Padma Mynampaty (Photo by Rashelle Palmer and Maurisa McKay)

A high note of musician��’s first year at Newhouse might have been entertaining the crowd during her first live show with a full band at Syracuse’s Westcott Theater. “It’s one of my favorite things just seeing everyone sing the words to a song I wrote in Massachusetts and now I’m in college,” Mynampaty said in recalling the October show.

A sophomore this fall in the Newhouse School’s prestigious Mynampaty is a first-generation Indian-American singer-songwriter and recording artist from suburban Boston. After releasing her first EP (extended play) “” in December 2022 and the single “” in March, Mynampaty has one foot in the creative side of the music industry while she studies the business side.

Mynampaty, who�� under just her first name, creates music that’s dreamy and soothing, framed by relaxed guitars and sprightly percussion. “I really wanted to put out an album because I wanted to show a story and just have something that people could listen to,” she said. “I thought it’d be really sweet to put a bunch of songs together at the end of the year just to be proud of a body of work.”

As a child, she wrote poetry and played the guitar, a combination of skills that would develop as she started performing covers at open mic nights. “I wanted to start performing on my own so I started to write songs,” says Mynampaty. “The main draw for me getting into music was that I could write songs about how I was feeling because that’s the only way I could really express myself.”

Padma Mynampaty (Photo by Rashelle Palmer and Maurisa McKay)

Her performances look a little different now, rocking out with friends on a stage that hosts many of her favorite artists, like Setnor School of Music alumnus . Her Westcott Theater backing band consisted of friends and fellow Bandier students ��and Romy Vanalmen, as well as Grace Ferguson and Giulianna Lapalucci, both students in the .

The right mix

Mynampaty’s first year at Newhouse was one of accomplishments and growth. Bandier mixes the business of music, media, marketing and entrepreneurship with hands-on experiences that prepare students for a successful career in the music industry. “I can learn about the business aspect of music and be a student, while also playing house shows and making music,” says Mynampaty. “I feel the balance of being an artist while being a business student.”

, director of the Bandier program, is proud of what the 2022-23 group of first-year students have accomplished. “We have an incredible freshman class, and it’s been really gratifying to see them come in and express themselves, taking the standards and culture of the Bandier program to even higher heights,” he said. Bandier was by ��in 2022.

Mynampaty’s favorite aspect of the program is the tight-knit, community feel. As all the students work toward their music business career goals, it can be comforting and encouraging to know they’ll all be in the industry together, maybe even colleagues at a company, Mynampaty said. “Being in an intimate group of people doing the same thing you’re doing is really fun,” she said. “Everyone in my class is super tight with each other … and just being in an environment where people are just as passionate about you is motivating.”

Padma Mynampaty (Photo by Rashelle Palmer and Maurisa McKay)

Perks of the program

Another perk that Mynampaty enjoys is the , which is exclusive to Bandier students and features music business executives discussing their careers and the industry. One lecture featured Sam Hollander, a multiplatinum songwriter and producer from Crush Music. The next day, Hollander conducted a songwriter workshop for students and gave invaluable feedback on demo songs students played for him. Mynampaty connected with Hollander, which led to an internship at Crush Music. “It’s super cool to have that connection and knowing that I’m going to be able to continue with it past just that workshop and lecture that he gave to us in Syracuse,” she said.

said her dream is to go on tour and “keep making music that I’m passionate about.” She hopes to release another album this fall. “I’ve always known I really like songwriting and telling stories and sending it to my friends and having them relate to it,” she said. “I just love building little communities with my music.”

David Knapp

Modern music technology—and in particular digital audio workstations (DAWs), such as Garage Band or Soundtrap—are changing that paradigm. But by how much and to what end?

New research by , assistant professor of music education in the and , sets out to assess the extent to which creating, arranging and storing digital music online has increased in music education classrooms, especially during and after the coronavirus pandemic that sent learning online in 2020-2021.

In doing so, Knapp is exploring how affordable DAWs are making music education more democratic, equitable and inclusive; how they are shifting music education away from performance toward computer-mediated creativity and composition that may appeal to more students; and how big data collected on their use—given that students’ creative behaviors are automatically encoded—can give researchers new insights into music learning that were once unfathomable.

“As practices and practitioners in our field move farther into digital spaces, we will need to develop new research methodologies that respond to these new spaces and attend to the different ways music making and learning are taking place,” says Knapp and his co-authors in “” (Research Studies in Music Education, 2023).

Knapp sat down to explain the background of this research project, why he chose to study Soundtrap’s use, how his research is being applied to his teaching and practice, and the exciting future of digital music-making in schools.

Syracuse University is ringing in the holidays with its third “” concert on Sunday, Dec. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in historic .

Free and open to the public, the all-ages show features songs, carols and instrumental classics performed by the (SUBE) and the (SOS) Chorus, led by artistic director James T. Spencer and master director Kay Crawford, respectively.

Both groups are joined by emcee Bruce Paulsen, an on-air host for WCNY-FM; Harmonic Collective, an award-winning men’s a cappella chorus; and pianist Jon Bergman.

Attendees are invited to bring food or personal care items as a donation for the . For more information, contact Hendricks Chapel at chapel@syr.edu or 315.443.2901.

The University offers free parking in the Irving Avenue Garage and the Quad Lot on North Campus. Convenient on-street parking is also available, due to students being on winter break.

Syracuse University Brass Ensemble playing during a previous performance.

“This new holiday tradition provides a distinctive opportunity to connect campus and community,” says the Rev. Brian E. Konkol, dean of Hendricks Chapel. “The Syracuse University Brass Ensemble and Spirit of Syracuse Chorus are much loved at Hendricks Chapel, leaving us excited for this latest chapter in our collaboration.”

SUBE and the SOS Chorus came together in 2019 for the inaugural “Horns and Harmonies” concert. The results were so positive that organizers decided to formalize the collaboration.

“A tradition was born, building on decades of successful SUBE winter concerts in Hendricks Chapel,” says Spencer, a meredith professor of who has conducted, written for and played in SUBE for much of its 35-year history. “SUBE and the SOS Chorus bring out the best in each another, while fostering a sense of community.”

“Horns and Harmonies” features individual and combined sets by SUBE and the SOS Chorus, culminating in a group performance of Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival.” The evening concludes with a traditional candlelight service in which everyone sings “Silent Night.”

Spencer, for one, is excited to deliver “fresh interpretations” of seasonal classics like Prokofiev’s “Sleighride” and Strauss Jr.’s “Radetsky March,” along with such holiday fare as “Jingle Bells” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” There’s even a piece inspired by the John Adams orchestral fanfare, “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.”

The SOS Chorus will also delve into different genres, ranging from pop (Fleetwood Mac’s “Songbird”) to quasi-classical (“Night of Silence/Silent Night”) to Broadway (“We Need a Little Christmas from Mame”). Rounding out the lineup are such chestnuts as “Sleighride”; “Mary, Did You Know?”; and “The Man with the Bag.”

“We’re excited to reunite with the SUBE,” says Crawford, who is joined by assistant director Sky Harris and associate directors Alicia Caron and Paulette Young. “Four-part a cappella harmonies combined with the sounds of a British-style brass band are pure joy.”

“Horns and Harmonies” will be broadcast on WCNY-FM on Saturday, Dec. 24, at 8 p.m.

The Spirit of Syracuse (SOS) Chorus performing at the Sweet Adelines International convention.

, which is licensed to the University and is part of the , also plans to air the performance in December.�� Celebrating its 65^th season, the 70-member SOS Chorus is one of the oldest chapters of Sweet Adelines International (SAI)—a global organization committed to advancing barbershop harmony through education, performance and competition. Prior to the pandemic, the all-female chorus placed 21^st out of 600 groups worldwide at the SAI Convention and Competition in New Orleans.

“We create musical excellence in a warm, caring and supportive environment,” says Crawford, who has been involved with the chorus for more than three decades. “This encourages the personal growth and development of each member.”

Harris, Crawford’s colleague, is the founding director of Harmonic Collective, which participated last summer in the Barbershop Harmony Society’s international convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

SUBE is no stranger to Hendricks Chapel, having participated in the annual “” concert from 2007-19. The 35-piece ensemble regularly performs at Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Le Moyne College. SUBE also presents about a dozen concerts a year throughout the region.

Based in Syracuse’s , SUBE is preparing to return to the Gettysburg Brass Band Festival in Pennsylvania, where it last performed in 2017. The ensemble also has appeared at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, Kentucky, and the North American Brass Band Association’s U.S. open contest, earning two first place awards.

Each December, students in the ��in the�� entertain the University community with live musical performances, and this year, there are two sold-out, in-person concerts on Dec. 4—4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.—along with a on Dec. 11.

Hosted by , these performances are free and open to the public. Celebrating the sounds of the season, Holidays at Hendricks is anchored by the ��and its director��, associate professor of applied music and performance and assistant director of choral activities in the Setnor School.

José “Peppie” Calvar is director of the Hendricks Chapel Choir and artistic director of Holidays at Hendricks. He spends 18 months organizing and orchestrating the student-centric performance that has become a holiday tradition in Central New York.

“The amount the show has grown since my arrival here in 2013 is incredible,” says Calvar, who spends 18 months organizing each year’s musical celebration.

“We’re showing institutionally what we as the Setnor School of Music do best, and we get to do it all at once in this one big moment. It’s tremendously fulfilling for us and for our students, and we hope that our audience feels the same way.”

Calvar stops by to discuss Holidays at Hendricks and what the student-centric concerts mean to the University community, why Holidays at Hendricks is such a special celebration and what people can expect from this year’s performances.

Calvar also shares the challenges of producing the first virtual Holidays at Hendricks during the COVID-19 pandemic, how he went from being an engineering student to pursuing a career in music and his passion for spreading choral music around the world through a series of international residencies.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 125 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring José��“Peppie” Calvar, director of the Hendricks Chapel Choir and artistic director of Holidays at Hendricks. A transcript [PDF]��is also available.

The premiere is one of six programs that SNM is presenting this academic year throughout Central New York, encompassing a range of sounds, styles and compositional scenes.

Founded in 1971, SNM is the only year-round new music organization in New York state outside of Manhattan. The Syracuse-based nonprofit also is a longtime University partner, with students, faculty and alumni annually participating in 30-some concerts and workshops. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit .

The schedule is as follows:

Friday, Sept. 9
Second performance of “Home Burial“ opera by Charles Lupia ’77, L’91
CNY Jazz Central (441 East Washington St., Syracuse)
7:30 p.m.
Lupia makes his stage debut with “Home Burial,” a one-act chamber opera based on Robert Frost’s “The Death of the Hired Man.” Against the backdrop of a familial homecoming, Lupia considers themes of power, friendship, guilt and redemption. The production stars soprano Laura Enslin, tenor Dan Fields ’17 and bass-baritone David Neal, accompanied by pianist Sar Strong G’98, violinist Jonathan Hwang and cellist Zachary Sweet—all under the direction of Heather Buchman. The first half of the all-American program features vocal selections by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Paulus and Judith Cloud.

Sunday, Oct. 2
“Evolutions: Music by the Next Generation”
St. Paul’s Episcopal (220 East Fayette St., Syracuse)
4 p.m.

Natalie Draper

“Evolutions is a three-movement work exploring gradual change, the idea that something can evolve out of nothing,” explains Natalie Draper, an assistant professor in the in Syracuse’s . Scored for an extended Pierrot Ensemble (i.e., flute, clarinets, violin, viola, cello, piano and percussion), the program’s title work begins with a groove, which Draper reworks through various instrumental colors and registers. The wave-like second movement swells before receding into a lush, choralesque finale.

Sean O’Loughlin

Also on the program are “Floating Points“ by Ryan Carter and “Pointillism” by Symphoria Principal Pops Conductor Sean O’Loughlin ’95, both commissioned by SNM. “Minnaloushe” by Alexandros Darna completes the program. Darna is the 2022 winner of the Brian M. Israel Prize, co-sponsored by SNM and the New York Federation of Music Clubs.

The concert is performed by members of the Society Players.

Friday, Nov. 4
Music from the Society of Composers Inc., Region II Conference
Park Central Presbyterian Church (504 East Fayette St., Syracuse)
7:30 p.m.
SNM teams up with the Setnor School, host of the Society of Composers Inc. (SCI)’s Region II Conference, for an evening of new music by established and rising stars. The program features works by SCI members Jiyoun Chung, Wenbin Lyu, Paul Novak, Charles Peck, Paul Richards, Sami Seif and Octavio Vazquez.

Friday, Feb. 17-Sunday, Feb. 19
Annual “Vision of Sound” performance
Syracuse, Geneva and Rochester (venues TBA)
Times TBA

Christopher Cresswell

An SNM tradition for 17 years, “Vision of Sound” presents an evening of original music, dance and movement by regional artists. The Society Players perform works by Christopher Cresswell ’11, former Syracuse professor Sally Lamb McCune, Ryan Chase, Carrie Magin, Mark Olivieri and Doc Woods.

Sunday, March 26
Syracuse Symposium concert “Repair Works”
Hergenhan Auditorium (Newhouse 3), Syracuse University
2 p.m.
SNM marks ’s yearlong theme of “Repair: Retelling, Resisting, Reimaging” with the world premiere of a piece by former Syracuse professor James Gordon Williams. Rounding out the program are “Glorious Mahalia” by Stacy Garrop; “Oh, Freedom” by guest composer Anthony R. Green; and “I told you” by Flannery Cunningham.

Sunday, April 23
Music by SNM prize-winners
St. Paul’s Episcopal (220 East Fayette St., Syracuse)
4 p.m.
SNM concludes its 51^st season with new music by prize-winning composers. Featured are SNM-commissioned composer Steve Ferre’s “Shadows of Innocence,” winner of the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers; Octavio Vazquez’s “Migrant,” co-commissioned by SNM and the National Endowment for the Arts; and 2022 Israel/Pellman prize-winner Christian-Frédéric Bloquert’s “Serenade: Recomposed.”

