Wednesday, September 30, 2009

New at Your Library!

Welcome back to the UW Music Library! We had a busy summer at the UW Music Library. Here are just a few of the changes you’ll find this fall:

*Finale on the Listening Center computers
*3 Oxygen 8 keyboards available for use with Finale—ask at the Listening Center
window
*New hours available at: http://www.lib.washington.edu/about/hours/music.html
*The books moved! A-ML399 are upstairs, ML400-Z are downstairs
*New subject guide available at: http://guides.lib.washington.edu/music
*RILM has a new look!
*New Music Library staff member-- Lynn Cowan, Reserves Technician
*New Guide on locating Music Primary Resources
*Follow us on Twitter
*Coming soon: air conditioning in the Music Listening Center!

We look forward to serving you in the Music Library!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Females make inroads into conducting

"Life as a young conductor is never easy. There are too few jobs for too many talented newcomers. Orchestras' governing boards tend to be a conservative lot, unwilling to step out onto too many limbs artistically or operationally. And in 2009, there is always the steady undercurrent of anxiety, real or imagined, about the financial viability of classical music and opera."


For the full story, please see Variety.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Jazz Now: A Guide To 21st-Century Free Jazz

"All week long you've dreaded it. You've touched your toes in the jazz water, and it's been cool and refreshing, but there are rapids ahead ... wild, disjointed and arrhythmic rapids. And for some reason, Sun Ra is your raft guide.

Yes, it's here. Oh, God, not the free jazz!"

For the full story, please see npr.org.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Leon Kirchner, Composer and Teacher, Dies at 90

"Leon Kirchner, the eminent American composer who was also a pianist, a conductor and an influential teacher, died on Thursday at his home on Central Park West in Manhattan. He was 90."

For the full story, please see the New York Times. To hear Krichner's music, follow this link to the UW catalog.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

2009 Earshot Jazz Festival

"Seattle’s annual Earshot Jazz Festival presents more than 50 one-of-a-kind events in concert halls, clubs, and community centers all around the city beginning October 16th and continuing through November 8th."

For more information, please see the Earshot website. The UW School of Music will be well represented at the festival with performances by Marc Seales Groups.

Monday, September 14, 2009

New at the UW Music Library

The UW Music has been busy this summer! We would like to draw your attention to our new subject guide at http://guides.lib.washington.edu/music . This guide contains the same information as our old guide but presents the information in a user-friendly tab format. You can also directly IM a Music Librarian using the Meebo widget. Faculty and TAs—-we are happy to create guides in this format tailored to your courses.

We have also switched RILM over to the EBSCO service provider. RILM may look different but you’ll still find the same information you have grown to trust with this database.

Finally, as you may have noticed the downstairs Music Library and Listening Center have been closed this month. We are looking forward to serving you with air conditioning! If you need materials from the downstairs Music Library and Listening Center, please ask at the upstairs Music Library desk. Our staff is happy to retrieve these items for you.

As always, we look forward to serving you in the UW Music Library! If you have questions, please Ask Us!

Hollywood Bowl's Thomas Wilkins a classical case of beating the odds

"Wilkins, who will guide the orchestra Friday through Sunday in the Bowl's fireworks finale, "Blame It on Rio," is also aware that no matter what he does with his arms, he instantly attracts attention -- not only of musicians, but of audiences -- in another, more subtle way: He is one of the few African American conductors leading major orchestras."

For the full story, please see the LA Times.

Friday, September 11, 2009

New Composition by Giselle Wyers





Check out I Go Among Trees by Dr. Giselle Wyers and performed by the University of Washington Chamber Singers.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, 88, visits Seattle

"Fifty being a number that resonates well and is easily marketable, marking the 50th anniversaries of notable events and accomplishments has become a familiar exercise in documenting cultural history, the jazz pianist Dave Brubeck being no exception."

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Discovery Reveals Bach's Postmodern Side

"A modern composition technique championed by 20th century composers may have been presaged two centuries earlier by Johann Sebastian Bach. Host Liane Hansen speaks with Eric Altschuler, who writes in the current issue of Musical Times about discovering a 12-tone row in a Bach prelude."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

British Library releases 23,700 rare audio tracks online

"The British Library has made 23,700 rare music and sound recordings from its massive collection, reputed to be one of the largest sound archives in the world, available for free online.

The Library announced that 2,000 hours of material — just a fraction of its entire catalogue of sound — are now available on its website."

For the full story, please see cbc.ca.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Alberto Gonzales, the Concert Opera


"Here’s the deal: The Gonzales Cantata, playing at this year’s Philadelphia Fringe Festival, is a 40-minute choral work based on the hearings that punctuated the U.S. attorney-dismissal scandal back in 2007. (Actually, every word sung is from the transcript of the hearings.) Click here for WSJ reporter Evan Perez’s story on the hearings, which links to a whole trove of other goodies."

For the full story, please see the Wall Street Journal.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Music Written For Monkeys Strikes A Chord

"Music has great power to alter our emotions — making us happy or sad, agitated or calm. Psychologists have tried in vain to figure out why that happens. Now, a composer says he's has a clue. And he got it by writing music not for humans, but for monkeys."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.