Established in 1895, the School of Music reflects the Wisconsin Idea of practical service to the state and its residents.
The School of Music is proud of an outstanding international roster of faculty artists and scholars devoted to the School’s fundamental mission of fostering and promoting the global cultural art of music.
Our 60-member faculty maintains a unique focus on individual student achievement, utilizing the vast resources of the world-famous Madison campus.
Seven projects in the College of Letters & Science have received funding to advance the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s commitment to Education Innovation. Educational Innovation is a campus-wide initiative to create innovative approaches to education and research and set the university on the path to greater self-sufficiency. All of the EI projects were chosen based on [...]
After 36 years as professor of violin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tyrone Greive is retiring this spring. But the indefatigable musician, well-known to Madison audiences as the former concertmaster of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, will still teach, perform and indulge his lifelong passion for Polish string literature. Greive, a native of Sioux City, Iowa, came to UW-Madison [...]
In its 120 years of existence, the UW-Madison Choral Union has established a reputation for performing major choral compositions by well-known masters. But the Choral Union has also presented contemporary compositions and will do so Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28 when it performs Robert Kyr’s “Passion According to Four Evangelists.” Born in 1952, Kyr is [...]
The Institute for Research in the Humanities has announced its 2013-17 Senior Fellows. They are: Leslie Bow (English and Asian American Studies), Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity Senior Fellow Tomislav Longinović (Slavic Languages and Literature), Senior Fellow Steven Nadler (Philosophy), Senior Fellow Ron Radano (Music), Senior Fellow Louise Young (History), Senior Fellow The Institute offers up [...]
University of Wisconsin-Madison students: Want to win $2,000 this spring? If you have an idea for a new arts event, exhibition, series or project, you just might. The UW–Madison New Arts Venture Challenge is a campus-wide competition to encourage new thinking and innovative ideas. Entrants will develop and present a thorough proposal for their creations. [...]
Monumental discoveries were made. Critical projects were finished. Laudable programs were celebrated. And scholars and alumni were remembered in the College of Letters & Science’s 124th year.
These were just some of the markers of 2012 in L&S. Here are some of the moments that made 2012 a memorable year for the College.
The song came to Laura Schwendinger like an October ghost, wending its way through time and memory. At the time, she was spending part of her sabbatical at the McDowell Colony in rural New Hampshire. “It was a strange period, very quiet,” recalls Schwendinger, a professor of composition in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of [...]
A group of UW-Madison students and faculty have received 2012-13 grants from the Fulbright Program, the country’s flagship program for international educational exchange. Of the 21 recipients from UW-Madison, all but three are from the College of Letters & Science. Thirteen L&S students have won fellowships from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program; three graduate students in L&S [...]
Sound can be an incredibly powerful experience, able to dominate our attention, convey information, transport us from the here and now or add or relieve tension and emotion. Indicative of how immersive the sense of sound can be, no fewer than seven people from all corners of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s academic disciplines will track [...]
Johannes Wallmann was a teenager in Vancouver Island, Canada when he heard the music that would shape his life. The likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock made such an impression on Wallmann that he decided to devote his life to jazz. Wallmann was hired as the director of jazz studies at the [...]
The College of Letters & Science has more than 800 faculty, a group that includes brilliant researchers, noteworthy authors, and inspiring teachers. This year, the College welcomes more than 50 new faculty members. From Classics to Chemistry and from English to Economics, departments across L&S recruited emerging experts who bring impressive breadth and depth of [...]
School of Music Professor of Composition Laura Schwendinger’s work will be heard off-Broadway this fall. An original composition by Schwendinger will be part of “Sounding Beckett,” a performance that combines three one-act plays by the late Samuel Beckett with new music pieces written in response to the plays. The production is scheduled to run Sept. [...]
Frederick “Fritz” Schenker, a doctoral student in ethnomusicology at the School of Music, has received one of 17 Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources. He will use the fellowship to pursue research in Manila and Singapore for nine months beginning in September 2012 for his dissertation topic, “Performing Empire: Music and Race in [...]
For nearly 120 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Choral Union has been preparing and performing major choral works for university and area audiences. That tradition continues Friday, April 20 at 8 p.m. when the Choral Unionand the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra will perform another mighty masterwork — Verdi’s stirring “Requiem.” Breaking from tradition, however, the musicians [...]