SNM is the brainchild of Neva Pilgrim, who co-founded the successful nonprofit in 1971. Not even a global pandemic has deterred SNM from continuing to fund commissions, present concerts and workshops, and recognize emerging composers. “We’re excited about the next 50 years,” says Pilgrim, who has served as an artist-in-residence at Syracuse and Colgate universities. “The success of the Society for New Music is a testament to not only the hard work of many people, but also the growing popularity of contemporary classical music.”

Pilgrim, who also has produced and hosted “Fresh Ink” on WCNY-FM for the past 26 years, sums up the SNM aesthetic with three words: “Variety. Imagination. Originality.”

Regular tickets are $20. Student and senior citizen tickets are $15. Audience members 18 and under are free of charge.

“Repair Works” is free to Syracuse students, faculty and staff with ID.

The annual holiday concert by the Syracuse University Brass Ensemble features performances of classical chestnuts and family favorites, like “The Nutcracker” and Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.” [Photo taken prior to COVID-19.]

Ring in the holidays with “Horns and Harmonies”—an annual concert by the Syracuse University Brass Ensemble (SUBE) on Sunday, Dec. 19, at 4 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel. For decades, SUBE’s performances in the historic chapel have been a treasured holiday tradition. This year’s event is no exception, featuring COVID-safe performances of classical chestnuts and family favorites, like “The Nutcracker” and Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.”

For more information, visit .

Join Artistic Director James T. Spencer and the award-winning, 35-piece SUBE for this all-ages program, culminating with a heartwarming candlelight ceremony.

Free and open to the public, the concert includes complimentary parking in all University lots on a first come, first-served basis.

“Horns and Harmonies” is made possible by support from Syracuse University, the College of Arts and Sciences and Hendricks Chapel.

The concert is slated for radio broadcast later in December on both WCNY and WAER, as well as delayed video streaming on Facebook.��Broadcast dates will be available on the SUBE Facebook page later this month.

Gregory Wood. Photo by Ryan Wood

Cellist Gregory Wood and percussionist Rob Bridge, both VPA faculty members, are performing in a virtual concert on Sunday, Jan. 31, at 3 p.m. in the Onondaga Community College Recital Hall. They are joined by former VPA faculty members Kelly Covert and Sar Shalom Strong G’98, who respectively play flute and piano, and violinist Sonya Stith Williams, a veteran of the University’s Women in Leadership initiative.

Tickets are $20 (regular), $15 (seniors/students) and free for ages 18 and under. For more information and tickets, visit .

The online concert is part of SNM’s annual “Sound-Futures” series, which grew out of Syracuse Symposium in the .

Founding Director Neva Pilgrim says the concert reflects SNM’s yearlong theme of “Sound Worlds in Uncommon Time(s).” “We’re interested in the intersection and recontextualization of the old and new,” says the former VPA faculty member, who is an artist-in-residence at Colgate University. “The program uses music and technology to bring myths, stories and poetry from the past into the present—and future.”

Robert Bridge. Photo courtesy of SABIAN Ltd.

The concert features the world premieres of Ryan Carter’s “Floating Points” and Paul Leary’s “Hephaestus’ Fire.”

An assistant professor of music at Hamilton College, Carter has earned commissions from all over the country, including Carnegie Hall, and praise from The New York Times, which describes his music as “imaginative … like a Martian dance party.” “Floating Points” is scored for chamber ensemble and electronics and encourages audience participation via an app from his .

Later this semester, he will participate in an online forum in the Setnor School.

Leary’s piece is inspired by Hephaestus, the Greek god of blacksmiths. An assistant professor of music at the State University of New York at Oswego, Leary describes “Hephaestus’ Fire” as a “juxtaposition of ancient machinery and new technology.” Case in point: It is written for antique anvil and electronics.

“Sound-Futures” continues with two pieces by women with ties to Cornell University. “Cereus: Night Blooms” (2019) is by Kay Kyurim Rhie, a UCLA music professor who recently served as a Cornell Visiting Lecturer. The piece honors her late father, who gave up creative writing to move his family from Korea to the United States. Jihyun Kim, a doctoral student at Cornell, is the composer of “Once Upon a Time” (2018), which she characterizes as a “fanciful fairy tale.”

Rounding out the program are two works foreshadowing “Black History Month.” Regina Baiocchi’s “Feather and Bowties” (2009) memorializes her composition mentor, Hale Smith, who “always wrote with a Montblanc pen and wore a bowtie.” Valerie Coleman’s “Fanmi Imèn” (2018) is a nod to the Maya Angelou poem “Human Family.” The piece features French flute stylings, laced with elements of indigenous African and Asian music.

Now in its 49th year, SNM is one of the nation’s oldest and largest organizations dedicated to the commissioning and advocating of new works by regional composers.

SNM has enjoyed a long partnership with the University and, more recently, has provided mentoring opportunities for aspiring composers. Kevin Swenson, a master’s student in composition in VPA, is in his second year of working with SNM. Past mentees include Andrei Skorobogatykh G’20 and Chris Cresswell ’11.

The Black Celestial Choral Ensemble performed a concert at the famous Ebenezer Baptist Church in November 2019.

Rev. Dr. Seretta C. McKnight ’80 came to Syracuse University in the fall of 1976. As a freshman she had a difficult time finding her place on campus. “The thing I found missing my freshman year was that sense of home, a sense of comradery, a sense of belonging,” she said. For her, home was found in gospel music, so in the spring of 1977, McKnight along with several of her peers founded the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble (BCCE), and since then, generations of students have found their spiritual and social home at the BCCE.

Seretta McKnight

For over 40 years, the BCCE has played an integral role in the Syracuse University community. Since its inception in 1977, the BCCE has created a spiritual community for students and has also played a part in the advancement of social justice on campus. McKnight spoke over the summer with Hendricks Chapel Dean Brian Konkol to reflect on the legacy of the BCCE as part of the “Matters that Matter: A Conversation Series from Hendricks Chapel,” on Facebook Live.

The BCCE continues to provide its members with a home away from home. The organization welcomes students from all backgrounds and provides a comforting environment for students to bond through music.

“It’s a safe space, it’s not only about singing, it’s not only about religion. It’s about having people who share the same passions as you in one single space,” says current BCCE member and incoming Student Association Chair of Community Engagement, Brittnee Johnson ’21.

The members get to showcase their passion and talent through their various events, such as their annual anniversary concert, Family Weekend concert and Spring Tour.

With support from Hendricks Chapel and the Office of Multicultural Advancement, the BCCE was able to spend a weekend in Atlanta in November 2019. There they performed a concert at the famous Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his father. The choir performed alongside BCCE alumni and notable gospel artists, including Kurt Carr.

Ashleigh Brown. Please note, this image was taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and does not reflect current public health guidelines.

“It was awesome, that whole entire concert was awesome. To be able to go around Atlanta and to see some history about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and to sing with the alumni was great,” says current director and BCCE alumna Ashleigh Brown ’14.

The Atlanta trip was an incredible opportunity for students and alumni to perform as well as engage with the BCCE alumni network. “Planning Atlanta and getting there, a lot had to do with the alumni. It shows how much the alumni, even after graduating, still were connected to BCCE. I’m talking about people who graduated in 1980 were a part of this experience. It just goes to show how important BCCE is on campus,” Johnson says.

A sentiment echoed by Konkol during the Facebook Live event when he said, “When people talk about Hendricks Chapel as being the heart of Syracuse University, I think of the BCCE as its soul.”

In addition to the musical, spiritual and community aspects of the organization, the BCCE also plays a part in advancing social justice on campus. During the #NotAgainSU student protests last November, members of the choir went to the Barnes Center at The Arch during the sit in and sang during the protests.

Current BCCE member Brittnee Johnson ’21 recalls students crying and thanking choir members after their acapella performance of “There Is No Way,” by Ricky Dillard at the Barnes Center.

“Singing ‘There Is No Way’ in a group of so many people, and to be able to touch people just shows you how much gospel music and a group like the BCCE can bring change,” Johnson says. “It’s more than just singing for us; it’s more about representing a bigger purpose and representing the culture of Black students on the Syracuse campus.”

Due to the pandemic, the BCCE was forced to cancel its Spring Break Tour concerts and its anniversary concert in April, and there are still challenges for how they operate this fall. Despite the challenges, the students are determined to ensure that the legacy of the BCCE lives on, and that the soul of Syracuse University shines.

Members of the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble gather during their trip to Atlanta in November 2019.

Titled “A Day of Improvisation,” the workshop is Saturday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in OCC’s Academic II building at 4585 West Seneca Turnpike in Syracuse.

The event features six facilitators, including Mary Knysh, a world-renowned multi-instrumentalist, recording artist and educator, and Alina Plourde, an oboe instructor in the Setnor School of Music in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).

“A Day of Improvisation” is open to the public, and costs $75 before Oct. 21 and $85 after Oct. 22. Family rates, scholarships and sliding scale tuition are available. For more information and to register, visit , or contact Plourde at alinaoboe@yahoo.com.

Co-founded in 1986 by cellist David Darling (Bobby McFerrin, Paul Winter Consort) and flutist Bonnie Insull, MfP is a nonprofit worldwide organization dedicated to music making and music improvisation as a means of self-expression.

MfP boasts satellite programs throughout North America and Europe, including a new one in Central New York.

“We believe any combination of people and instruments can make music together,” says Plourde, who regularly plays with Symphoria and other local groups, such as the Society for New Music and Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton. “Whether you’re a professional performer, a teacher, a student, a dancer or someone with an interest in music-making, you’ll get something out of the workshop.”

“A Day of Improvisation” is open to vocalists and instrumentalists of all stripes, and seeks to provide inspiration and new ideas for composers, songwriters and music educators. Electives include singing, drumming, movement, visual art, chamber music playing and group facilitation.

Plourde extends a “special invitation” to people who do not read music and to classically trained musicians who want to explore other idioms, such as folk, rock, jazz or world music.

She also is excited to reunite with Knysh, an MfP teacher and trainer who travels the world, offering music improvisation seminars and drum circle facilitator trainings and performances.

In addition to working for MfP, Knysh has founded a company called Rhythmic Connections, which advances health, education and creative development through ethnic-influenced music improvisation activities.

“She is a cutting-edge facilitator who can work with groups of any age and experience,” says Plourde, who also teaches music at OCC and the Montessori School of Syracuse. “Her energy is contagious.”

Knysh and Plourde are joined by four other facilitators:

• Christy Clavio, a professional teaching artist and musician from Asheville, North Carolina, specializing in multicultural music;
• Jimbo Talbot, a Syracuse-based drum circle facilitator, sound therapist, vocalist and performer;
• Jessica King, contrabassoonist and second bassoonist of Symphoria who, along with Plourde, is a founding member of the New Leaf Ensemble improvisational collective; and
• Laura Enslin, a soprano soloist and recitalist and former VPA instructor, who is founder of the CNY Singing Garden voice studio.

Plourde says that while attendees are encouraged to bring their own instruments, they may experiment with any of the dozens of multicultural instruments at the workshop, ranging from mbiras, hand-pans and pianos to a variety of djembe drums.

“This is our third year offering the event. The feeling of community, the deep listening, the artistry and the beautiful music created on the spot amaze me every time,” she adds.

MfP offers seminars and workshops on both sides of the Atlantic, in addition to the three-year Musician and Leadership Program. The organization’s humanistic and inclusive philosophy (in which “there are no wrong notes,” Darling writes) is popular among performers, composers, music educators and expressive arts therapists.

Aretha Franklin, 1968 (Wikimedia Commons)

The tribute is free and open to the public. CFAC is located at 805 East Genesee St. in Syracuse.

For more information, call Tamar Smithers ‘07, CFAC’s education director, at 315.442.2230 or visit .

Smithers considers Franklin an icon whose artistry defied categorization. “Her voice was a treasure. It broke down barriers and unified people from all backgrounds. Aretha Franklin provided the soundtrack for both the Civil Rights and Women’s movements,” she says.

The evening begins with a moderated panel discussion, followed by an audience Q&A, about Franklin’s impact on music, activism, spirituality and community service.

The panelists are as follows:

• Jackie Grace ’93, author, storyteller, educational consultant and motivational speaker;
• Joan Hillsman, director of the Syracuse chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, as well as a prominent teacher-scholar and performer;
• Janis Mayes, associate professor of African American Studies (AAS) in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), who also is an author, literary critic and translator, and Africana literature specialist;
• Juhanna Rogers, motivational speaker, commentator, artist and education activist;
• The Rev. Phil M. Turner, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Syracuse;
• James Gordon Williams, assistant professor of AAS, who is a pianist, composer and critical musicologist; and
• Roosevelt “Rick” Wright Jr., professor emeritus of television, radio and film in the Newhouse School.

The program continues with an hour-long set by Brownskin, local R&B favorites in the vein of Mint Condition, the Roots and Tony! Toni! Toné!

“Brownskin draws on decades of jazz, hip-hop, funk and dance to create a high-octane show. They know how to gain the ‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T’ of the audience,” says Smithers, in a nod to Franklin’s signature song.

One of the greatest singers of all time, Franklin died in August at the age of 76. Her career spanned more than six decades, selling more than 75 million records worldwide and racking up 18 Grammy Awards. She was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The tribute is co-sponsored by CFAC (which is a partner of AAS) and OMA, with support from AAS, the Department of Women and Gender Studies in A&S and the University’s Student African-American Society.

The Music Technology Access Project is in it’s 7th year of providing children with disabilities the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument of choice. The program is a two-week camp taught by graduate students from the music department.

“For all the campers, this is the highlight of their year. They look forward to it all year, the lead up to knowing when the date is approaching that they get to get into the studio, relearn all the equipment, anticipating having new campers come into the program. There’s a portion of the campers that are new every year and then to have incredible music come out of it at the end that really moves your mind and your heart,” said Abbott.

Hoing, researcher in child development and human behavior explains some of the reasons why a song may be on repeat for weeks straight. She says that people tend to have an emotional connection to songs,��“The same sad song playing over and over can heal the pain, and it feels as if you’re not the only one who suffered this loss or breakup or emotional distress,”��she says. It’s not just the similar emotional distress that gets people hooked, it can be songs that keep the energy high. Dr. Hoing states, “If you’re in an upbeat mood, a major mode with a catchy beat just makes you feel even more up.”

