Campus Stories - Music
Stanford launches new free online course on Beethoven
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s history, reception and evolution as an artist is the subject of a new Stanford Online course that is free and open to the public. The course, which launched in spring quarter, is designed for any level of musical literacy – from beginner to buff – with the aim of enhancing people’s understanding and…
Ram’s Head brings The Addams Family, living, dead and undecided, to Stanford
From casting to set design, Stanford’s Ram’s Head Theatrical Society takes advantage of the diverse talent on campus to present their perennial spring musical. This year’s production is The Addams Family. The Addams Family musical takes the humorously macabre characters drawn by cartoonist Charles Addams and places them in an original story on stage. Wednesday Addams, a…
Stanford Live’s 2019-20 season will explore the intersection of art and politics
Stanford Live’s curators have put together a 2019-20 season of multidisciplinary events that intersect music and performance with politics. “A key role of the artist is to reflect a society back upon itself and that political context and content is a crucial part of this storytelling process,” says Chris Lorway, executive director of Stanford Live….
Perspectives on “Hamilton”
Hamilton is one the most popular and most celebrated musicals in American history. It has essentially redefined the American musical by drawing on the language and rhythms of hip-hop and R & B, genres that are underrepresented in the musical theater tradition. Last year Allyson Hobbs, associate professor of history in the School of the…
The first two VAF artists are Turkish ud player and composer Necati Çelik and Indian photographer Gauri Gill
The Office of the Vice President for the Arts at Stanford University announces the first two artists in the new Visiting Artist Fund in Honor of Roberta Bowman Denning (VAF). The program brings international artists into Stanford classrooms in order to provide a stimulus in artistic thinking and aesthetic perspectives to disciplines across the university….
Classy classes: Music 1A takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying music behavior
In Music 1A: Music, Mind, and Human Behavior, students have the opportunity to explore music as a core aspect of human existence through the lenses of cognitive science, culture and anthropology. (Read the full article in the Stanford Daily.)
Stanford University announces Stanford Live partnerships with Goldenvoice and the San Francisco Symphony
When Frost Amphitheater reopens in the spring, the Stanford and South Bay community will again be able to enjoy live music on the terraced lawn. And thanks to Stanford Live’s two new musical partnerships, the performance offerings are richer than ever. Frost Amphitheater will reopen this spring after an extensive renovation project that includes the…
Stanford’s Frost Amphitheater renovation on pace
In the summer of 2017, renovation construction began on Frost Amphitheater, a venue that holds a special place in the hearts of all those who were lucky enough to attend an event there since its opening in 1937. The goal of the project is to build a state-of-the-art stage and introduce other back-of-house amenities, as…
Stanford polymath blazes a new trail with his design manifesto
Stanford scholar Ge Wang has chosen an unconventional medium for a manifesto about why technology and design needs to reflect human values: a comic book. “It’s nerdy. It’s philosophical. It’s a core dump of my brain in comic form,” said Wang, an associate professor of music in the School of Humanities and Science, who has…
Stanford unveils new Presidential Residencies on the Future of the Arts and welcomes international guest artists
Artists from across the globe come to Stanford to perform, create and engage. The 80-plus guest artists visiting campus this fall are hosted by over 20 Stanford departments, centers and programs. Some of the artists will be at Stanford for a single public event and others will stay for an extended visit for deep engagement…
Stanford musicologist reflects on ‘multimusical’ Aretha Franklin
As family, friends and fans pay their final respects to Aretha Franklin, whose funeral is Aug. 31, Stanford musicologist Charles Kronengold discusses with Stanford Report the ways that Franklin defined her time. Aretha Franklin, shown in a 1968 publicity photo, was a major figure in American musical culture. She died Aug. 16 at age 76. (Image credit: Wikipedia…
Student Arts Grants: A Year in Photos 2017-18
This year’s Student Arts Grants supported a wide range of projects across the Stanford campus. The projects covered many genres including contemporary plays, documentary and fiction film shorts, musical theater, painting, photography, drag performance, and more. Many of this year’s grantees utilized Roble Arts Gym as a rehearsal/work space as well as a venue for their exhibits…
Stanford Concert Network staff on organizing the Frost Music & Arts Festival
Spring quarter is half past, which means it’s almost time for the seventh annual Frost Music & Arts Festival, scheduled for Saturday, May 19. The festival, which will include performances by Ravyn Lenae, Monte Booker and headliner Glass Animals, will be held at Stanford Stadium due to renovations at Frost Amphitheater. More than a concert,…
Ram’s Head presents ‘Chicago’
Set in the mid-1920s, Broadway favorite Chicago follows the story of budding star Roxie Hart and veteran performer Velma Kelly as they vie for the spotlight in search of the American Dream: fame, fortune and acquittal from their death row convictions. According to Gabe Wieder, director and co-choreographer of the Ram’s Head production of the musical, “Chicago’s…
Louis Menand unmasks the rock god in his cultural history of rock’n’roll
Who invented rock’n’roll? It’s not who you think. At the Stanford Humanities Center’s 2018 Harry Camp Memorial Lecture, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and cultural critic Louis Menand exposed rock’n’roll’s origin myths, shedding light on the power of media to shape cultural myths today. In his lecture, titled “Conditions for the Possibility of Rock’n’Roll: An Exercise in Cultural History,” Menand…
Stanford’s spring quarter guest artists
Guest artists are all over campus this spring. Indie rock band Glass Animals play Stanford Stadium; the open-air literary celebration Stories of Exile, Reckoning and Hope takes place on the main stage in White Plaza; Mina Morita directs Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan in Roble Studio Theater; and Stanford Live’s popular Cabaret series continues in Bing’s cozy…
