Faculty News and Accomplishments Professor Jennifer Kloetzel featured in Creative Peacemeal and CelloBello CelloChats Interviews
This spring, Professor Jennifer Kloetzel was featured in the Creative Peacemeal podcast series and the CelloBello CelloChats series. Both interviews focused on Kloetzel as a performer and educator. Board Certified-Music and Neurologic Music Therapist and educator Tammy Takaishi invited Kloetzel to record an episode for her Houston-based arts podcast Creative Peacemeal in late March. Kloetzel was also featured as a guest on an episode of CelloBello’s “CelloChats” on May 2, which was streamed live via Facebook and YouTube. Created by Paul Katz, CelloBello has become a valuable resource for cellists of all experience levels from around the world. Read more here.
Assistant Professor Dr. Martha Sprigge releases first book, Socialist Laments, with Oxford University Press
Assistant Professor of Musicology Dr. Martha Sprigge released her first book, Socialist Laments: Musical Mourning in the German Democratic Republic, with Oxford University Press in April 2021. Socialist Laments: Musical Mourning in the German Democratic Republic examines a vast repertoire of commemorative works to present a history of musical mourning in communist East Germany (1949–1990). Taking a site-specific approach to this repertoire in her new book, Dr. Sprigge demonstrates how music became a crucial outlet for processing loss in a country where the ruling Socialist Unity Party tightly regulated public expressions of grief. Read more here.
Faculty Members Jennifer Kloetzel, Ertan Torgul, and Dr. Sarah Gibson featured in Uncertainty of Fate Festival sponsored by Hartt School
Performance faculty members Jennifer Kloetzel and Ertan Torgul, and Composition faculty member Dr. Sarah Gibson were featured in the virtual Uncertainty of Fate Festival from May 1-5, sponsored by the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. The festival commissioned over 45 composers to create miniatures on their impressions of the year 2020. Among the composers featured were Errollyn Wallen, Juhi Bansal, and Dr. Sarah Gibson, Assistant Teaching Professor of Composition in both the Department of Music and the College of Creative Studies. Professor of Cello Jennifer Kloetzel and Lecturer of Violin Ertan Torgul hosted masterclasses and performed 18 works as part of QuartetES. Read more here.
Photo by Zach Mendez
Associate Professor Dr. Isabel Bayrakdarian releases new album, Armenian Songs for Children, on Avie Records
Associate Professor Dr. Isabel Bayrakdarian’s latest album, Armenian Songs for Children, was released on Avie Records on June 18. The 29-track album includes works by Armenian composers Gomidas Vartabed, Parsegh Ganatchian, and Mihran Toumajan, and traditional songs from various sources, with arrangements by Artur Avanesov, John Hodian, Ellie Choate, and Isabel Bayrakdarian. Dr. Bayrakdarian collaborated with harpist Ellie Choate, flutist Ray Furuta, and Ruben Harutyunyan on the duduk, an ancient Armenian double reed instrument. Avie’s official press release for the album noted that, for Dr. Bayrakdarian, a Lebanese-born, Canadian-Armenian-American soprano, this is “a deeply personal project.” Read more here.
Assistant Teaching Professor Dr. Sarah Gibson’s warp & weft to be performed by Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl
Assistant Teaching Professor Dr. Sarah Gibson’s work for orchestra, warp & weft, will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday, August 5 at 8 pm PT. Conducted by New Zealand’s Gemma New, a former Los Angeles Philharmonic Dudamel Conducting Fellow, the program will include Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish,” and will feature piano soloist Isata Kanneh-Mason in a performance of Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Written in 2019 for chamber orchestra, Dr. Gibson’s warp & weft was commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra during Dr. Gibson’s residency as the organization’s Sound Investment Composer. Read more here. UC Santa Barbara Department of Music | Summer 2021 Newsletter | 21