She also mentions that some songs are designed to be “catchy,” which leads to its repetition.

The New American All Stars practice for their debut concert at Setnor Auditorium.

It’s the debut concert of the Music in the Community program run by David Knapp, an assistant professor of music education in the and . The musicians include music education students in VPA’s Setnor School of Music and the School of Education and members of the New American All-Stars from the Catholic Youth Organization’s Refugee Youth Program. The program includes popular and original songs from the United States, Syria and Rwanda.

“The primary goal is to provide the students at CYO with a feeling of success and accomplishment,” says Knapp. “By doing this, the audience will see the rich diversity and talent within our city.”

Twelve students between the ages of 13 and 18 comprise the core of New American All-Stars. Coming from Congo, Rwanda, Syria, Jordan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, they represent the diversity of Syracuse, says Knapp.

They perform on a��variety of rock band instruments—including electric guitars and basses, a drum set and��keyboard—and will be joined by 14 undergraduate and graduate��students in the Secondary General Music Methods course, who will play their own songs and accompany the New American All-Stars.

The New American All-Stars and students in the methods course wrote or selected all the music on the program, Knapp says. “Once students selected their music, I simply transcribed and taught them��the chord changes. But many of these students at CYO��were already so��musically talented, they were able to figure out the music themselves.”

Music in the Community began in fall 2017 to connect undergraduate and graduate student experiences with community programs, Knapp says.

“In doing so, music education was able to partner with community organizations, like CYO, in providing much-needed services, while also giving our students meaningful pre-service learning experiences with diverse groups in our Syracuse community.”

The performance is made possible by support from the John L. and Dona Lynn Kreischer Scholars Initiative at the School of Education. Jack Kreischer��III ’65 is a Life Trustee of Syracuse University and his wife, Lynn Duncan Kreischer ’66, is an emerita member of the School of Education Board of Visitors and former chair. They set up the fund to support the Teaching English Language Learners program, with preference for literacy collaboration with the music education program on community music.

The Kreischers’ “continued commitment to the university and Syracuse community��has allowed for this kind of opportunity to partner in ways that support student and community outcomes,” Knapp says.

The New American All-Stars concert runs from noon-1 p.m. in Setnor Auditorium of Crouse College, followed by a reception. The events are free and open to the public.

Quinn XCII

University ��Union has�� announced�� the ��entertainment for Mayfest 2018, featuring ��singer-­songwriter Quinn ��XCII, rapper YBN Nahmir and DJ-­producer Orange Calderón. Gates for the event will open at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 27, in Walnut Park.

With his ability to seamlessly blur the lines between pop, electronic, hip-­hop, and soul music, Quinn XCII has quickly paved his own lane with his unique sound. In the Spring of 2017 he went on his first sold-­out headline tour through the East and West coasts, straight into summer festivals. Quinn XCII’s debut album, “The Story of Us,” was released on Sept. 15 via Columbia Records. The album is led by his rising single “Straightjacket,” which was named SoundCloud’s “Song of the Month” and reached #3 on SoundCloud’s Pop chart;; at Spotify, “Straightjacket” has been streamed more than 18 million times around the globe, with 2.8 million monthly listeners. His first nationwide headline tour directly to follow the album release was nearly sold out.

All one needs is a single video to breakthrough. That’s proven out since the ’80s with MTV, and it continues to prove true in the YouTube generation of the 2010s. YBN Nahmir is witnessing that fact first hand after the rapid viral success of his song “Rubbin Off The Paint.”���� It was uploaded in early September 2017, but within a couple weeks, the video was on Worldstar and on its way to its first million views. Fast forward only a few weeks later and the video eclipsed 40 million views while racking up over 10 million streams on Spotify, numbers that earned it the #79 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the #33 spot on the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop chart upon its chart debut. Vince Staples recorded a freestyle over “Rubbin Off The Paint” and he even got a shout out from Chris Brown. He’s released a number of singles “I Got A Stick” and remixes (“Gucci Gang,” “The Race”) since the burst of success of his initial single and they have gone on to rack up millions of plays. Though he’s still in the initial honeymoon of viral success, there are already the signs of a long career.

YBN Nahmir

Beginning her career in the summer of 2014, Orange Calderón sprang on the scene with a calm sense of urgency. In two short years, she’d covered most of the Continental U.S., opened for megastar artists including Skrillex and Outkast, played in eight countries and begun hosting celebrity interviews on her personal Dash Radio, show “The Juice.” In December of 2016, Orange became the first woman to champion a national competition in the DJ field, taking home the title at McDonald’s x Complex’s Annual “Flavor Battle” DJ Tournament. The following February she was named among the “DeLeón 100,” a curated list of music industry trailblazers identified by Sean “Diddy” Combs in partnership with Billboard. She’s continued to blaze those trails, DJing in a national Jeep Commercial, Host DJing several Season 1 episodes of VH1’s “Hiphop Squares,” creative consulting on popular award shows and being the first female to curate for TIDAL’s “DJ Selector” Series, and Serato’s “Serato Cast” Series.

The activations and enhancements at Mayfest will include student art installations, various photo ops, airbrush tattoo, henna, inflatable obstacle courses, a lounge area, giant board games and Silent Disco. The student DJs at this year’s Silent Disco will feature Nich Hoffman, Khari Brandes, Culture Clash and Ryan French.

Orange Calderón

Entrance to Mayfest is free for all SU/ESF undergraduate students with a valid student I.D.; however, pre-­purchased tickets are required for all SU and SUNY-­ESF graduate students, SU College of Law students and guests of SU undergraduate students, along with a valid SU/SUNY-­ESF, college or military I.D. Guest and graduate/law tickets will NOT be available at the park and must be purchased for��$23.50 at the Schine Box Office, beginning Tuesday, April 17, at 9 a.m. Guest tickets purchased by SU/SUNY-­ESF undergraduate students are limited to two per I.D.

Neither student nor guest tickets grant re-entry into the park. All students and guests MUST have their most recently issued valid college or military I.D. to be granted entry to the park. A state-issued ID alone will NOT suffice. Please note that backpacks and/or bags, selfie sticks and camel backs will not be permitted. Please find all information regarding the purchase of beverage bracelets, event logistics, parking, entrance requirements and answers to FAQs at the official SU Mayfest Website.

For further questions or concerns surrounding Mayfest entertainment, activities and press, contact Keely Higgins, director of public relations for University Union, uupublicrelations@gmail.com, and follow University Union on Facebook @UniversityUnion, Twitter��@UniversityUnion��and Instagram @UniversityUnion.

About Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private, international research university with distinctive academics, diversely unique offerings and an��undeniable spirit. Located in the geographic , with a global footprint, and��, Syracuse University offers a quintessential college experience. The scope of Syracuse University is a testament to its strengths: a pioneering history dating back to 1870; a choice of more than 200 majors and 100 minors offered through 13 schools and colleges; nearly 15,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students; more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries; and a student population from all 50 U.S. states and 123 countries. For more information, please visit .

Colleen Kattau

On Thursday, April 12, singer-songwriter����will present a lecture-performance about the����from 2-3:20 p.m. in 304 Tolley. The program is part of the Syracuse Symposium course Women, the Arts and Social Change, SPA 400, taught by Gail Bulman G’96, associate professor of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (LLL).

Space is limited; registration is required. To R.S.V.P. or request special accommodations, contact Bulman at��gabulman@syr.edu.

The following day, poets Christine Kitano G’10 and Sean Thomas Dougherty G’00 will lead a mini-seminar called “Longing and Belonging: A Conversation on Poetics” from 2-4 p.m. in 304 Tolley. Space is limited; registration is required. To R.S.V.P. or request special accommodations, contact Phil Memmer, executive director of the YMCA Arts Branch, at��pmemmer@syracuseymca.org.

Later that day, Kitano and Dougherty will headline a joint reading titled “Naming What Is Left Behind” from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Jason Shinder Theater of the YMCA’s Downtown Writers Center (340 Montgomery St., Syracuse). Both are alumni of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing in the (A&S).

All three events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Syracuse University Humanities Center in A&S at 315.443.7192, or visit��.

Kattau’s visit is supported by the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean (PLACA) in the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, based in the .

Dougherty’s and Kitano’s events are supported by a Community Partnership Grant from��.

“These artists will examine notions of ‘Belonging’ from various perspectives,” says Vivian May, director of the Humanities Center and professor of women’s and gender studies in A&S. “Colleen Kattau is a bilingual musician whose work draws on folk-inspired styles and socially committed lyrics. In turn, Sean Thomas Dougherty and Christine Kitano use original verse to address notions of identity, being and belonging. All three convey what it means to belong to and be recognized by a wider community.”

A musician, educator and activist, Kattau is an associate professor of Spanish at SUNY Cortland. Much of her scholarship revolves around��nueva canción��(“new song”), a social movement that began as a swipe at Latin American dictatorships in the late 1950s and early ’60s. Since then, the New Song Movement has drawn on various traditional and popular traditions, resulting in various regional manifestations.

Kattau considers herself a��nueva cancionera, who, like the genre’s founders, uses music and poetry to promote socio-political awareness. Her career has taken her around the world, sharing the stage with such luminaries as Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton and Holly Near. Aaron “Professor Louie” Hurtwitz, longtime producer of and collaborator with The Band, lauds her singing as “pitch perfect” and “superb.”

The Cortland native also fronts a band called Dos XX, winner of the prestigious Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, New York.

Christine Kitano

“Music is a big part of Colleen’s life,” says Bulman, citing Kattau’s recent performances on the “Democracy Now!” news program and at a School of Americas Watch vigil at Fort Benning, Georgia. “Her lyrics cover a lot of ground—from labor and immigration struggles, to the civil rights, women’s and antiwar movements. She also helped get fracking banned in New York State.”

Kattau is involved with the Colombia Support Network (CSN), a national grassroots organization that uses sister communities to promote a peaceful, democratic and economically just society. Specifically, she has helped connect the cities of Syracuse, Ithaca and Cortland with the Small Farmers Movement of Cajibío, based in a violence-torn area of Colombia, South America.

“Both communities work together to face similar problems and environmental challenges brought on by corporate incursion,” says Kattau, who earned a combined M.A./Ph.D. in Spanish from A&S. “CSN condemns violations of human rights by all actors, including guerrilla groups, military, paramilitary, national police, multinational corporations and foreign agents.”

Kattau also has published articles about the New Song Movement and women writers, and has created multimedia presentations on art and activism.

“Her visit to campus will be an intimate affair, an ideal synthesis of performance and scholarship,” Bulman says.

Such intimacy also underscores the two literary events. Presented in conjunction with the����(DWC), Kitano and Dougherty’s visit will look at how notions of community inform the practice of creative writing. “‘Belonging’ is as much about being included and recognized as part of a community as it is about denial,” May says. “Both poets deal with themes of illness, violence, economic disenfranchisement, incarceration and the immigrant experience.”

An assistant professor of English and writing at Ithaca College, Kitano specializes in the teaching and study of 20th- and 21st-century American poetry, poetry writing and Asian American literature. She is the author of the poetry collections “Sky Country” (BOA Editions, 2017), which Independent Publisher named a “Notable Indie Book Release,” and “Birds of Paradise” (Lynx House Press, 2011).

“Her poems leave one feeling close and remote at the same time, estranged and yet familiar,” writes Lantern Review, an online journal devoted to Asian American poetry and art.

Adds Publishers Weekly: “Kitano’s alluring, well-crafted poems are attuned to tragedy and loss, yet an element of wonder shines through.”

Sean Thomas Dougherty

Likewise, Dougherty exemplifies profound human sensitivity. Part poet and part performer, he has appeared at the Detroit Festival of the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, New Jersey (the largest poetry event in North America), the Old Dominion University Literary Festival in Norfolk, Virginia, and at venues in Albania and Macedonia.

Doughtery’s 15 books include the forthcoming “Second O of Sorrow” (BOA) and “Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line” (BOA, 2010), a finalist for Binghamton University’s Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. Among his many honors are the Lifetime Achievement Award from Poet’s Hall in his native Erie, Pennsylvania.

Fellow poet Dorianne Laux calls him the “gypsy punk heart of American poetry.”

“Sean Thomas Doughtery has earned the reputation of a ‘blue-collar, Rust Belt Romantic,’” says May, alluding to Dougherty’s time in the Midwest, where he taught at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University. “Like Christine Kitano, he is a sensitive and dynamic artist who focuses on different and sometimes marginalized truths, histories and experiences.”

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the Office of Multicultural Affairs is hosting a series of events in April in collaboration with students, faculty and staff across campus.

The month-long celebration begins on April 1, with the kickoff event on Thursday, April 5, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in 500 Hall of Languages. Attendees will enjoy food, meet and mingle with students, faculty and staff, learn about the month’s events, view and discuss the documentary film “Vincent Who?,” and participate in the unveiling of this year’s Anti-Asian Hate Crime Exhibit.

AAPI Heritage Month consists of programs and signature events that educates all members of the Syracuse University community about the histories, cultural diversity, contributions and often-underreported challenges of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Recognized nationally in May, Syracuse University honors the month in April to celebrate while the campus community is still together.

This year’s planning committee chose “Reclaim the Past, Reframe the Future” as the theme for the month.

“This year’s theme focuses on remembering and acknowledging the past, while also looking ahead and building solidarity within the AAPI community and with other marginalized communities,” says Huey Hsiao, associate director for the Office of Multicultural Affairs and chair of the AAPI Heritage Month planning committee. “As the fastest growing racial group in the U.S., we also hope that our calendar of events educates the campus community about the unique challenges, aspirations and successes of the AAPI community.”

A highlight of AAPI Heritage Month each year is the commemorative lecture, and this year will not disappoint. Anish Shroff ’04, ESPN studio host, anchor and play-by-play commentator for college sports will be speaking on April 13 at 6 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (114 Bird Library) about “Ethnic Identity and the Power of Being Undefined. Shroff earned a B.S. in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University. The free event is co-sponsored by the Office of Program Development and is open to the public.

