My first year in the Chair’s office, I was told, would be exhilarating and exhausting. I found it to be more of the former than the latter, owing principally to the extraordinary achievements of my colleagues and our students. As the Department and University continue their long recovery from the disruptions of the COVID pandemic, it felt as if the study, performance, and creation of music at Cornell accelerated for twelve straight months.
Our world-class faculty continued to be recognized for their leading contributions this year. We saw new books from Professor Annette Richards and from Senior Lecturer Chris Miller, as well as an inventive, new curatorial platform from Professor Joe Lerangis. Professor Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri was recognized with the Wekbeitrage des Kanton Zurich award for artistic excellence in the field of composition, and Professor Elizabeth Ogonek’s orchestral works were performed by the Oslo Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. Fellow composer, Professor Kevin Ernste, served as a senior faculty member of the prestigious June in Buffalo festival. And Senior Lecturer Annie Lewandowski received a 2023 Academic Venture Fund award from Cornell’s Atkinson Center for Sustainability for her project on humpback whale song. Among the performance faculty, Professor Ariana Kim presented the world premiere of Laura Schwendinger's double violin concerto, Nightingales, while Professor Xak Bjerken returned to the Tanglewood Music Festival last summer. Meanwhile, Professor James Spinazzola conducted three world premieres by John Berners, Catherine Likhuta, and Cornell’s own Joshua Biggs with the Barbara & Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony.
This spring, we welcomed the internationally acclaimed and five-time GRAMMY Award-winning soprano, Dawn Upshaw, who, as an A.D. White Professor-at-Large, spent a week in the Department discussing and making music with students and colleagues alike. We also had the opportunity to host loadbang, this year’s Stucky Ensemble in residence, who workshopped and performed new pieces by our graduate composers. (Our brilliant graduate students have amassed a pile of awards, fellowships, and jobs too extensive to detail here, but I encourage you to click into the newsletter below for even more good news.)
This spring, we congratulated Elizabeth Ogonek, Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, and James Spinazzola, all of whom were promoted to the rank of associate professor with indefinite tenure. And we will welcome four new additions to the faculty this year and next. Dr. Jean Bernard Cerin will be assistant professor and director of the vocal program; Dr. Gabriela Gómez Estévez will be assistant professor and director of orchestras; Dr. Yen-Hsiang Nieh will be lecturer and assistant director of choral music; and Dr. Carmel Raz will join us in 2024 as assistant professor of music. These outstanding new colleagues will further burnish the Department’s reputation as an international leader in the study and performance of music, and we look forward to their dynamic presence on stage and in the classroom. Here’s to a restful summer and an exciting autumn.
Warm wishes,
Benjamin Piekut
