News
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Faculty Spotlight
Matt Ulery Named Recipient of a 2024 Walder Foundation Platform Award
Matt Ulery, Instructor of Bass and Composition at Loyola, is a 2024 recipient of a Walder Foundation Platform Award. This unrestricted award of $200,000 supports and recognize accomplished Chicagoland mid-career music, theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary performance artists who enrich the City's creative and civic landscape through a commitment to honing their craft and meaningful community engagement. READ MORE -
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In the Media
Recent Mass Reimagined Concert Reviewed by Chicago Classical Review
"Devised and led by conductor Kirsten Hedegaard, co-founder and artistic director of the EcoVoice Project, the program consisted of two works that leveraged the traditional Catholic mass form to comment on global extinction at the hands of humanity. Both pieces were harmonically and contextually modern but assumed differing rhetorical and aesthetic stances to deliver their urgent warning."READ -
Faculty News
Dongryul Lee, D.M.A. Joins the Loyola Music Faculty
Dr. Dongryul Lee joins the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Loyola University Chicago as Assistant Professor of Music where he will teach and conduct research in Music Theory and Composition. He previously taught at North Central College, Harper College, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign..
Described as “alluring, sparkling, thoughtful, and carefully crafted,” Seoul-born Chicago based composer Dongryul Lee (이동렬, Korean pronunciation: [iː doŋ ɾjəɾ]) seeks to write music that is deeply oriented around the acoustical nature of sounds and the playfulness of classical performance practice. The dual identities of his backgrounds, a Korean immigrant living in the States, a born Catholic and learned Buddhist thinker, and a composer with a computer science degree, greatly influence his musical language.
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Artist-In-Residence
Kaoru Watanabe Named Spring 2023 Artist-In-Residence in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts Music Program at Loyola University Chicago
During his residence, New York-based musician and North America’s leading practitioner of the shinobue (Japanese transverse flute), Kaoru Watanabe will engage with music students and faculty through teaching, working with the Percussion and Wind Ensembles, and will present a public recital in the Skowronski Music Hall on Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus.
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Faculty News
Christopher Madsen Joins the Loyola Music Faculty
Christopher Madsen, DMA joins the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Loyola University Chicago as Lecturer in Music, Jazz Studies. Madsen is a Jazz saxophonist, composer, and pedagogue who brings 14 years of experience teaching at the college level (Northwestern U. 2008-2014 and University of Illinois at Chicago, 2014-2022) and is excited to join the faculty at Loyola.
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In the Media
Music alum Kabir Dalawari featured in the Chicago Tribune
Jazz Studies grad Kabir Dalawari's debut album Awareness is featured in an article that discusses his academic trajectory at Loyola and the important role that Professor Mat Ulery's mentorship played in Kabir's musical growth. Awareness features Kabir on drums, Ulery on Bass, and recent Loyola graduate Eric Arroyo on piano. READ -
Interdisciplinary Spotlight
Sacred and Secular: An Exploration of Art and Music in the 11th-17th Century Italy
Recently, students from the DFPA presented “Sacred and Secular: An Exploration of Art and Music in the 11th-17th Century Italy” at Loyola University’s Museum of Art (LUMA). The LUC Chamber Choir prepared works by Landini, Dufay, Josquin, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Strozzi, and Gabrieli, accompanied on theorbo and Baroque guitar by guest artist, Brandon Acker.
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Video
Elements presented by music faculty Kirsten Hedegaard at the Climate Change Conference
ELEMENTS is a sound exploration of four states of matter in the form of earth, fire, air, and water. Ruminating on Thale’s philosophy that “all is water,” ELEMENTS is also a meditation on water’s singular importance and relationship to the other three elements. Most of the audio was recorded virtually with chorus members from Loyola University and the University of Illinois campuses. Several pieces were recorded live, masked and safely distanced, with a vocal octet from the New Earth Ensemble. WATCH VIDEO -
Alumni
Bill Cernota receives the 2019 CYSO Alumni Award
Loyola Music alum Bill Cernota, cellist for the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, receives the 2019 CYSO Alumni Award. The Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra (CYSO) Community Partnership Programs support music training and access for more than 8,500 young musicians ages 6-18 each year. Click to read the CYSC blog post. -
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Arts Research
Music Students and Faculty Collaborate Remotely to Create Online Soundscapes
Celebrate Earth 1 is the first part in an ongoing YouTube virtual project designed by students and faculty from the DFPA. This online soundscape is based on variations of the medieval chant, "Adoro te devote," culminating in the hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth." The singers and instrumentalists recorded their parts individually, then were compiled into a cohesive work. This first installment features over one hundred choristers from the LUC Women's Chorus (conducted by Jennifer Budziak), University Chorale, and Chamber Choir (conducted by Kirsten Hedegaard), as well as guest musicians: Rich Leasure, organ, Jim Gailloreto, soprano saxophone, and Jill Kaeding, cello. Sound production was done by Sam Mason, and video production was completed by Alec Loftus, both students in the music program. Part 2 will feature music from Paul Winter's Missa Gaia, which was set to be performed by the choirs and dance division in late March. Future installments will be completed over the summer.WATCH VIDEO