Other highlights for this year’s heritage month celebration include:

• April 4: Raymond Carver Reading Series: Yiyun Li,��3:45 p.m. for Q&A and 5:30 p.m. for author reading, HBC Gifford Auditorium
• April 10: “Raga and Ranga: Music and Color,” 7-9 p.m., Hendricks Chapel
• April 11: Asian/Asian American Studies Guest Speaker Series: Dr. Angie Y. Chung,��7- 8:30 p.m., 107 Hall of Languages
• April 12: Applying to Graduate School,��5:30-6:30 p.m., 500 Hall of Languages
• April 12: AAPI Heritage Month Book Club Discussion: “Crazy Rich Asians” by Kevin Kwan,��7-8:30 p.m., Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (114 Bird Library)
• April 14: 20th Annual ASIA Night presents Mr. ASIA 2018,��7-9 p.m., Grant Auditorium
• April 14: K-Night with Special Guest: JuNCurryAhn,��7-10 p.m., Schine Underground
• April 20: SASE Talent Show,��5:30-7 p.m., Jabberwocky Café
• April 24: “Race + Gender/Sexuality, Intersectionally: Workshop with AC Dumlao,” 7-9 p.m., 115 Hall of Languages
• April 25: Raymond Carver Reading Series: Julie Otsuka,��3:45 p.m. for Q&A and 5:30 p.m. for an author reading, HBC Gifford Auditorium

For full details, access the AAPI Heritage Month events calendar, designed by planning committee members Jenna Koyama ’18 and Sudan Zhang ’18, on the��. Hard copies are available for pickup in Suite 105 in the Schine Student Center.

Follow AAPI Heritage Month events and updates using the hashtag #CuseAAPIHM. ��For more information on AAPI Heritage Month events, contact Huey Hsiao at��huhsiao@syr.edu��or 315.443.9676.

About Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private, international research university with distinctive academics, diversely unique offerings and an��undeniable spirit. Located in the geographic , with a global footprint, and��, Syracuse University offers a quintessential college experience. The scope of Syracuse University is a testament to its strengths: a pioneering history dating back to 1870; a choice of more than 200 majors and 100 minors offered through 13 schools and colleges; nearly 15,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students; more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries; and a student population from all 50 U.S. states and 123 countries. For more information, please visit .

Abel Searor

On Friday, March 30,��, who teaches piano in the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music and is a staff accompanist in the Department of Drama, will lead the DCC Chancel Choir in an English version of Théodore Dubois’ “The Seven Last Words of Christ.” The performance will take place at 7 p.m. in DCC’s main sanctuary (3600 Erie Blvd., DeWitt).

Soloists include soprano����and tenor��, both of whom teach voice in the drama department and the Setnor School.��, who teaches harp in the Setnor School, also is on the program.

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call DCC at 315.445.0331 or visit��.

Rounding out the lineup are baritone soloist Matthew Green, flutist Kathy Egloff, oboist Terri Tallman and timpanist Bill Quick ’77.

Searor, who is DCC’s director of worship arts, says the Good Friday concert is a popular local tradition. “It is an opportunity to delve more deeply into the mystery and meaning of Holy Week,” he explains. “By spreading the word of God through music, we hope to inspire longtime [church] members and visitors alike. It is our gift to the community.”

A composer of many religious works, DuBois is a suitable choice to mark Good Friday. “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” dating from 1867, is arguably his best-known composition.

Premiered in Paris on Good Friday, the oratorio highlights the seven last sayings, or “words,” of Christ on the cross, according to the New Testament. The Seven Last Words encompass notions of forgiveness, salvation, relationship, abandonment, distress, triumph and reunion.

Laura Enslin

Dubois wrote the music and the original Latin text, the latter of which came from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible and various traditional Catholic prayers. This performance features his popular 1899 English-language edition.

Searor says that, while there are no fewer than 15 settings of the Seven Last Words (the most famous of which is Haydn’s), Dubois’ selection of Latin verses and prayers from the New Testament is unique unto him.

“The Seven Last Words help us understand what was important to Jesus, since Biblical accounts suggest He was relatively silent during the final hours of His life,” Searor adds. “Like any good oratorio, Dubois’ is a marriage of words and music—a potent retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion, awash in���ھ���-���-����è����������dz����Գپ���������.”

In addition to being a versatile composer, Dubois was an accomplished organist, choirmaster and music teacher. His more than 30 years at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire—nine as director—were indicative of his artistic and political influence. Dubois’ musical circles included Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Franck, Fauré and Dukas, to name a few.

Presenting Dubois’ music is a trio of local favorites.

Enslin has appeared with orchestras and opera companies throughout the Northeast, including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Symphoria and the Syracuse Opera. In January, she sang the role of suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the world premiere of “Pushed Aside: Reclaiming Gage,” commissioned by the Society for New Music. Enslin also runs a private studio at DCC called��.

Crawley has performed leading roles with opera companies internationally, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the State Opera of South Australia and the Greek National Opera. He also has sung roles at the Mariinsky Theater in Russia and Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires. Concert engagements include the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and Syracuse Symphony, as well as featured appearances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and the Washington National Cathedral. Crawley also is an accomplished pianist, organist and choral conductor.

Richard Crawley

A fixture on the regional circuit, Green has sung with the Syracuse Opera Chorus for more than 15 years. He also has enjoyed stints with the Tri-Cities Opera Company in Binghamton, the Cortland Repertory Theatre, the Savoyards Music Theatre Ltd. (formerly Cornell Savoyards) and the Chenango Community Players in his hometown of Norwich. In addition to being a soloist and recitalist, Green is an acting and vocal coach, rehearsal director and beginning piano instructor.

“All three soloists are incomparable talents, as well as beloved figures in the community. We are honored to work with them,” says Searor, whose name is virtually synonymous with local musical theater.

A classically trained pianist and organist, Searor recently has collaborated with the Baldwinsville Theater Guild (in award-winning productions of “Sweeney Todd” and “Les Misérables”), St. David’s Celebration of the Arts and the CNY Playhouse. He previously was music director at St. David’s Episcopal Church in DeWitt, and has been a regular arts contributor to��.

DCC serves nearly 2,000 members throughout Central New York. Founded as a Methodist church in the home of a Revolutionary War hero in 1811, the original building burned down in 1886. Members rebuilt the church a year later, not far from its present site on Erie Boulevard. Today, DCC is a self-proclaimed “Christian church for all people,” providing ministry opportunities in areas of music, worship, education, hospitality and compassion.

Tracy Hamlin

Hamlin will headline a panel discussion titled “” on Monday, Feb. 26, from noon-1:30 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons, 114 Bird Library). The event is moderated by Kal Alston, interim executive director of the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC), professor of Cultural Foundations of Education in the School of Education and a faculty affiliate in women’s & gender studies in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). Rounding out the panel are Theo Cateforis, associate professor of music history and cultures in A&S, and Jeff Welcher in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Setnor School of Music, where he teaches jazz and commercial music and directs the SU Vocal Jazz ensemble.

Also on Feb. 26, Hamlin will lead a����from 7-8:30 p.m. at CFAC (805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse). Space is limited, and registration is required. To register and request accessibility accommodations, contact��cfac@syr.edu.

Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Humanities Center in A&S at 315.443.7192, or visit��.

Hamlin’s visit to campus follows her performance with saxophonist Eric Darius on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 5 p.m. at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown (100 Onondaga St.). Their concert is part of CNY Jazz’s Black History Month Cabaret. For tickets and more information, contact Cathleen O’Brien Brown, general manager of CNY Jazz, at 315.479.5299 or��cathleen@cnyjazz.org.

Additional support for Hamlin’s residency comes from A&S, CFAC and the Department of Art and Music Histories in A&S.

From the video for “Standby,” featured on Hamlin’s 2015 album, “No Limits”

“We are honored to partner with CNY Jazz in presenting Tracy Hamlin: Her singular voice redefines every genre she performs,” says Vivian May, director of the Humanities Center and professor of women’s and gender studies in A&S. “As a singer, producer and creative entrepreneur, Tracy defies stereotypes about race and gender. Her visit will explore how music shapes and is shaped by individual and collective notions of belonging.”

As the title suggests, Hamlin’s noontime discussion will explore connections between music and identity, with special attention to how music promotes social and cultural understanding and how new technologies, such as digital streaming, help showcase diverse cultural histories.

Larry Luttinger ’79, G’81, founder and executive director of the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation, anticipates a lively interdisciplinary discussion. “Music communicates values and shapes identity, and as such, fosters bonds between people across cultural origins,” says Luttinger, also an award-winning percussionist and music educator. “Tracy will draw on personal experience, as a classically trained singer who has crossed over into other genres, to illustrate how music intersects with ideas about belonging, identity, mobility and social relations.”

May applauds Hamlin’s interest in reaching wider audiences while in Syracuse. At the master class, the Baltimore native hopes to work with singers of all ages and backgrounds. Interested participants should prepare a solo (preferably memorized) from the Great American Songbook or the pop/soul canon. Each singer also should bring two copies of his or her lead sheet or keyboard accompaniment, or, if applicable, a mobile phone audio file.

“This is an opportunity for singers to find their voice and connect with a major artist,” May adds. “Tracy will briefly work with each person, focusing on sound, technique and overall performance. Since this is a community event, spectators are welcome to attend.”

As an internationally touring solo artist, Hamlin has shared the stage with some of the biggest names in soul, jazz, R&B and house music. They include Carlos Santana, Wynonna Judd, Chaka Khan, Esperanza Spalding, Jonathan Butler, Marcus Miller and DJ Spen.

Hamlin also has served as lead vocalist for the smooth jazz group Pieces of a Dream, and has maintained an ongoing partnership—as a songwriter, arranger and lead background vocalist—with disco queen Gloria Gaynor.

Backstage with Wynonna Judd at the 2017 GRAMMYs on the Hill Awards in Washington, D.C.

Hamlin has produced and released five solo albums on her label, DMH Records. Three of these albums—“No Limits” (2015), “This Is My Life” (2013) and “Better Days” (2008)—have gone to No. 1 on the U.K. Soul chart. One of her singles, “Drive Me Crazy” (2011), went to No. 1 four times in a four-month period on the Traxsource house music chart. Currently, she is working on her sixth solo album.

In addition to running a record label, Hamlin is a trustee of the Washington, D.C., chapter of The Recording Academy (internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards); the producer of an annual “fringe” event of the St. Lucia Jazz festival; and a music teacher at Baltimore’s Jemicy School, serving students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences.

Classically trained, Hamlin studied at Peabody Preparatory and the Baltimore School for the Arts. She is proficient in German, French and Italian diction.

Organized and presented by the Humanities Center, Syracuse Symposium is a public humanities series that revolves around an annual theme. Programs include lectures, workshops, performances, exhibits, films and readings. Located in the Tolley Humanities Building, the Humanities Center serves the campus community by cultivating diverse forms of scholarship, sponsoring a broad range of programming and partnerships and addressing enduring questions and pressing social issues.

Alcee Chriss

Chriss will showcase a program of diverse pieces ranging from Bach and Reger to pieces by African American composers. Chriss will also perform some of his own compositions on the program. “Alcee Chriss is an exciting young performer with exceptional technique and stage presence,” says Anne Laver, University organist and coordinator of the Arthur Poister Competition. “He has prepared a compelling program with a connection to Black History Month, featuring pieces by Florence Price, Fela Sowande, Calvin Taylor and his own works. Our audience is in for a real treat.”

Chriss will also be a featured guest at Hendricks Chapel Dean’s Convocation at 7 p.m. that evening. The event will celebrate Black History Month with music and spoken reflections.

As an active organ and harpsichord player, as well as a jazz pianist and conductor, Chriss’ talents have been commended around the globe with prestigious awards and celebrated performances. His numerous accolades include first prize at the Canadian International Organ Competition (2017) and the Firmin Swinnen Silver Medalist at the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition (2016). He also won first prizes at the Miami International Organ Competition (2014), Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition (2013), Fort Wayne Organ Competition (2016) and the AGO/Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists (2013).

The concert is part of the Malmgren Concert Series at Hendricks Chapel. The series was made possible by a generous gift to Hendricks Chapel from alumna Esther Malmgren ’42 in 1991. The free concerts, held throughout the year, feature a wide variety of music.

The last concert in the 2017-18 Malmgren season will be “Voices of the Shoah,” a special concert commemorating the Holocaust, on Sunday, March 4. The concert will feature the Hendricks Chapel Choir, directed by José “Peppie” Calvar.

This concert is free and accessible. Parking is also available in the Q1 (on space-available basis and handicapped), Hillside, Q3 and Q4 parking lots.

For more information, call Hendricks Chapel at 315.443.2901 or visit hendricks.syr.edu.

About Syracuse University

Founded��in 1870, Syracuse University is a private international research university��dedicated to advancing knowledge and fostering student success through teaching��excellence,��rigorous scholarship and interdisciplinary research. Comprising 11��academic schools and colleges, the University has a long legacy of excellence��in the liberal arts, sciences and��professional disciplines that prepares��students for the complex challenges and emerging opportunities of a rapidly��changing world. Students enjoy the resources of a 270-acre main��campus and��extended campus venues in major national metropolitan hubs and across three��continents. Syracuse’s student body is among the most diverse for an��institution of its��kind across multiple dimensions, and students typically represent��all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Syracuse also has a long legacy of��supporting veterans and is home to��the nationally recognized Institute for��Veterans and Military Families, the first university-based institute in the��U.S. focused on addressing the unique needs of veterans and their��families.

Danielle Ponder

The Office of Multicultural Affairs will host the annual Black Lounge celebration on Saturday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium in Schine Student Center. Each year, this signature event held during Black History Month brings the campus community together to celebrate aspects of black music, art and culture, and encourage social conversation, movement, dance and engagement.

This year’s event will feature headliner Danielle Ponder and the Tomorrow People, a soulful vocal band from Rochester. The band was named one of the “Top Ten Bands to Watch” by CityPaper, awarded the 2015 and 2016 Roc Awards Best Band and completed two successful European tours. The Black Lounge will also feature a performance by Anomalous People and music by DJ Maestro. Dinner will be included.

Tickets for the event are free and available at the Schine Box Office.

For more information, contact Cedric T. Bolton at ctbolton@syr.edu.

The two Special Collections Research Center listening parties will feature a wide variety of music from Africa and the Caribbean.

The Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Libraries, in conjunction with La Casita Cultural Center, will host two spring listening parties this month featuring recordings from the , which contains over 15,000 45 rpm recordings. Both events are free and open to the public.

Bohemia & Bolero
Wednesday, Feb. 14, 5-8 p.m.
, 109 Otisco St., Syracuse

La Casita Cultural Center will host a Latin music showcase of classic boleros and timeless love songs to warm your heart! Join us for a special night listening to great music, dance if you like, and taste some delicious tapas and sweets!

Africa and the Music of the Caribbean
Friday, Feb. 23, 3-4 p.m.
Peter Graham Scholarly Commons, Bird Library

From bomba to boogaloo, salsa to soul, Africa has provided source material and inspiration for Caribbean artists throughout the centuries, and vice versa. Join us to hear the sounds of this dynamic interchange.

��The at Syracuse University Libraries contains over 15,000 recordings from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. The 45-rpm disc collection includes merengue, bolero, guaracha, chachachá, pachanga, merecumbé, seis fajardeño, bomba, plena, mambo, guaguancó, son montuno, charanga, guajira, música jíbara, danzón and more.

Max and Joseph Bell, the owners of the Bell Music Box, a New York City record store, were avid collectors of Latin and Caribbean music. Syracuse University acquired the entire inventory of the Bell Music Box store in 1963 and recently began a major digitization project to preserve and make accessible this unique collection.

If you need an accommodation in order to fully participate in these events, please contact��Julia Chambers at jschambe@syr.edu.

About Syracuse University

Founded��in 1870, Syracuse University is a private international research university��dedicated to advancing knowledge and fostering student success through teaching��excellence,��rigorous scholarship and interdisciplinary research. Comprising 11��academic schools and colleges, the University has a long legacy of excellence��in the liberal arts, sciences and��professional disciplines that prepares��students for the complex challenges and emerging opportunities of a rapidly��changing world. Students enjoy the resources of a 270-acre main��campus and��extended campus venues in major national metropolitan hubs and across three��continents. Syracuse’s student body is among the most diverse for an��institution of its��kind across multiple dimensions, and students typically represent��all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Syracuse also has a long legacy of��supporting veterans and is home to��the nationally recognized Institute for��Veterans and Military Families, the first university-based institute in the��U.S. focused on addressing the unique needs of veterans and their��families.

This festive afternoon of song concludes with 70 young voices joining together for a combined finale, a candlelit performance of “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”).

Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children ages 5-16 and free for children under 5. Tickets will be available at the door. For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact the SCC office at 315.478.0582 or email Deirdre Popp.

SCC, the resident children’s chorus of Syracuse University, was founded in 1981 as part of the preparatory division of the University’s Setnor School of Music. The chorus is recognized for musical excellence and as a model for performance-based choral music education. Each year, young singers come from across Central New York to sing in the four choirs that make up the chorus.

Contact: Deirdre Popp
Syracuse Children’s Chorus
315.478.0582
dpopp@syracusechildrenschorus.org

Webpage:

Steve Gorn

The event is sponsored by the Department of Art and Music Histories in the College of Arts and Sciences. For disability accommodations requests, please contact Sydney Hutchinson at sjhutchi@syr.edu.

Gorn, whose flute is featured on the 2011 Grammy-winning recording “Miho—Journey to the Mountain,” with the Paul Winter Consort, and the Academy Award-winning documentary film “Born into Brothels,” has performed Indian classical music and new American music on the bansuri bamboo flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet in concerts and festivals throughout the world. He is also featured on Grammy-nominated CDs: Paul Simon’s “You are the One,” Angelique Kidjo’s, “Oyo,” Silvia Nakkach/David Darling’s, “Long & Longing,” and Paul Avggerinos’“Bhakti.”

His latest recordings are “Rasika,” with tabla by Samir Chatterjee, and “Illumination,” with Nepali flutist Manose. In addition to the landmark world music recording “Asian Journal,” with Nana Vasconcelos and Badal Roy, he recorded “Wishing Well” with Richie Havens and in August 2013, he performed at “Back to the Garden: A Day of Song and Remembrance Honoring Richie Havens“ at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock Festival.

Guests also honored David Rezak, outgoing founding director of the Bandier Program, and welcomed incoming director��.

At the event, left to right, are Bill Werde, Lorraine Branham David Rezak and Marty Bandier.

Hosted by alumnus Martin Bandier ’62, chairman and CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the invite-only event was held at Sony Square Rooftop on Madison Avenue.

Speaking at the event, Bandier—who founded the program at Syracuse University in 2006—said, “Of all the things I have accomplished in my career, the Bandier Program is one of my proudest.” Bandier also noted his pleasure at the program’s move to Newhouse, which he called “one of the most prestigious and esteemed communications schools in the country.”

Bandier thanked Rezak for his years of leadership in the program and presented him with a gift.

In Rezak’s honor, Newhouse Dean Lorraine Branham announced the establishment of the David M. Rezak Music Business Lecture Series Fund at the Newhouse School. The fund will support campus visits from executives and successful Bandier Program alumni, allowing students to learn about the state of the industry “in real time,” according to Branham. “What better way to honor founding director David Rezak and ensure his legacy with the program,” she said. Gifts to support lecture series may be made��.

Andrew Beyda ’11 paid tribute to Rezak on behalf of the Bandier Program Alumni Association, saying, “David Rezak shows you what you are capable of before you can even see it yourself.”

In his remarks, Werde also lauded Rezak’s leadership and praised the program. “Bandier is the single best music industry program in the world, and there’s no place it belongs more than Newhouse.”

Rezak said he was happy to pass the torch to Werde, whom he called “a true visionary.” He offered advice to guests, including dozens of his former students: “Do well so you can do good.”

Over 300 people attended the event, including��Adam Alpert, CEO of Disruptor Records and Selector Songs and manager of The Chainsmokers; John Amato, president of Billboard & The Hollywood Reporter Media Group; Jon Cohen ’90, co-founder and co-CEO of The FADER and Cornerstone Agency; Joel Klaiman ’90, executive vice president and general manager of Columbia Records; John Sykes ’77, president, entertainment enterprises with iHeartMedia; Phil Quartararo ‘77, president of Rhythm Nation Music Tripod Entertainment Partners; and Charlie Walk, president of Republic Records. In addition, some 75 Bandier Program alumni turned out to celebrate.

To make a gift to the Rezak Lecture Series, visit the����or contact Carol Satchwell at 315.443.5281 or��cmsatchw@syr.edu.

Highlights include Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance for two pianos, four pianists and string quartet; selections from song cycles by Eric Whitacre and Lori Laitman; an arrangement of Massenet’s Méditation from Thaïs for alto saxophone and piano; a flute duet; and a special arrangement of Let it Be for strings and organ that features a surprise invention.��A festive dessert reception will follow the concert.

Contact:��Michelle Taylor
Setnor School of Music
315.443.2191
mjtaylor@syr.edu

Website:��

“Crazy For You,” conceived by book writer Ken Ludwig and director Mike Ockrent, opened on Broadway in 1992. The “new Gershwin musical comedy” gave a new life to the classic Gershwin songbook. New York Times reviewer Frank Rich said that this “riotously entertaining show” unlocks a truly American combination of “music, laughter, dancing, sentiment and showmanship with freshness and confidence.”

Ludwig’s “Crazy For You” crafts a zany love story spanning the glitz and glamour of New York City and the rustic simplicity of Deadrock, Nevada. Bobby Child loves theater more than anything, but he can’t seem to get his foot in the door with famed producer Bela Zangler. Bobby’s overbearing mother is insistent that he focus on his more responsible bank job. When his mother sends him to Deadrock to foreclose on a theater, Bobby pulls out all of the stops in an attempt to save that theater (and win over his one true love, Polly). To do this, he mounts an (at first) unsuccessful production to pay the mortgage, which incidentally manages to lay the foundation for career successes and true love.

Long after the deaths of George and Ira Gershwin, Ludwig revitalized some of the best songs ever written for Broadway. Pairing the Gershwins’ greatest hits with the lively choreography that brought legendary choreographer Susan Stroman her first of four Tony Awards for Best Choreography, “Crazy For You” ran on Broadway for four years and 1,622 performances.

The New York Times credits “Crazy For You” as the American show that grabbed Broadway back from British spectacles such as “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Les Miserables.” The hysterical script and the everlasting music of the Gershwin brothers give the show wide appeal.

Director and choreographer Brian J. Marcum, assistant professor in the Department of Drama, brings with him an expansive Broadway dancing career. He has performed in “The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “42nd Street,” “The Boy from Oz” starring Hugh Jackman, “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Spamalot.” Marcum was also the associate choreographer for the Broadway musical “Elf.”

Marcum’s choreography will pay homage to Stroman’s choreography while also showcasing Marcum’s personal style. Marcum will utilize two six-person choruses of Follies Girls and Cowboys to round out his cast of more than 20.

“Our hope is that we can take audiences away from whatever it is they’re dealing with and make them forget about the bad stuff in the world for a moment,” Marcum says. “We hope to be able to give them that gift, and to have them leave uplifted and joyous.”

“Crazy For You” runs Oct. 6-15. Tickets are available at , by phone at 315.443.3275 and in person at the Box Office.

The Hausmann Quartet

The concert, “Reason Gone Mad,” will begin at 4 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel and is free and open to the public. Parking will be available in the Irving Garage.

The quartet, based in San Diego, will pair new works with the music of Austrian composer Franz Joseph Hayden, who was known for his humor. Miniatures by Ana Sokolovic, Igor Stravinsky and George Antheil will frame two of Haydn’s wittiest works—the “Joke” Quartet and the circus-like Opus 74/2, adding up to a concert embodying Groucho Marx’s definition of humor—“reason gone mad.”

The series was made possible by a generous gift to Hendricks Chapel from alumna Esther Malmgren ’42 in 1991. The free concerts, held throughout the year, feature a wide variety of music.

Upcoming concerts in Hendricks Chapel include “Feminine Voices” featuring organist Anne Laver and soprano Janet Brown (Oct. 8); “Sonatas, Suites and Reflections,” featuring cellist Adriana Contino and harpsichordist Michael Unger (Jan. 21, 2018); a Rising Star Recital with organist Alcee Chriss III (Feb. 25, 2018) and “Voices of the Shoah,” featuring the Hendricks Chapel Choir directed by José “Peppie” Calvar (March 4, 2018).

For more information, call Hendricks Chapel at 315.443.2901 or visit hendricks.syr.edu.

His book has recently been published, and is available for and other popular retailers.

Biboti Ouikahilo

The world music concert series Performance Live begins at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 12, in Setnor Auditorium with a West African drum and dance performance by Biboti Ouikahilo and Wacheva. The performance is free and open to the public as well as all performances in the series.

These concerts are organized by , associate professor of music history and cultures�� in the College of Arts and Sciences in conjunction with her course Performance Live. The course provides an introduction to world musical cultures and basic concepts about music and performance through direct experience with tradition bearers through concerts and workshops.

“This semester��our discussions center on how��national and ethnic identities are performed, and how belonging is negotiated through performance in multicultural societies like our own,” says Hutchinson.

Performance Live also ��provides the only world music concert series in the city of Syracuse.

“The concerts give the general public��the opportunity to experience��musical cultures that aren’t often heard in Syracuse,” says Hutchinson. “It will expose audiences to new sounds and new ideas about music, thus broadening their understanding of the world of music.”

The concert series begins with a performance featuring local artist and musician Ouikahilo, who was born in the Ivory Coast. In December of 1980, Ouikahilo began his professional dance, drum and choreography career, touring with the prominent Ivory Coast National Dance & Drum Co. In��2003, Ouikahilo moved to Syracuse, where he shares his artistic talents with the Central New York community through workshops, classes, performances, lectures and demonstrations at . The studio brings together children and adults from different cultures, religions and ethnicities under the same roof.

All concerts are at 8 p.m. ��and are free and open to the public. The��full schedule is:

Sept. 12: Biboti Ouikahilo and Wacheva present West African dance and drum, Setnor auditorium

Sept. 19: Aura: “West Embraces East” (new music by Cambodian and Vietnamese composers, presented in cooperation with the Society for New Music), Hendricks Chapel

Sept. 26: , the healing sounds of Zimbabwean mbira, Setnor Auditorium

Oct. 17: , “Into the Mystic” (Turkish Sufi music, presented in cooperation with the Humanities Center, religion��department and the South Asia Center), Setnor Auditorium

Oct. 24: : “The Transformative Power of Music” (North Indian flute), 105 Life Sciences Building

Nov. 7: The Edgar Pagán Trio, (salsa fusión), 105 Life Sciences Building

At the end of the semester, there will be a special event, the Music and Food in Multicultural Syracuse at 6 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 2, in Grant Auditorium. This features a celebration of the traditions of Syracuse’s refugee communities from Burundi, Bhutan, Syria and Burma. ��A reception will follow in the Wildhack Room. Presented in cooperation with food studies and the Humanities Center.

Thomas Wesley Pentz, better known as Diplo, is one of the most dynamic forces in music today. He’s received��multiple Grammy nominations, including Producer of the Year, and was named the #1 most streamed artist on Soundcloud for 2013. Pentz has 235+ show dates under his belt in 2015 alone.

Known for his viral single “Water,” Ugly God is a rapper and producer from Houston. The single made Billboard’s Spotify Velocity and Spotify Viral 50 charts. Ugly God issued his full-length Asylum debut, “The Booty Tape,” in 2017. The mixtape climbed into the Top 30 of the Billboard 200.

Hailing from Funen, Denmark, MØ is Karen Marie Ørsted. Her latest single “Nights with You” is MØ’s first solo release of 2017. Her unique songwriting and vocal style have earned her status as one of the pop world’s fastest rising stars and the respect of its most influential producers and songwriters.

Consisting of��Sean Scanlon on vocals, Mike Kamerman on guitar, Joe Intile on bass and Beau Kuther on drums, Smallpools splashed into the music world in mid-2013 with its debut single “Dreaming,” which��skyrocketed to No. 1 on trendsetter��the Hype Machine‘s popular music chart.

