Current Student Successes Alex Blue V, Doctor of Philosophy (Ethnomusicology)
Alex Blue V, a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology, was appointed as Assistant Professor of Music at the College of William and Mary. Blue’s appointment will begin in Fall 2021, upon the completion of his term as the 2019-2021 Thurgood Marshall Fellow in African and African American Studies at Dartmouth College. In his new position, Blue will teach courses on race and music, sound studies, and hip-hop production, and will continue his research in the areas of sound, race, identity, and urban space. Blue’s dissertation for his PhD is an ethnographic study of hip-hop in contemporary Detroit, Michigan, that explores narratives of death and dying and illuminates numerous ways the creation, performance, and consumption of hip-hop is used for spatial reorientation, identity formation, and other means in a rapidly-changing city.
Sunaina Keonaona Kale, Doctor of Philosophy (Ethnomusicology)
Sunaina Keonaona Kale, a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology, has been awarded a twoyear Charles Eastman Fellowship in Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. Kale will begin as a predoctoral fellow in the academic year 2020-2021, and will continue on as a postdoctoral fellow in 2021-2022. During her time as a fellow, Kale will work on completing her dissertation and engaging with native student groups at Dartmouth. Kale researches reggae music in Hawai‘i and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) identity, and is interested in how definitions of Hawaiian music and identity constantly shift and interrelate with indigenous political movements, indigenous worldviews, local identity, and the global. She holds an MA in Ethnomusicology from UC Santa Barbara and is currently studying under Dr. David Novak.
Noelle Barr, Bachelor of Arts in Music Studies
Undergraduate student Noelle Barr was named Second Prize Winner of the 2020 UC Santa Barbara Library Award for Undergraduate Research in the Humanities and Fine Arts category. The annual award recognizes students “who produce a scholarly or creative work that makes expert and sophisticated use of the collections, resources, and services of the UC Santa Barbara Library.” Barr’s paper, “Musical Materiality,” takes a close look at the façade of the Palais Garnier – the Paris Opera House – from the lens of art and architectural history, public use of the space in and around the Palais, and attitudes of the time about music and its place in French culture. Barr is a rising senior at UC Santa Barbara and a double major in Music Studies and the History of Art and Architecture.
Photo: Zach Mendez
Byron Mayes, Doctor of Musical Arts (Voice)
DMA candidate Byron Mayes was named a winner in the Vocal Category of the Music Academy of the West’s Digital Challenge, which took place as part of the 2020 Music Academy Remote Learning Institute. “My Digital Challenge submission was based off of a poem by Langston Hughes entitled ‘I, Too, Sing America,’” said Mayes. “It has been my favorite poem for many years. It talks about the struggle of being viewed as different and less than because of one’s color while still having hope that one day things will change for the better. It was set to music by 20th Century African-American Composer Margaret Bonds.” Mayes was selected as a 2020 Music Academy of the West Vocal Fellow and was a recipient of the 2020 Jean Rogers Full Scholarship in Voice. Watch the video here.
Rodney DuPlessis, Doctor of Philosophy (Composition)
Rodney DuPlessis received Honorable Mention in the Foundation Destellos Competition of Electroacoustic Composition for his piece, De Rerum Natura. The piece was also recognized as a finalist for the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS)/ The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Award, under the name Dimensionless, and earned another finalist spot in the SIMEC Electroacoustic Music Competition. “De Rerum Natura is inspired by the concept of ‘naturalness’ in physics, which presents a conflict between truth and beauty,” noted DuPlessis. “The tension between this widely applied concept on the one hand, and the promise of science to shed all bias in pursuit of truth on the other, guided my meditation within the soundscape of this piece.” Listen here. 22 | UC Santa Barbara Department of Music | Fall 2020 Newsletter