The College of Letters & Science is proud to announce that eight L&S faculty members received 2012 Romnes Fellowships. The Romnes awards recognize exceptional faculty members who have earned tenure within the last four years. Selected by a Graduate School committee, winners receive an unrestricted $50,000 award for research, supported by the Wisconsin Alumni Research [...]
The College of Letters & Science is proud to announce that seven L&S faculty members received 2012 Distinguished Teaching Awards presented by the Wisconsin Alumni Association and the Secretary of the Faculty. The 2012 Recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Awards in the College of Letters & Science are: Jeffrey Beneker, associate professor of classics, Kiekhofer [...]
As founder of the Guatemala-based Range of Motion Project (ROMP), Eric Neufeld ’98 has worked to provide more than 1,500 custom-made prosthetic limbs to people in developing countries since 2005—people who, without Neufeld’s help, might have never regained mobility. With B.A. in Biological Aspects of Conservation, Neufeld represents one of the 13 outstanding alumni of [...]
The School of Music’s piano department, in association with the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies program, is staging “Carnival: Celebrating Music from Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula” on Saturday, March 3 at noon in Morphy Recital Hall. The concert is free and a Latin American themed reception for musicians and audience will follow [...]
Building self-esteem, leadership, and confidence with Drum Power (The Madison Times) After more than a decade in New York City, Yorel Lashley is back in Madison, in part, to share his creative musical talents and his highly acclaimed Drum Power with Wisconsin youngsters. Read More…
Pro Arte Quartet marks 100 years of existence with canonical and contemporary works (Columbia Daily Tribune) As the shells and sirens of World War II resounded throughout the world, four Belgian string players worried those reverberations might force them to silence their bows … Read more.
UW-Madison student will help jazz up ochestra’s performance (Wisconsin State Journal) Featuring UW-Madison senior, Ben Ferris, who will be playing in the UW Jazz Orchestra to open for the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra at Wisconsin Union Theater at 8 p.m. this Saturday. Read More…
Group of students and pros delivers classical music to the masses (Wisconsin State Journal) Featuring former UW-Madison graduate students Hui and Ching-Chun Lai. Read More…
Can’t make the UW Wind Ensemble Concert this Friday? Check out the School of Music’s live webcast! The Verona High School Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Eric Anderson, will join the Ensemble, led by Scott Teeple, in a joint concert on Friday, Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall. Each band will perform [...]
Story by Richard Mumford, School of Music Professor Todd Welbourne’s fascination with the 19th-century pianist-composer Franz Liszt led him to design a decidedly 21st-century multi-media installation for the lobby of the Humanities Building. Welbourne, professor of piano and director of graduate studies at the School of Music, wanted to find a way to mark the [...]
Story by Molly Temple, UW Archives The Pro Arte Quartet, shown here performing in 1956 or 1957, was originally formed in Brussels in 1911 and is believed to be the world’s oldest continuously performing string quartet. While performing at UW’s Union Theater on May 10, 1940, the quartet received the news that Belgium had been [...]
Story by University Communications Google the word “freilach” and you will find that it means “happy” or “joyful,” especially in relation to music. American composer Paul Schoenfield says the Yiddish word also describes his recently composed “Three Rhapsodies for Piano Quintet,” commissioned by the UW Pro Arte Quartet as part of its 100-year anniversary celebration. [...]
San Antonio native excels in Madison (The Madison Times) “It’s quite a bit colder here in Wisconsin than it is in San Antonio,” smiles Mathew Mireles, an outstanding graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music who is in his third year of a Doctor of Musical Arts degree program. “But over the [...]
Story by Richard Mumford, University Communications The Guest Artist Series at the School of Music presents the Academy Percussion Ensemble from South Korea and the U.S.-based Galaxy Percussion Group on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall. Each ensemble will perform works in its own traditions separately prior to combining forces for the [...]
School of Music Professor of Composition Laura Schwendinger’s work, “C’e la luna questa sera?” (“Is There a Moon Tonight?”) was featured in a new CD by the Lincoln Trio.
Various departments and programs in the College of Letters & Science are gearing up for the first-ever Wisconsin Science Festival as a way to usher in the Year of Science …
UW-Madison senior helps ‘Starstruck!’ shine bright (Wisconsin State Journal) Featuring Ryan Moldenhauer, a UW-Madison senior in music education and tenor/assistant music director with the Wisconsin Singers … (Aug. 28, 2011)
Mimmi Fulmer, Professor of Voice and Associate Director of University Opera, spent two weeks in Helsinki in May doing research for her project on Nordic songs.