Twenty-one-year-old singer, songwriter and producer Jeremy Zucker had been quietly carving out his distinct sound from a bedroom in suburban New Jersey. He released a stream of singles that would eventually be packaged together as an EP titled “Breathe” with the project’s breakout single “Bout It.”

Tickets for Juice Jam are $20 for SU/ESF students with a valid college ID. A maximum of two tickets will be issued per ID and a valid SU, ESF, college or military ID and ticket must be presented at the gate to be allowed entry. Tickets are on sale from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Carrier Dome Gate E ticket booth only. Sales will continue through Thursday, Aug. 31 or until the event is sold out.

The University Singers

• The award-winning composer will receive a $1,325 prize. The selected composition will be premiered by the Syracuse University Singers under the direction of Setnor faculty member John Warren on April 4, 2018, at 8 p.m. in Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College, on the SU campus. Travel expenses to the premiere are the responsibility of the prize recipient.
• Composer must be 21-35 years of age at the time of submission.
• Scores must be postmarked no later than Sept. 30, 2017.

Submission Criteria:

• Submission must be 3-4 minutes in duration.
• Competition is open to unpublished and unperformed works only.
• SATB a cappella or accompanied by piano or organ; additional instruments optional
• The Syracuse University Singers is the flagship choral ensemble at Syracuse University and is comprised of 34 auditioned undergraduate and graduate students, mostly majoring in music. The University Singers has recently won the Grand Prix de Florilège de Tours, France, and competed in the European Grand Prix in Varna, Bulgaria.
• Rights to texts must be cleared, and evidence of copyright holder’s permission must be shown.
• Composer will retain the copyright of the piece.
• Submission may be secular or sacred.
• The Setnor School of Music Department of Choral Studies will retain winning manuscript for future performances.
• The composer must reside in North America.
• Composer must include a biography, list of works and proof of age (copy of driver’s license, passport, etc.) with submission.

Please include your name, email address, postal address, and phone number(s) in a sealed envelope, together with your score. Size of manuscript must not exceed 8 ½” x 14”. No scores will be returned unless a self-addressed mailer and postage are provided. The winner will be notified by Oct. 30.

Submit to:

Gregg Smith Choral Composition Contest
Department of Choral Studies
215 Crouse College
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY 13244-1010

For additional information, contact suchoral@syr.edu or 315.443.4106.

Carol Babiracki and Mukund Nayak, shown holding his 2017 Padma Shri medal

“No, no. The congratulations should go to you,” replied his longtime friend and colleague, who is an ethnomusicologist in the College of Arts and Sciences and the director of the����in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “This award is for you, too.”

An associate professor in the����(AMH) in the , Babiracki has known Nayak since 1981, when he was a low-paid state worker in what is now the East Indian state of Jharkhand. Since then, both have climbed the ranks of their respective professions, while mining the region’s millennia-old folk performance traditions.

That Nayak accepted the award on the eve of India’s 68th Republic Day in January gave citizens—and Babiracki—one more reason to celebrate. The award underscored, among other things, the role of traditional arts and culture in India’s march toward economic prosperity.

“Regional music lives on in India because it embodies a wide range of values pertaining to community, locality, rituals and gender,” says Babiracki, an A&S faculty member since 1999. “Regional performance is a bellwether of social and cultural identity-formation and of processes of change.”

Arguably, no one is synonymous with Jharkhandi arts and culture more than Nayak, a 67-year-old singer, songwriter, drummer, dancer and political activist. He and Babiracki, a scholar-teacher of South Asian music and dance, have spent nearly four decades documenting the endangered or marginal performance traditions of East-Central India. Their current project concerns the traditional village musician caste of the Ghasi.

Consigned to the lowest rung of the local caste hierarchy, Ghasis are usually poor and illiterate. Nayak is the exception to the latter. A polyglot fluent in English, he is one of only a few to have graduated from the village��akhra��(an outdoor, circular dancing ground) to the urban stage, while preserving his rural musical sensibilities.

“Mukund and I are capturing what’s left of these village traditions—their unwritten histories, their indigenous identities, their contributions to a pan-ethnic, regional musical lingua franca—for an upcoming book,” says Babiracki, the author of several other publications, as well as dozens of scholarly articles and chapters. “He learned his art as a child in the course of collective singing and dancing. One can hear these roots in his dense, edgy vocal style.”

Nayak resides in the bustling capital of Ranchi. His musical language and style, however, recall the Nagpuri music traditions of southwestern Jharkhand.

“Nagpuri” is a geographical term, referring to the Chota Nagpur Plateau that covers most of Jharkhand and its adjoining states. “Chota Nagpur” is a nod to the Nagavanshi, a dynasty that ruled the area from the 11th to 14th centuries. “‘Nag’ in ‘Nagavanshi’ alludes to people from West-Central India, such as Maharashtra, or to the Nag clan of the local Mundas,” Babiracki says. “It is likely they intermarried.”

Nayak plays the “nagara” drum outside his home in Ranchi. (Photo by Prishant Mitra / The Telegraph)

She considers Nayak’s approach to regional music sophisticated and mature—heavy on the percussion and on rhythms and meters that are unusual by Western standards. The result is a rich body of composed, cultivated music. “Mukund embodies these traits because he comes from a long hereditary line of professional, multi-talented performers,” Babiracki continues. “He is my most valued source of information about Nagpuri music.”

With support from A&S, she has interviewed scores of Nagpuri musicians and dancers, including Nayak’s children. Among them are his older son, Nandu, a renowned singer and drummer; Nayak’s younger son, Pradhuman, a U.S.-based singer, dancer and actor; and Nayak’s youngest daughter, Chandrakanta, a singer and women’s rights advocate.

Babiracki is known for her interest in historiography (i.e., the study of history) and in issues of gender, ethnic identity and globalization. It’s no surprise that her collaboration with Nayak is highly interdisciplinary. Witness recent projects on the life histories and performances of��nacnis(professional female entertainers in East-Central India) and the role of Nagpuri women in urban stage and mass media performances.

“Carol has a hands-on, collaborative approach to research that invites musicians to be partners, not subjects,” says Romita Ray, associate professor of art history and chair of AMH. “This encourages musical and cultural sustainability, often in the face of outward modernization. She is both a scholar and an activist, working with musicians with whom she has built close relationships over the past few decades and preserving folk traditions that have been nurtured for generations.”

Babiracki first met Nayak in southern Bihar (which eventually seceded to form Jharkhand), while doing preliminary dissertation research. He was a star of the Nagpuri stage—she, a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, exploring Munda tribal music and dance traditions.

“[Nayak] quickly pulled me into his stage troupe, a group consisting, for the most part, of Ghasi men, and I subsequently traveled throughout the area, performing Nagpuri songs on bamboo flute with them in village stage performances,” she recalls in “” (Oxford University Press, 2008), co-edited by Gregory F. Barz and Timothy J. Cooley. “My perceptions of Nagpuri music-culture were colored by Mukund’s own representation and interpretation.”

Performing turned out to be Babiracki’s respite from “intellectualizing and interviewing” and from the stress of adapting to the Munda’s “intense collectivism and censorship of behavior.” The experience also complemented her formal training in flute, piano and voice at the University of Minnesota.

Babiracki and Nayak (far right) jam with the legendary Mahavir Sahu on harmonium.

Babiracki rejoined Nayak in the late ’80s to establish an indigenous performing troupe and school in Jharkhand called Kunjban. Before long, she began assisting the group with tours of the United States, southeastern China (e.g., Hong Kong) and the Philippines.

Nayak achieved success as a singer-songwriter, but it was his role as a social activist, providing the soundtrack for Jharkhand’s independence, which led to many honors, including the Padma Sri award. One political activist dubbed him the “philosopher” of the autonomy movement.

“Mukund’s protest songs were rallying points for the movement, resulting in Jharkhand’s statehood in 2000,” Babiracki says. “He has since evolved into a cultural activist, working toward the sustainability of the local arts that have lost their traditional patronage support systems.”

Babiracki has returned to Jharkhand a dozen times, often for months at a stretch. (One visit lasted more than a year, thanks to support from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fulbright-Hays program.) Through it all, Nayak has remained her touchstone of original Nagpuri music. “My place in Jharkhand always is onstage or backstage, but rarely in the audience,” says Babiracki, who maintains close ties to Kunjban as a performer, choreographer and videographer.

A highly decorated professor, with a Meredith teaching award to her name, Babiracki resides at the nexus of traditional and modern music. Her main objective, she says, is to expose students to the “phenomenal diversity” of Indian regional music. She does this by creating a highly participatory classroom environment—often “posing questions, searching for understanding and considering music not simply as an autonomous object, but as [something] integral to regional community practices and identities.”

PowerPoint may have a place in her classroom, but so do funky, old tape decks and turntables. The sight of Babiracki clearing away desks and chairs to make room for an akhra is a common occurrence. Such impromptu performing, she says, humanizes Jharkhandi music. It also puts her students on equal ground—much as akhras do in her adopted homeland, some 9,000 miles away.

“The unfamiliar becomes our own,” she smiles. “It’s a powerful way to study something.”

Brian Benedik

“I was in the car with my mother, and was fascinated by what I heard on the radio,” says Benedik, recalling the station’s heady mix of arena and heartland rock, new wave and post-punk. “Z100 took New York City by storm. I was immediately hooked.”

Speaking by phone from his office in Downtown Manhattan, Benedik says that, for a music-obsessed 12-year-old, living in the suburban idyll of Long Island’s North Shore, Z100 provided a glimpse into a world of gritty glamor.

He also contends that the station’s overnight success, going from dead last in its initial Arbitron ranking to atop the nation’s biggest market in less than three months, ushered in a new era in music marketing. “I didn’t know it at the time,” says the 1993 Syracuse alumnus, “but Z100 changed the way the industry broke artists and moved product.”

Today, Z100 remains a ratings juggernaut, due in part to Benedik, a former employee who has evolved into an industry tastemaker. As vice president and global head of ad sales for��, the ubiquitous digital music streaming service, Benedik oversees more than 500 employees in 60 markets. A sizable staff, he says, for a company barely a decade old.

By his own admission, Benedik runs an “advertising business” at Spotify, where 50 million subscribers pay $9.99 a month to design their own ad-free playlists. The affable North Jersey resident is more concerned, however, with the 90 million other active users who enjoy the service free of charge, thanks to ad-supported content.

“My job at Spotify is to keep our free tier truly free for our user base, and that involves high-quality brands subsidizing our content in unique ways,” says Benedik, who dual-majored in English and��textual studies in the and in television, radio and��film in the . “This is a low-margin, high-volume business, as we carefully license all content and properly compensate rights-holders for their art.”

Using the “freemium” pricing model, in which basic services are free and proprietary ones come with a monthly charge, Spotify has recently embraced video and podcast streaming, suggesting the service may have more in common with Hollywood or Silicon Valley than its Swedish roots.

Benedik considers Spotify a technology company at heart. “Two things separate us from the competition,” he says. “First of all, we’re an on-demand service. I think we have struck a chord with Millennials because they enjoy building their own playlists. Secondly, half of our employees are engineers and developers. We carry the burden of innovation because our users constantly want new products and solutions.”

It was only a few years ago that music personalization became a reality. Spotify boasts hundreds of researchers in New York, Boston and Stockholm, who use machine learning and sophisticated algorithms to anticipate what listeners want. Empowering users with the ability to discover and curate musical playlists, based on their mood or the occasion, has perfectly tapped into the global zeitgeist.

Benedik, who joined Spotify in 2013, attributes his rise to the top to his liberal arts education at Syracuse. He notes the cultural similarities between both organizations—namely, scientists and engineers mixing it up with artists and humanists.

“My father used to say that the liberal arts were foundational to everything, regardless of what I specialized in,” says Benedik, who has instilled a similar mindset into his own two college-aged children. “I never forgot that, but didn’t fully understand it until I got to Syracuse. My training in literary history, criticism and theory, combined with advanced studies in audio and video, paved the way for what I do today.”

A conscientious learner, Benedik racked up thousands of hours at Syracuse’s student-run WJPZ-FM (Z89). He also interned at WSYT, the Fox-affiliated television station for Central New York, and at New York City’s WFAN (Sports Radio 66 and 101.9 FM), popularly known as “The Fan.”

Benedik spent his spare time following the on-court exploits of Billy Owens ’91, Derrick Coleman ’90 and Stevie Thompson ’90, all of whom formed a unique chapter in the history of Syracuse basketball. “They didn’t win a championship, but were an amazing crew,” he says. “I remember so many games in the Dome, which provided a special window onto the sport.”

Following graduation, Benedik held various sales positions with the Katz Media Group, Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartCommunications) and Z100. In 2005, he returned to Katz as president of Christal Radio, a national sales representation company, and, three years later, founded the digital sales group Katz 360, whose clients included Spotify and Pandora. In time, Katz 360 became the world’s largest online audio sales network, giving rise to the digital audio ad marketplace.

Andrew Rosen, president of SummitMedia Hawaii, worked with Benedik at Clear Channel in the early ’00s—first in management and then on the station side at Z100. He recalls how, after a long night of entertaining clients, Benedik often crashed at his manager’s apartment. “In the bedroom, there was a file cabinet full of work-related material, and [he] would quiz Brian on it at 3:30 in the morning,” Rosen says. “That’s commitment.”

Success followed Benedik to Z100, where he was the first person to raise more than $2.5 million for the station’s annual “Jingle Ball” concert, and eventually to Spotify, which hired him to oversee North American advertising. (He moved into his current position in 2015.) “The culture Brian creates, wherever he goes, is positive and results-oriented,” Rosen continues. “Under his leadership, Spotify has become a destination for the most talented to seek employment.”

Jeff Levick, executive-in-residence at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, lauds Benedik’s understanding of the global music industry. “Not only has Brian played a key role in its past, but he also is at the center of its future, developing ways artists and advertisers can work together to support a profitable music industry,” says Spotify’s former chief revenue officer.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, digital music is, by far, the industry’s chief moneymaker. In 2016, streaming accounted for 47 percent of music sales, compared to permanent downloads and physical formats (e.g., CDs and vinyl), which comprised 31 and 20 percent, respectively.

