectives, edited by Nicole Grimes and Angela Mace (Aldershot, 2012). Professor Horton's Cambridge Companion to the Symphony (editor) is currently in press.
Professor Thérèse Smith will deliver a paper entitled 'Jazz in Ireland: Historicity or Intermusicality?' at the joint annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Musicological Society and the Society for Music Theory which takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana, between 1-4 November. Her book, (as sole editor), Ancestral Imprints: Histories of Irish Music and Dance has recently been published by Cork University Press (Cork, 2012).
Dr Wolfgang Marx will present a paper 'Death and Musical Otherness: Metamorphoses of a Musical Motif in Dvořák's Requiem op. 89' at a conference on 'The Art of Death and Dying' at the University of Houston, Texas from 25-27 October. He is currently organizing a series of opera screenings for staff and students in the new UCD Student Centre Cinema, the first of which took place on Friday 6 October.
Dr Jaime Jones spent five weeks in Pune and Bangalore during the summer on a research visit in connection with the publication of her doctoral dissertation; she continues as a council member of ICTM Ireland and is currently engaged in preparations for the publication of the society's journal and for its annual conference in 2013.
Dr Frank Lawrence is representing the university at two graduate fairs in Chicago in October and developing new Study Abroad programmes at colleges in Illinois and Wisconsin. His current research includes a chapter on music in Ireland to 1550 for the first volume of the new Cambridge History of Ireland which is due for publication in 2014.
Dr Nicole Grimes will give a paper entitled 'Brahms's Ascending Circle: Hölderlin, Schicksalslied and the Process of Recollection' at the American Musicological Society, Pacific-Southwest Chapter Meeting, Occidental College, Los Angeles, on 6 October. Her recent conference presentations include papers on 'Brahms's 'Musical Elegies' and the Future of Nostalgia,' at the 17th Biennial International Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music, University of Edinburgh, 30 June 2012 and 'Brahms's Counterpoint to Pessimism,' at the 2nd RMA Annual Conference on Music and Philosophy, King's College London, 21 July 2012. Her book, Mendelssohn Perspectives edited with Angela Mace (as noted above) was published in October and features essays by several leading Mendelssohn scholars, including R Larry Todd, Monika Hennemann, Cécile Reynaud, Lorraine Byrne Bodley and Marian Wilson Kimber (among many others).
Majella Boland, a PhD candidate in the School and currently a member of the part-time teaching staff, will deliver a paper entitled 'Contrasts in John Field Reception: the Parisian Concerts in 1802 and 1832/3' at a conference on Central European Musicians and the Birth of French Piano Virtuosity in Rome which takes place between 11 and 13 October.
Professor Harry White gave the plenary address at the second 'Women and Music in Ireland' Conference at the Royal Irish Academy of Music on 15 September; He will present a paper at a colloquium on nationalism in music at Gorizia (Trieste) on 23 November and he will deliver the first keynote address at the 'Remembering Bewerunge' conference in St Patrick's College, Maynooth on 6 December.
Website Contact
Please note: previous news reports from the School are available under the Archive section of this website. A full report detailing the year's work in performance and research undertaken by members of the School of Music throughout 2012 will be published in late December/early January. A similar report for 2011 is available in the Performance and Research section of this website.
Items of news for this webpage should be emailed to Professor Harry White. Future editions of this page will include news of publications by staff and students of the School.
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