Highlights from 2018–19

School of Music Highlights

Global prizes

School of Music doctoral students and alumni won all three top prizes at the renowned 2019 Hong Kong International Chamber Music Competition. The Laniakea String Quartet won first prize. The quartet includes doctoral students in music performance Aihua Zhang, violin, and Wesley Skinner, cello, and Doctor of Musical Arts in performance alumni Xiaolin Li, violin, and Yen-Fang Chen, viola. Second prize went to Zhang and Doctor of Musical Arts in performance alumni Shuang Zhu, clarinet, and Zhou Jiang, piano. Jiang was also in a trio that won third prize and included alumni Jiahua Ma, cello, and Xiangyuan Huang, violin. Ma earned a Master of Music in performance, and Huang earned a Bachelor of Music in performance. The competition, organized by the Asia Musicians Association, is one of the most important music competitions in Asia. Judges consist of well-known concert performers and educators from Europe, America, Singapore, Korea, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

Path to Pulitzer Prize

The 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music went to the composer of “p r i s m” — an opera that had its first developmental workshop at the School of Music and was commissioned and developed by a School of Music alumna. The opera was one of the first projects workshopped at ASU as part of the Music Theatre and Opera program’s new works initiative, which is forging a new 21st-century model toward the creation of new works and establishing ASU as a major developer of new and innovative music theatre and opera. During the “p r i s m” workshop, composer Ellen Reid, librettist Roxie Perkins and ASU alumna Beth Morrison, whose company commissioned and produced the opera, were in residence at the school and worked with music theater and opera students.

Above ASU Symphony Orchestra: Strauss, Rachmaninoff and Lutoslawski
Sept. 22, 2018

College band directors national conference

More than 300 college band directors from across the country gathered at ASU in February to talk about music, technology and research and to hear some of the best university concert bands in the country. The national conference of the College Band Directors National Association featured 12 performances over four days, including ASU’s wind orchestra, which performed under the direction of professor of music and the director of bands Gary Hill, who retired at the end of this semester. The orchestra played seven selections, including two world premieres.

A selection of work from MFA exhibitions, artists include Michael DIaz, Mike Jacobs and Krista Davis
2018-19

Guggenheim Fellowship

Professor Peter Schmelz, associate professor in the School of Music, won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship to continue his research and complete a book on unofficial exchanges of scores and recordings during the Cold War. Schmelz is ASU’s 33rd Guggenheim Fellow; others include Herberger Institute faculty Professor Betsy Schneider and Regents Professor Mark Klett. Out of nearly 3,000 applicants, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded 168 fellowships this year to scholars, artists and scientists. Schmelz is an associate professor of musicology and faculty affiliate of ASU’s Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies.

By the numbers

Numbers reflect 2018-19 and are accurate as of June 30, 2019.

Rankings Top 20 Music Graduate program in the nation Faculty 139 Staff 22 Students 776

Graduates 193 Student demographics 54% undergraduate 46% graduate 27% minority 14% first generation (undergraduate) 17% international 49% resident 51% non-resident Degree certificate options 34

8,825 Performing arts tickets issued through the Herberger Institute box office

94 stories, articles and mentions local, national and international outlets

Laniakea String Quartet, “prism” workshop and Bartlett-Armstrong Scholarship photos, courtesy.
Triassic Parc photo by Tim Trumble.
CBDNA photo by Charlie Leight.
ASU Symphony Orchestra photos by Ashley Lowery.