Currently, the music industry is poised to record its second consecutive year of growth—something that has not happened since 1999, when Napster unveiled its peer-to-peer file sharing service, sending record labels into a downward spiral.

A recent study by Goldman Sachs predicts streaming will double music industry revenues by 2030.

“There are some misconceptions within the streaming space about how services such as Spotify compensate their creators. Every year, we return billions back to the artistic community for their work,” Benedik says. “We also are interested in artist promotion.”

Case in point: His team recently got behind Katy Perry’s “Witness,” which dropped the same day that her so-called rival, Taylor Swift, rejoined Spotify. “Katy’s team proactively partnered with us ahead of the ‘Witness’ release date, and we co-promoted her new album in creative ways. That collaboration contributed to a big debut for her, and all parties were thrilled,” he adds.

As Spotify reels in the last few streaming outliers (Bob Seger is the latest to join the fold), Benedik is convinced that the fate of the digital revolution rests with people who think critically, communicate effectively and problem-solve creatively.

That a lot of what Benedik does involves quantitative writing, a skill he acquired as an English major, speaks to the relevance and versatility of the liberal arts.

“I do a lot of recruiting, and can always spot someone who knows how to communicate. It is��the��most important skill to have when entering the job market, regardless of your profession,” he concludes. “That fateful day in 1983 showed me the power of radio, but Syracuse taught me how to use it responsibly.”

Auditions will take place at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 7248 Highbridge Road, in Fayetteville. The chorus has four chorus levels, including young men’s. Children must be between the ages of 8 and 17 years old by September 1 to audition.��To schedule your audition time, please contact the SCC office at 315.478.0582. SCC is the resident children’s chorus of the Setnor School of Music in the Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Contact: Bethany Harris
Syracuse Children’s Chorus
315.478.0582
bharris@syracusechildrenschorus.org

URL:��h

Children must be between the ages of 8 and 17 years old by September 1 to audition. A $15 audition fee is due at the time of the audition. To schedule your audition time, please contact the SCC office at 315.478.0582.

Contact: Bethany Harris
Syracuse Children’s Chorus
315.478.0582
bharris@syracusechildrenschorus.org

URL:

Lin Rountree, aka The Soul-Trumpeter, is an accomplished recording artist, producer and live performer. With five solo projects, 12 Top 20 Billboard singles and numerous collaborations with top R&B/Contemporary Jazz artists, Rountree is poised to become one of the most renowned artists of his generation.

CFAC Jazz and Wine 2017, with Lin Rountree and featuring Anomalous People, is April 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Folk Art Center, 805 E. Genesee St., in Syracuse. Tickets can be purchased via PayPal, check, cash or credit card at CFAC. $30/ticket or two for $50.

Contact: Josette Burgos
Community Folk Art Center
315.442.2230
jaburgos@syr.edu

URL:

Eric Usner

Syracuse University will present programs by two distinguished ethnomusicologists in April.

, visiting assistant professor of music at Franklin & Marshall College, will lead a hands-on workshop about teaching in music and the humanities on Friday, April 7, from 9:30 a.m. to noon in Room 309 in Bowne Hall.

On Wednesday, April 12, , assistant professor of music at Boston University (BU), will discuss Afro-Colombian music and soundscapes from 5:45 to 7 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (Room 114) in Bird Library.

Both events are free and open to the public; however, Usner’s workshop requires registration. To register or receive more information, contact Sydney Hutchinson, assistant professor of music history and cultures in Syracuse’s Department of Art and Music Histories, at 315.443.5031 or sjhutchi@syr.edu.

Usner’s workshop is sponsored by the Mobilizing Music Working Group of the , with support from a grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Birenbaum Quintero’s lecture is sponsored by the .

Hutchinson expects both speakers to address theoretical and methodological approaches used to study music in specific social contexts.

“Professor Usner is an activist and an ethnographer of expressive culture, someone whose work is steeped in collaborative scholarship, dialogic pedagogy, community-based learning and experiential education,” Hutchinson says. “Likewise, Professor Birenbaum Quintero is an accomplished teacher-scholar, with an interest in how blackness is framed and how black identities are formed through music in the Colombian Pacific and beyond.”

Titled “,” Usner’s workshop is for arts and humanities faculty and graduate students. The goal of it, Hutchinson says, is to get clear on “why we do what we do.” Among the topics to be covered are dialogic pedagogical techniques and strategies.

“Although the workshop is designed by and for music educators, it really applies to anyone in the liberal or performing arts,” she says. “We will address an array of questions and issues, including the nature of teaching [e.g. academic vs. extracurricular]; the importance of engaged, site-specific education; and the role of the academy in understanding what it means to be human.”

Hutchinson considers the workshop timely, in light of President Trump’s proposed budget cuts to the national endowments for the Arts and Humanities. “Never has there been more of a moral imperative to examine the kind of work we do and how we can do it better,” she says.

Trained as an ethnomusicologist, Usner has broad interests in music, performance and expressive culture. He has conducted ethnographic work on the late ’90s swing revival and the culture of classical music in contemporary Vienna. Usner has taught at The Johns Hopkins University; The University of Chicago; Sarah Lawrence University; the University of California, Riverside; West Chester University; and the University of Vienna. He earned a Ph.D. at New York University.

Birenbaum Quintero also is a trained ethnomusicologist, but his research centers on currulao music along the Pacific coast of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador. The marimba figures prominently in currulao and bears witness to the black experience in colonial Latin America between the 1490s and 1850s.

Michael Birenbaum Quintero

“Currulao encompasses many styles of music rooted in African culture,” Hutchinson says. “[Birenbaum Quintero] uses fieldwork and historical methods to understand this music in context of neoliberalism, cultural mobilization and civil war in present-day Colombia.”

Titled “,” Birenbaum Quintero’s presentation will go beyond currulao, and will look at practices of and ideas about noise in the Colombian seaport of Buenaventura. He will connect these issues to broader ones about inclusion and exclusion in neoliberal states in the Southern Hemisphere.

For example, Birenbaum Quintero will consider how the noise from certain sites—from homes and hotels to mining campus and torture chambers—exemplifies notions of power, political action and personhood.

Hutchinson says the program also will provide a glimpse into a little-known part of the world. About 85 percent of Buenaventura’s inhabitants, she says, are of African descent, their ancestors having worked in gold mines and on plantations during Spanish colonization.

“His lecture will explore how blackness has been framed and contested through sonic practices,” she says. “It also will examine cultural policies and cultural politics, vernacular uses of technology, and the sounded environment of the neoliberal shantytown.”

Prior to BU, Birenbaum Quintero taught at Bowdoin College. He also has held visiting appointments at Johns Hopkins and the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, and has delivered the keynote address at the first annual Congress of Marimba and Traditional Song of the Colombian Pacific in Buenaventura.

Birenbaum Quintero is working on a book titled “Rites, Rights and Rhythms: A Genealogy of Musical Meaning in Colombia’s Black Pacific” for Oxford University Press.

The Humanities Corridor is a large-scale interdisciplinary project, co-founded by Syracuse University, Cornell University and the University of Rochester. Since 2011, it has grown to encompass the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium: Colgate and St. Lawrence universities, as well as Hamilton, Skidmore, Union and Hobart & William Smith colleges.

To date, the Humanities Corridor has sponsored more than a hundred different working groups, coordinated by nearly 300 regional scholars. The working groups, in turn, have generated more than 400 scholarly activities, including panel discussions, lectures, screenings, readings, performances, workshops and masterclasses.

Rogério Souza and Edinho Gerber

The in the College of Arts and Sciences will present an evening concert featuring three pioneers of Brazilian guitar music—Ricardo Peixoto, Rogério Souza and Edinho Gerber—on Tuesday, April 4, at 7 p.m. in Slocum Auditorium (214 Slocum Hall). The event is free and open to the public.

Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Bay Area guitarist and composer Ricardo Peixoto is among the top performers of Brazilian guitar in the United States today. His fluid melodic style and keen compositional sense reflects his country’s rich and diverse traditions. Over his long career Peixoto has recorded, performed and collaborated with some of Brazil’s most celebrated artists, including Claudia Villela, Flora Purim and Airto, Bud Shank, Sivuca, Toots Thielemans, Dori Caymmi and Guinga.

A master of both six- and seven-string guitars, Rogério Souzahas has performed around the world, showcasing his original works as well as a stunning classic repertoire. He has also worked as a producer with a multitude of world-class Brazilian musicians, including Baden Powell, Paulinho da Viola, Ney Matogrosso, João Bosco, Ivan Lins, Elizeth Cardoso, Dona Ivone Lara, Nelson Cavaquinho, Martinho da Vila and Zeca Pagodinho. Rogério performs regularly in music festivals and concerts throughout Latin America, Europe, the United States and Asia in addition to many master classes and workshops he teaches throughout the year.

Ricardo Peixoto

Having a Brazilian mother and an American father has gifted guitarist Edinho Gerber with a rich musical vocabulary developed in the two countries where he was raised. Navigating effortlessly between the genres of choro, jazz, samba and blues, he says he is always in search of the intersection points within his dual cultural identity.

A staple in the Chicago music scene for many years, Edinho has performed in prestigious venues throughout the United States, Russia and Japan, and currently resides in Rio de Janeiro, where he performs regularly with Souza in the celebrated collaboration .

The Brazilian guitar concert is organized by , instructor of music history and cultures, and is promoted by the students of the Music in Latin America course.

For more information, visit

Check out the video below to see the three guitarists performing.

Frank Malfitano, founder of Syracuse Jazz Fest, speaks at Biscotti’s Cafe about the influence Syracuse University had on his life. Photo by Sean Kirst.

For more than three decades, Frank Malfitano ’72 has served as executive director and guiding force behind Jazz Fest, an event he founded in greater Syracuse. Admission is free for the annual festival, which has brought some of the greatest names in jazz, rhythm-and-blues and popular music to Central New York – including such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Dave Brubeck and B.B. King – and put them on stage.

Wednesday, at 1 p.m. in the ornate lobby of the M & T Bank in downtown Syracuse, Malfitano will reveal the featured performers for the 35th Jazz Fest, to be held June 9-10 at Onondaga Community College. Malfitano, 71, said the announcement is always a jubilant moment: “To be in a position to present artists of that caliber? It’s dream-come-true stuff.”

Born in 1945, Malfitano was the only child of Frank and Mary Malfitano. His father was a machinist, while his mother worked as a clerk at several downtown department stores. As for Malfitano, he attended SUNY Fredonia and Onondaga Community College before enrolling in 1967 at Syracuse University.

He recently sat down at the Biscotti Café on North Salina Street to reflect on what the festival means to him–and to speak about the influence of his years at Syracuse, especially the performers he saw live at the legendary Jabberwocky nightclub.

The noticeable thing missing at Biscotti’s: an iPhone. Malfitano declines to use one. He said he finds something heartbreaking about going to a concert and seeing so many people staring at a device, rather than focusing on brilliant performers, up on stage. He fears a mobile device is often a barrier against experiencing the world, as it is.

The conversation, edited for space:

Looking back on it, how important was the University in your life?

If I look at what I’m doing now …. it gave me a world-class education in regards to the greatest blues, jazz and folk artists in the history of American culture. At Jabberwocky, those were the halcyon days, man …. Big-time. I saw everybody from Mississippi Fred McDowell and Buddy Guy and Junior Wells to Taj Mahal.

The place (Jabberwocky) was small, a low ceiling, dimly lit; it really wasn’t fancy but it had its own kind of ambience. I saw Weather Report there. I saw Chick Correa there. There were so many things that left an indelible impression on me. Gil Scott-Heron …. I went on to have a lifelong relationship with Gil. At Syracuse, we saw so many illustrious people. We saw the best films, the best lectures: Timothy Leary! I met Timothy Leary.

What I remember of my days at Syracuse was mostly on the cultural side. And certainly on the athletic side. I was a big sports fan. I was part of the Manley Zoo (the raucous basketball crowd at Manley Field House) around ’72,�� but you’ve got to remember, I started in ’67. So I was at Syracuse for five years. I was hanging around Syracuse (in the mid-1960s) when Saul Alinsky was in town, because that’s where the action was …. ��I had read “Rules for Radicals,” and he was very dynamic, very smart, and he was the textbook for community organizers, and certainly that had a tremendous impact on me.

You came in with the Baby Boom.

I did. Nov. 22, 1945. Music has had a profound influence on my whole life, but Syracuse University really opened up my world to the world of music and to the world of community organizing.

The interesting thing is, I worked with Ray Charles so many times, and I worked with B.B. King on multiple occasions, and I worked with Aretha. The first time I presented Ms. Franklin, I was artistic director for the Music Hall Center for Performing Arts in Detroit. She said that when her father used to preach, when his church was being renovated, he used to preach at Music Hall. We forged a bond, and we’ve worked together 16 times since then.

Being able to work with the “Queen of Soul,” who’s generally regarded as the greatest vocalist of all time? And to be able to work with a Ray Charles, and to get to know Ray and talk music with Ray, and to be able to hang out with B.B. King? These are bonuses in life. Just to be able to present them is an honor, a privilege and a blessing, just to be able to put their artistry on stage in Syracuse.

Those are amazing moments at Jazz Fest, and it’s why I encourage people to attend every year. People might say: “Oh, I go every year, I won’t go this year.” But you’ve got to go. The reality of what’s happening is that an entire generation of ’60s giants and pioneers is leaving us, and the thing that always gets to me is when I look up at our stage on a summer’s night, and I realize: Nowhere else on planet Earth is this happening on this night except in Syracuse, N.Y., my hometown.

Do you have a favorite Jazz Fest moment?

Falling in love with my wife (Kathy Rowe) at Jazz Fest. It was 1998, our first kiss. And there were transcendent moments spiritually, musically, culturally, but I think if I had to really pinpoint one, probably the 1989 festival at Long Branch (Park), because Dizzy Gillespie came. You get to work with Dizzy, and all of a sudden you’re in the jazz stratosphere.

Is there one compelling purpose, one theme, that you see as central to�� Jazz Fest?

