Musical Setting of Sara Pirkle Hughes’s “What Hurts”

Neil Olmstead

“What Hurts” is based on a poem by Sara Pirkle Hughes. It is the first piece in a song cycle of five art songs for mezzo soprano and piano that I composed within the last year and recorded this past…

The String Revolution: Beux’s Etude pour violin solo & The Responsibility of the Composer/Performer

Sean Brennan

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences -Audre Lorde, Our Dead Behind Us: Poems Within the confines of the orchestra, the violin’s role as both a solo instrument…

Against The Odds: an Exploration of Bulgarian Rhythms

Vessela Stoyanova

The overwhelming majority of Bulgarian folk music happens to be in odd meters–typically 5, 7, 9 and 11, with occasional combinations of those creating 13, 15, 17 and larger. Some musicologists have linked these odd meters to the history…

Which Way do the Trade Winds Blow?

Rick McLaughlin

Two Case Studies Examining the Voyage of Jazz to Africa Abstract: Over the past century, American jazz recordings have transformed from the music of New Orleans to at least 13 unique sub-genres. Given the importance of West African music on…

T. Allen LeVines

Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto

When is there not music? ... bursts of morning sun or night shadows in a full moon rising ... thundering spring waterfalls or silent mountain snows in winter ...

Aliya Cycon Project

Interview by Xingyu

Aliya Cycon is an 8th Semester CWP major at Berklee. Her band, Aliya Cycon Project, just released their first album called “We Will Be Light” this past spring. Y—Xingyu Yao A—Aliya Cycon Y: Hi Aliya, Congratulations on your first album…

Preab Meadar – transforming Poetry to Dance

Tadgh Dall Ó hUigín (Blind Taigue Higgins), a professional poet in 16th Century Gaelic Ireland, had seen two patrons suffer ignominy and defeat before he wrote The Lion and Fox for his patron Brian MacGuire in 1588 AD. This poem…

Essential Singing Approaches for Contemporary Styles

Jeannie Gagné, Professor, Voice, Berklee College of Music

Adapted from 2015 BTOT presentation with professors Jeannie Gagné, Cassandre McKinley, Maureen McMullan, Laurie Monahan, and Linda Balliro For vocalists, the body is the instrument. In contemporary styles, singers must rely on the PA system to be heard, which…

Hole

Anwen Crawford

Anwen Crawford is an Australian writer. She is the music critic for The Monthly magazine, and her essays have appeared in publications including Frieze and The New Yorker online.

Lunaria

Moira Lo Bianco

“This album is a cloud of thoughts, a nest of feelings”- Moira Lo Bianco The Lunaria is a leaf that seems to be made of silk but develops a sharp stem, like it wants to protect itself from the world. Framed by the essence of the Lunaria leaf, Moira Lo Bianco’s album Lunaria continues the delicate story of romance wrapped in the silks of classical, jazz and middle eastern styles.