Summer has arrived and so have the kids all sorts of kids participating day camps, overnight camps, workshops, fieldtrips.
The School of Music is pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel Grabois as assistant professor of horn, beginning with the fall semester of 2011-12.
News via our partners at the UW Foundation Eric Ellis is a freshman from Sandwich, Illinois, about 60 miles straight west of Chicago, and his graduating high school class numbered 180. Ellis is a music major attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison in part thanks to a merit scholarship from the School of Music Alumni Association. [...]
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows Christopher Taylor that the internationally acclaimed pianist and UW-Madison professor of music is now inventing a musical instrument …
Not too long before Chancellor Irving Shain added “emeritus” to his title, he had a meeting with Eunice Meske, then director of the School of Music. That meeting turned out to be a propitious moment for the school’s piano area.
In the News: Laura Schwendinger has been back and forth to New York City more than usual lately, and this Friday is the reason why: It marks the premiere of “Shadings,” a musical composition meant to stretch the boundaries of an orchestra with sound and light inside the prestigious Carnegie Hall. (The Wisconsin State Journal)
University Opera director William Farlow recently has been called west for a number of assignments in Iowa. Last summer, he directed “Le nozze di Figaro” for Des Moines Metro Opera, becoming the first guest director in the company’s 38-year history.
Music student wins grand prize in Chopin Piano Competition Chaoyin Cai, a doctoral student in the School of Music, won the prestigious Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in of the bicenntenial of the composer’s birth. After 10 hours of competition,the judges selected 27-year-old Cai for the grand prize. She played G-sharp minor Etude Op. 25 No. [...]
Two University of Wisconsin School of Music alumnae have advanced to the the Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Minneapolis in February 2011. The winners are Emily Birsan (Masters in Music Performance, 2010) and Kristin Schwecke (Masters in Music Performance, 2010). Birsan completed her degree in Opera under the direction of Professor William Farlow [...]
The UW-Madison World Percussion Ensemble is heading to Indianapolis to perform for the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. It is the only ensemble of its kind to be selected for this honor through the society’s International Percussion Ensemble Competition, sharing pride of place with three college/university and two high school ensembles that perform western music. [...]
Mary Perkinson, nearing the completion of her D.M.A. degree in violin performance at the School of Music, has combined empathy and entrepreneurship to forge a partnership benefiting hospital patients and music students. It began in the summer of 2009 with a visit to the Cleveland Clinic where a family member had recently undergone surgery. While [...]
Across A Distance by Nick Lantz; music by Scott Gendel directed by Kelly J. G. Bremner Mitchell Theatre, UW-Madison campus The disparate worlds of Deaf performance and opera come together for this world premiere. Across A Distance is a multimedia bilingual (English and American Sign Language) performance piece that tells the story of two people, [...]
Douglas Hill and John Stevens, professors at the School of Music, have no lack of responsibilities to keep them busy.
A double degree in music and library and information studies has been formalized between the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) and the School of Music.
The UW Wind Ensemble (School of Music) will tour the north-central region of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota the first week of March.
L&S Alumnus Nathaniel Stampley (BM’08, Music Performance) is in his third year starring as Mufasa in The Lion King on Broadway.
Mimmi Fulmer’s most recent CD, “American Vistas”, was called “superb” by American Record Guide, concluding “anyone who enjoys great American music should find this.”
University Opera was recently featured in a half-page spread in the September issue of Classical Singer…
On October 26, 2009, music education students and faculty hosted eight members of Huapangueritos…
The Wingra Woodwind Quintet, ensemble in residence at the School of Music, departs for France on November 7 to participate in the Biennial International Woodwind Quintet Festival taking place in and around Marseille.
David Perry, professor of violin and first violinist of the Pro Arte Quartet, has pursued a variety of creative and pedagogical activities over the past year.
Karlos Moser, professor of music and director of University Opera from 1961 to 1998, has been named a Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
Two professors from the School of Music will be teaching students of a much broader age range than usual when they report for duty at Grandparents University on July 16.
The School of Music is happy to announce several faculty, staff and student awards
Two anonymous donors also made a commitment of $20 million in support of the School of Music’s future performance center on the northwest corner of University Avenue and Lake Street.