Look, the way we work, this is a free admission festival. And I’m more committed to it now than I’ve ever been, and I’ll tell you why: We’re rapidly morphing, transforming into a society that’s all about the haves and the have-nots, the super-rich and the very poor. The middle class is going, disappearing. But people still deserve a night out, they still deserve quality entertainment. Not everyone can pay for some enormous ticket. It’s absolute insanity, really insane, the way the cost of entertainment has skyrocketed to the point where it’s out of reach.

That’s tragic, because, basically, what are you saying? You’re saying based on economics, there’s a caste system, and you can’t see these artists. And in many cases, this art has come from the very community that can’t afford to see it. In that way, I’m a throwback, an anachronism, no doubt about it.

Regardless of comings or goings or other things I’ve been involved with, I’ve been doing Jazz Fest (in Syracuse) pretty much continually. We’re inextricably bound up with one another, synonymous with one another. If you ask me if I want it to continue, then you’re asking me if I want to continue. Of course! My spirit hasn’t waned.

But the future of the festival isn’t certain. It’s not predictable. It’s only predictable if people continue to support it on an unconditional basis, and that gets harder and harder to do.

If the support is there? I’d stay there until I die.

How about the lasting impact? The way your time at the University played out in the way you see the world?

Think about it. I’m in the music business, and I’m a community organizer who’s using music to organize the community. All of that came from my time at Syracuse University. I mean, it’s who I am today. The seeds that were sown …. I’m not just a child of the ’60s. I’m still fulfilling the mission of the ’60s.

You know, it’s funny: I spent seven years in Detroit, which is the most segregated large city in the country. Knowing that, when I took over leadership of the Detroit International Jazz Festival, I wanted to create a festival that was inclusive and inviting. Every year, festival attendance was 50/50, racially 50/50.

And look, I don’t want to have a Meryl Streep moment here, but I think it’s important for everybody in the community to get to know their neighbors – black, white, Hispanic, gay, straight, old, young – it doesn’t matter. That’s the fabric of community. That’s who we are.

But too often, I think, we’re segregated. We’re segregated by race or by gender or by age or by this or by that. The great thing about JazzFest: You’re going to see everyone in the community, and now I’m seeing people, as adults, whose parents brought them when they were little kids.

The community comes out, in a huge way. You’re likely to run into anybody at Jazz Fest and I think that’s good, and I think the music is what brings them all together, what they all have in common. Anytime that happens, you have potential for a dialogue that isn’t divided along party lines or political lines, a dialogue that really exists along human lines. And I think that’s pretty significant.

Tanksley’s vocal abilities have been described as “smokey,” “smooth” and “addicting.” He is honored to have been a student of jazz great, Ronnie Leigh, and is currently being mentored by Carlos Alomar, David Bowie’s guitarist, musical arranger and collaborator for decades. While escaping the need to be bound by genre-specific parameters, Tanksley finds freedom in his music and delivers a fresh and contemporary style all his own.

Rich with a variety of influences, Tanksley’s music is straight from his soul. He has performed at venues throughout New York and is anticipating the release of his EP. For questions or further details, contact Tamar Smithers.

Tamar Smithers
tjsmithe@syr.edu
315.442.2230
African American Studies

URL:

Ekmeles

The program will include “Three Scenes from ‘Sleep’” by Erin Gee, “Peccavi fateor” by Jeffrey Gavett, “Motorman Sextet” by Taylor Brook and the premiere performance of a revised version of “The Human Dream” by Andrew Waggoner, professor of composition in the ’ Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music.

Ekmeles, which will be in residence at the Setnor School as part of the Baker Artists Program, will participate in several additional events open to the public:

• Monday, Feb. 6, open forum with singers, composers and students, 12:20-1:40 p.m., 404 Crouse College
• Monday, Feb. 6, vocal workshop with University Singers, 2:15-3:25 p.m., Setnor Auditorium
• Tuesday, Feb. 7, reading of Syracuse University student works, 12:30-1:50 p.m., Setnor Auditorium

New York is home to a vibrant instrumental new music scene, with a relative paucity of vocal music. Ekmeles was founded to fill the gap by presenting new a cappella repertoire for solo voices and by collaborating with these instrumental ensembles.

Gavett, the ensemble’s director, brings a hybrid vision to the group: he is an accomplished ensemble singer and performer of new works and holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and Manhattan School of Music’s contemporary performance program. He has assembled a virtuoso group of colleagues who bring their own diverse backgrounds to bear on the unique challenges of this essential and neglected repertoire.

For most Setnor Auditorium events, free and accessible parking is available in the Q1 lot. Additional parking is available in the Irving Garage. Campus parking availability is subject to change; call 315-443-2191 for current information or for more information about the operas.

The Baker Artists Program creates opportunities for students to connect with renowned music professionals through a robust and engaging residency program. Founded in 2013 by a grant from the Dexter F. & Dorothy H. Baker Foundation, the program brings leading performers, educational scholars, composers and industry leaders to the Setnor School of Music, the Syracuse University campus, and the larger Syracuse community by providing master classes, lectures and performances.

Monique W. Morris

The month-long celebration includes performances, thought-provoking lectures and dialogues, art exhibitions, music and other events, with campuswide coordination led by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, in partnership with many student organizations and University partners.

“We are excited to bring such an array of events and programs for this year’s Black History Month celebration. The students, faculty and staff who make up the planning committee are eager to engage the whole campus community in honoring and celebrating Black History Month,” says Cedric T. Bolton, coordinator of student engagement in the Office of Multicultural Affairs and chair of the planning committee.

This year’s commemorative speaker is Monique W. Morris, author and social justice scholar with more than 20 years’ experience in the areas of education, civil rights and juvenile and social justice. Morris is the author of “Too Beautiful for Words” (MWM Books, 2012); “Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-First Century” (The New Press, 2014); and most recently, “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools” (The New Press, 2016).��Morris’ research intersects race, gender, education and justice to explore the ways in which Black communities and other communities of color are uniquely affected by social policies. Morris is a member of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) National Girls Initiative Expert Panel,��the California Board of State and Community Corrections’ Committee on Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparity and other workgroups designed to improve the education of children in contact with the criminal and juvenile legal systems. The lecture is on Wednesday, Feb. 8, in the Schine Student Center, Room 304 ABC, at 7 p.m.

One of the most highly anticipated events is the annual evening dinner and music celebration The Black Lounge.�� The Black Lounge is Saturday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium, Schine Student Center. This year’s event will feature headliners Riff, an R&B vocal group from Paterson, New Jersey, who came together while teenagers attending Paterson’s Eastside High School. The ensemble sang in the 1989 film “Lean on Me,” which was based on events at Eastside High. The group scored several respectable hits, including three Billboard Hot 100 hits. Riff is currently putting the final touches on its EP titled “Back to the Future,” which is scheduled for release soon. The Black Lounge will also feature performances by ASV “On Fire for God,” Charity Luster and TANKSLEY, and music by DJ Maestro.�� Tickets for The Black Lounge are available now for $3 at the Schine Box Office.

Some additional events throughout the month include:

• Spring Reception/ Exhibition: “I, too, am American: A Song of Race and Language”: Friday, Feb.3-March 25, Community Folk Art Center Community Black Box Theatre
• Caribbean Student Association Banquet: Friday, Feb. 3, 6 p.m., Goldstein Auditorium, Schine Student Center
• The Douglas Biklen Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series with Edward Brockenbrough: Thursday, Feb. 9, Maxwell Auditorium
• Black Girls Magic Art Panel: Thursday, Feb. 16, 7 p.m., Hergenhan Auditorium, Newhouse III
• Modern Dance Workshop with Tehmekah A. MacPherson: Saturday, Feb. 25, noon-3:30 p.m., Flanagan Exercise Studio
• Sankofa Lecture Series: Monday, Feb. 27, 6 p.m., Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (Room 114), Bird Library

“Through these events, we celebrate the rich and diverse backgrounds of Black people all over the world, and their struggle for freedom and equality,” says James Duah-Agyeman, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.�� “I encourage the campus community to attend as many of these events as possible, especially the commemorative lecture with Dr. Monique Morris and The Black Lounge. I hope the lecture inspires us to create positive change in our personal and professional lives and excellence in all we do.”

For more information on Syracuse University’s Black History Month Celebration, including a complete list of events and programs, visit the or contact Bolton at 315.443.9676.

The Lights Out promoting their album “T.R.I.P.”

Ritchie, who plays guitar for the band and owns his own Boston-based public relations company, Adam Ritchie Brand Direction, says “T.R.I.P.” was a perfect opportunity to blend his love for media, music and beer. (The album can be downloaded using a Twitter hashtag printed on the can.) Here, Ritchie answers some questions about how the creative collaboration was born, and his hopes for both media and music.

What was your time at Newhouse like?

I was a PR major and a music industry minor, had long hair and wore leather pants to newswriting class. I’d walk past the photo of Steve Leeds [1973 Newhouse alumnus and VP at SiriusXM] in the professional gallery and imagine my life as a cross between him and the musicians he worked with. I did most of my coursework in the upstairs balcony at Clark’s Ale House in Armory Square, a beer bar just behind the Landmark Theater. Clark’s was the first place I encountered real beer, and it had a big impact on my life.

Tell us more about how you started your company and joined the band.

When I graduated, we were in the middle of a recession, jobs were hard to come by and I was discouraged. I wanted to open my own public relations business before I turned 30, so I pushed myself hard. Starting my PR business put me in control of my entire schedule for the first time ever.

One night a friend invited me to a musicians’ networking event at a dive bar. He said they’d be serving free beer—see a pattern? While I was there, I met a singer/guitarist and a bass player who were in a new band called The Lights Out. They were looking for a lead guitar player who could also sing, and asked me if I wanted to audition. I did, and they asked me back. When we were exchanging phone numbers, the drummer [Salucci] and I did a double-take when we saw each other’s 315 area codes. It turns out we’d both gone to Syracuse the same years, both minored in music industry, even jammed with the same people, but never met until we’d both moved to Boston and joined the same band. Almost 10 years later, I have a PR business with clients on four continents, a band that’s created a real body of work and a barrel of stories from both halves of a dual life. And sometimes I find ways to combine the things I love, like music, media and beer.

How would you describe “T.R.I.P.”?

There’s something anticlimactic about spending years of your life working on a record, and then throwing it onto the Internet like you’re tossing a silver dollar off a bridge and waiting for the splash. People may not be going to record stores every weekend to discover new music anymore, but there’s a place those same people are going every Friday or Saturday night to discover something new on a shelf. So rather than shopping “T.R.I.P.” to a record label, we took it to a brewery instead.

As a media person, the storytelling and presentation aspects of a finished album are almost as exciting to me as collaborating with other musicians to write one. We approached Aeronaut Brewing Co., which was founded by real-life scientists from Cornell and MIT—people who love science fiction and who are into beer that tells a story and that can be taken with you on an adventure. It took one email, followed by a meeting, and Aeronaut was on board. They got what we were trying to do, and after we gave them a rough cut of the record they started prototyping the beer. They concocted an imperial session IPA, which is a style that shouldn’t exist. But if you believe in contradictions and infinity, which is a running theme through the album, then they exist somewhere. Aeronaut brought that idea to life in this paradox of a beer. It’s specifically made as liquid sustenance for someone traveling between dimensions. The beer became the fuel, and the album became the soundtrack to the journey. What are the odds of a band writing an album about the multiverse and a brewery rooted in science-based storytelling both existing in the same city at the same time—and finding each other? It’s a good thing we believe in infinite possibility, because in most universes, this collaboration never happened.

What has the response been so far?

Through “T.R.I.P.,” I’ve connected with other Newhouse alumni working in media, like Aaron Goldfarb at Esquire, Jason Notte at Marketwatch and Erin Carson at CNET. Part of the thrill of releasing a record is seeing the relationship people form with the music. It’s out there walking around, accompanying people on their travels and becoming part of how they experience a time and a place. With “T.R.I.P.,” we’re also getting to see how people interact with a beer. We’re observing this silver object flying through the world, going along with people on an adventure or sitting next to them on a quiet night at home. Someone’s even talking to us about making a Lights Out comic book, with us as the characters. Who knows what will happen. After 10 years as a band, we know you don’t go overboard celebrating the wins and you don’t beat yourself up too much over the losses. But it’s clear we’re on a path. In the world The Lights Out is creating, it’s a good thing we made the possibilities endless.

Story by Georgie Silvarole, a 2016 graduate of the Newhouse School. This interview was edited to maintain clarity.

The program of “An American Triptych: Three Contemporary One-Act Operas” will begin with the mini-opera “Lucy” by award-winning composer . Local music fans will remember the stunning success of Cipullo’s full-length opera “Glory Denied,” which opened Syracuse Opera’s 2015-16 season. “Lucy” will feature the outstanding soprano Jing Liu, a graduate voice performance student, in the title role.

The second work will be “Thyrsis & Amaranth,” with words and music by , a student of Cipullo’s, to whom the opera is dedicated. “Thyrsis & Amaranth” is based on a fable by Jean de la Fontaine.

The program will conclude with “Speed Dating Tonight” by the musical polymath . Since its premiere at North Carolina’s Brevard Music Center in 2013, “Speed Dating Tonight” has become an operatic phenomenon, with dozens of productions nationwide on the strength of its eclectic, accessible score and contemporary subject matter.

Both Ching and Cipullo will visit Syracuse and work with the student cast as part of the Baker Artist Series. A forum and master class with Cipullo will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 5 p.m. at the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Theater Complex, 820 E. Genesee St., under the auspices of the Society for New Music. This event is free and open to the public.

“An American Triptych” is produced and directed by Eric Johnson, with musical direction by Kathleen Haddock, who will preside at the piano. Both are members of the Setnor School of Music’s faculty.

For most Setnor Auditorium events, free and accessible parking is available in the Q1 lot. Additional parking is available in the Irving Garage. Campus parking availability is subject to change; call 315-443-2191 for current information or for more information about the operas.

The Baker Artists Program creates opportunities for students to connect with renowned music professionals through a robust and engaging residency program. Founded in 2013 by a grant from the Dexter F. & Dorothy H. Baker Foundation, the program brings leading performers, educational scholars, composers and industry leaders to the Setnor School of Music, the Syracuse University campus, and the larger Syracuse community by providing master classes, lectures and performances.