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Highlights from 2019-20

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J Dilla Music Tech Grant

School of Music Associate Professor Evan Tobias co-designed VH1 Save The Music Foundation’s new music tech grant. Save The Music recently announced the J Dilla Music Tech Grant — delivering the future of music learning through innovative tech tools and curriculum. Developed in partnership with Pharrell Williams’ creative collective i am OTHER and ASU’s Tobias, the grant is named after J Dilla, the legendary producer who worked with De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Common and Erykah Badu among others. J Dilla’s revolutionary approach to making beats continues to inspire artists across all genres today.

Sustainability practices

School of Music alumnae Katherine Palmer has been able to make a direct connection in sustainability from something she holds in her hands in Arizona to its source in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Palmer, the curator of education at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, is also a professional musician, playing the clarinet with the Mill Ave Chamber Players. Clarinets are made of wood from the mpingo tree, a cultural icon of Tanzania. For the past seven summers, she has traveled to Tanzania to teach music to children, talk about conservation and plant mpingo trees. ASU Now featured Palmer as one of three alumni committed to sustainability practices in their careers. 

Above Music Theatre and Opera production of Puccini’s “Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi”

Nov. 21–24, 2019

Renowned visiting artists

The School of Music welcomed composer Laura Kaminsky, librettist and film producer Kimberly Reed, visual artist Rebecca Allan and internationally acclaimed pianist Ursula Oppens as artists-in-residence in February. The weeklong residency included activities such as master classes, lectures and workshops with students in the School of Music, the School of Art and the Institute for Humanities Research. The week culminated in public performances of a new work reading with Kaminsky, Reed and students in ASU’s Music Theatre and Opera program and a concert with Kaminsky, Oppens and the ASU Chamber Orchestra.

First place in National Opera Association competition 

The National Opera Association announced the School of Music’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers” won first place for its division in the National Opera Association Opera Production competition. Reviewers for the competition praised the production as “Evocative, imaginative, engaging” and “Exquisitely controlled chaos.” One reviewer wrote, “… from the mesmerizing opening scene, I was completely drawn in and it gave me HOPE.” The school put on the production as part of its 2018-19 season to mark the centennial of the legendary American composer’s birth.

New schools, new collaborations 

At the close of the 2019-2020 academic year, the Arizona Board of Regents formally approved a plan to form the School of Music, Dance and Theatre and the New American Film School within the Herberger Institute and taking the place of and the School of Music and the School of Film, Dance and Theatre beginning Fall 2020. The new School of Music, Dance and Theatre is defined by some of the top faculty in the world, in all three of its disciplines, said Dean Tepper, and “embraces a spirit of collaboration and a push for innovation, while remaining committed to craft and practice.” Heather Landes, formerly the director of the School of Music, stepped into the new position of director of the School of Music, Dance and Theatre. Read more about the new School of Music, Dance and Theatre.

Sustainability practices photo courtesy of ASU Now.
Puccini photos and First place photo by Tim Trumble.
Renowned visiting artists photos courtesy of artists.
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