Music Professors Come up with Entertaining Substitute for Recitals
03/03/2021
By David Perry
Garrett Michaelsen is taking students on a 100-year tour.
Less than a minute into Maria Schneider鈥檚 sumptuous large ensemble jazz piece, 鈥淪anzenin,鈥� the comments pop up in the Zoom chat.
鈥淢y bird loves it,鈥� writes Shaleigh Brooks, a sophomore music studies major whose cockatiel is singing along to the melody.
The students love it, too.
鈥淵ou never know what they鈥檒l respond to,鈥� Michaelsen says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 fascinating.鈥�
Michaelsen, an assistant professor of musicianship and music theory, ran the first of the spring semester鈥檚 鈥淗eadphone Series,鈥� hourlong evening listening and discussion sessions where music faculty take students on journeys of sound, history and inspiration.
The series, inaugurated successfully last fall, is meant to compensate for the dozens of recitals once available to music majors before COVID-19 restrictions took hold. The students are usually required to attend 10 recitals per semester.
鈥淭here was always something available to choose from,鈥� says Music Department Chair Gena Greher, 鈥渂ut since COVID, ensembles obviously can鈥檛 happen in person and they don鈥檛 really work virtually. So we tried to figure out something that would be of interest to students that could be informative and interactive and could also be a social function.鈥�
Visiting Faculty Lecturer Jonathan Richter had the answer.
鈥淟ive music is one of the things people are missing right now,鈥� says Richter, who teaches choral music and music education. 鈥淪o why not have faculty present some of the pieces they found influential and have a listening session?鈥�
Each faculty member takes a different approach. In some sessions there is more listening, in others more discussion.
鈥淭he social interaction is the post-performance discussion that would have happened outside Durgin Hall,鈥� Richter says.
Among the most popular sessions from the fall semester was Prof. Alan Williams鈥� 鈥淔ive Moments of Musical Joy,鈥� which was crafted around songs that were particularly influential to him. (Williams reprises the theme with Assoc. Prof. Alex Case on March 31.)
This semester鈥檚 inaugural 鈥淛azz in the 鈥�20s鈥� session turned out to be the 1920s and 2020s. Michaelsen boomeranged back and forth, from James P. Johnson鈥檚 1920s stride piano, Duke Ellington鈥檚 large ensemble and a Louis Armstrong/Earl Hines duet on 鈥淲eather Bird,鈥� to Schneider, African guitarist Lionel Loueke, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and guitarist (and 2019 MacArthur Grant winner) Mary Halvorson.
Along the way, Michaelsen discussed the art and artists. It was late in Black History Month, and he noted the legacies of pioneers like Johnson are often, in the words of musician and race scholar Philip Ewell, 鈥渃olorased,鈥� unrecognized or erased, 鈥渂ecause of their skin color.鈥�
Brooks, the sophomore with the jazz-loving cockatiel, says she loves the 鈥渋nformality鈥� of the series.
鈥淚 can spend an evening listening to an informative, intriguing and relevant presentation that is as entertaining as it is educational, in the comfort of my home,鈥� she says.
Brooks hopes the sessions continue post-COVID.
For now, it will continue via Zoom, and will be available via YouTube Live on the UML Music channel. All sessions begin at 8 p.m. See the complete schedule in the Music calendar.
