Campus Stories - Music
20.8% of the 2017 MacArthur Fellows were Stanford guest artists within the last year
Stanford congratulates the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” winners who recently spent time on campus engaging with students, faculty and the public. Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY, whose work tells elaborate and delicate stories of her life, was in conversation with Jodi Roberts, the Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Curator for Modern and…
Fall quarter guest artists
One of the ways that Stanford is creating opportunities for meaningful engagement with the arts for students and the university community is by inviting over 100 artists each year to campus to create, perform and discuss their work. This fall quarter the roster of guest artists includes comedian and political commentator Samantha Bee in conversation…
Stanford Honors in the Arts capstone program evolves with a new Mellon grant
Stanford University has been awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to support the development of a new undergraduate, interdisciplinary program in the arts to be administered by Stanford Arts Institute. Honors in the Arts students present Bacchae, an immersive theatrical experience utilizing locations across the Stanford campus. (Image credit: Kristen Stipanov) The $400,000 grant provides support for…
Stanford Libraries’ rare score of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida provides clues to the past
A rare, orchestral score of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida has become a valuable source of instruction and inspiration for Stanford scholars. The handwritten manuscript, used in Aida’s Paris premiere in 1876, appears to be the earliest surviving copy of the famous opera’s full score – and the only surviving score from a performance…
Stanford Live celebrates Canada Day as part of its Summer Series at Bing Concert Hall
Summer is upon us, but that doesn’t mean the arts are going on vacation. Many Stanford concerts, performances and events are scheduled on campus in the coming months, including the Stanford Jazz Festival, Stanford Repertory Theater‘s summer festival, “The Many Faces of Farce,” Department of Music and Stanford Live performances at Bing Concert Hall, starting…
Student Arts Grants: A Year in Photos 2016-17
This year’s Student Arts Grants supported a wide range of projects across the Stanford campus. The projects covered many genres including devised performance, contemporary dance, printmaking, classical and contemporary plays, documentary and fiction film shorts, musical theater, painting, photography, and more. Many of this year’s grantees utilized the new Roble Arts Gym as a rehearsal/work space as…
New conductor appointed for Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Philharmonia
Paul Phillips has been named the new director of orchestral studies at Stanford and will take over the baton as music director and conductor of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Philharmonia. Phillips is currently director of orchestras and chamber music and distinguished senior lecturer in music at Brown University. “We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome…
Stanford Taiko testimonials
“Since joining the group as a freshman, I have come to view Stanford Taiko as the defining feature of my Stanford experience. Through Stanford Taiko, I have grown musically, but more importantly, I have grown as a human being. ST is fundamentally based upon respect – respect not only for the drums and the practice…
Alternative digs for the 6th Annual Frost Music & Arts Festival
Frost Amphitheater is closed for an upcoming renovation, but the show must go on – elsewhere. This year the annual Frost Music & Arts Festival will take place in the Stanford stadium on May 20 with Grammy award winning electronic dance music master Zedd headlining and special guests BROOD, the synth pop brother-sister duo. The…
Stanford Taiko celebrates 25 years on campus
Stanford Taiko alums descended on the campus earlier this month to socialize, eat, jam and perform with the current crop of drummers in celebration of the ensemble’s 25th anniversary. The capacity crowd at the spring concert in Bing Concert Hall enjoyed an evening of original works for North American taiko performed by current and former…
Stanford Mohr Visiting Artist Majel Connery reimagines the string quartet
What happens when you imagine the string quartet as a theatrical genre? How can the inherent showmanship of the four musicians expand to interact with voice, acting and operatic performance? These are the questions Mohr Visiting Artist Majel Connery examined in her winter class, Theatricality and the String Quartet, with help from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer…
Stanford musicologist brings the 15th century to life
Audiences often trust that performers know the history of the music they present, but even for the most dedicated performers there are unanswered questions. How, for instance, were ensemble performances experienced during the Renaissance? Do we experience them similarly today? For Jesse Rodin, associate professor of music, questions like these are central. “We might not…
Stanford’s St. Lawrence String Quartet brings Beethoven to the San Francisco County Jail
Music lives and thrives in all sorts of unexpected places: theaters and living rooms, dingy warehouses and brightly lit stadiums. It blasts through car stereos and provides quiet comfort in moments of solitude. Stanford’s ensemble-in-residence, the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ), brought live music to an unexpected place, far removed from the concert hall. They…
Stanford Live features world-class artists, integrates them into campus life
When the Danish String Quartet visited campus this past October, the members didn’t simply drop in for a public performance of Wallin, Janácek and Beethoven at Bing Concert Hall and head home. They also joined in a chamber music reading session with students and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Stanford’s ensemble-in-residence. “They all read together…
Stanford hosts Rolston String Quartet
“Where words fail, music speaks.” This simple adage, attributed to 19th-century Danish author of children’s fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen, still rings true today. His words get to the heart of why we listen to music – for its ability to express what we would otherwise never know how to say. The music of the…
Bringing Baby back at Dinkelspiel Auditorium
Sixty years ago, one of the first successful American operas, The Ballad of Baby Doe, made its West Coast premiere at Stanford’s then brand-new Dinkelspiel Auditorium. The opera, based on the true and tragic story of Elizabeth “Baby” Doe Tabor and her romance with the wealthy silver king Horace Tabor, was commissioned by Colorado’s Central…
