5/18
Louisa Shepard
Senior News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
In the latest episode of Penn Today’s ‘Understand This …’ podcast series, Herman Beavers of the School of Arts & Sciences and Glenn Bryan of the Office of Government and Community Affairs discuss civic engagement—and jazz.
Penn Live Arts kicks off its fall season with the local premiere of “Ten Thousand Birds” given by modern chamber music ensemble Alarm Will Sound in an outdoor performance at Morris Arboretum’s Bloomberg Farm
During the pandemic, the lecturer and director of Sound and Music Technology in the Department of Music switched from organizing live performance events to collaborative online technology.
Graduate student Ania Vu found creative ways to compose music during a pandemic, despite the challenge of finding inspiration while being stuck at home.
Penn experts are working with The Philadelphia Orchestra to study the aerosol droplets that wind and brass musicians produce when playing. Their findings, aimed at reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission, could help the Orchestra once again play together.
Penn Museum interns delve into “The Year of Jazz” through a monthly series of events exploring family, protest, and creativity. Music Professor Guthrie Ramsey and his singer/songwriter daughter Bridget Ramsey headline the first event on Feb. 28.
Preserving Black history in Philadelphia is an evolving dynamic of the city’s legacy.
For Niko Simpkins, a musician who performs, produces, and engineers his own tracks, the most exciting processes combine structure and flexibility, creativity, and rigor. As a third-year student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, he sees his mechanical engineering education as a framework for problem solving that might serve him across a broad set of endeavors, and for now, he’s more interested in learning than narrowing to any one particular career path.
Glenda Goodman, an assistant professor of music, explores how hand-copying musical compositions and amateur performance shaped identity and ideas in the post-Revolutionary War period.
WXPN debuts its latest radio documentary, exploring the historical and cultural connections between Haiti and New Orleans.
Louisa Shepard
Senior News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
Tyshawn Sorey of the School of Arts & Sciences has won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in music for “Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith),” a concerto for saxophone and orchestra.
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Samantha Hill of Penn Libraries discusses the recent acquisition of two collections of archival materials by Sun Ra, a prolific jazz musician and forefather to the Afrofuturist movement.
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Jasmine Henry of the School of Arts & Sciences says that the success of Sugar Hill Records and “Rapper’s Delight,” both created by entrepreneur Sylvia Robinson, significantly contributed to mainstream acceptance of hip-hop.
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The South Asian a cappella group Penn Masala will perform at the state dinner for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House.
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During a tour in Chile, members of the Penn Glee Club are interviewed on a podcast of the Chilean North American Institute.
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“Be Holding,” a poetry performance that seeks to heal grieving Black families, was directed by Brooke O’Harra and composed by Tyshawn Sorey, both of the School of Arts & Sciences.
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