Phyllis Chen wins Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition
Assistant Professor Phyllis Chen is a 2022 winner of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, one of the highest honors available to scholars, scientists and creative artists in the United States. Chen was one of 180 Guggenheim Fellows selected from a pool of nearly 2,500 applicants from across the United States and Canada. Read the full story.
Alex Peh awarded grant for Persian piano concert, album
Associate Professor Alex Peh has been approved for a $25,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support his presentation of a Persian piano music concert and a new album with NEA Jazz heritage artist Hafez Modirzadeh, Ramin Zoufonoun, and Amir Abbas. The project includes workshops and a performance here on campus. Peh is among 1,125 project grantees across America that were selected.
Peh, who also won a New Music Creator Development Fund award from New Music USA to commission new Burmese piano works, is currently in Menidi, Greece on a Fulbright Global Scholar grant. He is working with Professor Nikos Ordoulidis at University of Ioannina on developing the world premiere of his work “Piece of Minds," which Peh will perform along with several other works at National Sawdust on June 18. See the full program and event details here.
Ed Lundergan retires after one final concert
After a nearly 30-year career leading choral activities for the Department of Music, Ed Lundergan is retiring from SUNY New Paltz. He concluded his time at the College with a final Spring Choral Concert in Studley Theatre and a post-show reception on May 3.
The evening's program with the College Community Chorale, Concert Choir, and Chamber Orchestra included the first performance of Shirley Hoffman Warren's "Notes from a Pandemic," and a closing performance of Vivaldi's "Gloria."
"As a composer of publicly performed choral music, I spent two years unable to write music," Hoffman Warren wrote of the COVID pandemic. "Not only was there no safe place for music to be safely performed, I was severely depressed, and wondered if I would ever write again. When I learned in early 2022 that Ed Lundergan was planning to retire at the end of the spring semester, I was jolted out of my inactivity. I resolved to write a farewell piece of music to honor Ed and his tremendous contributions to the music culture of the Hudson Valley. ... I dedicate this music to Ed Lundergan, my friend and music director of many years. Benedictus, Ed! Hosanna in excelsis!"
Christiana Fortune-Reader snaps a selfie at Carnegie Hall
Christiana Fortune-Reader earns Latin Grammy nom, performs at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center
Assistant Professor and College Youth Symphony Director Christiana Fortune-Reader contributed significantly to the recording "Tango of the Americas" with the PanAmerican Symphony Orchestra, which was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Best Tango Album of the Year.
"Even though the album did not end up receiving the Grammy and I couldn't get out to Las Vegas for the ceremony, the process of putting this together with the phenomenal musicians was such an inspiration," said Fortune-Reader. "Playing in non-classical styles is just as challenging as classical styles in different ways, and I am excited to bring this to my teaching at SUNY New Paltz.”
Fortune-Reader has also given recent performances at Carnegie Hall (featuring violinist Gil Shaham) and at the Kennedy Center with various orchestras.
Kathy Murphy presents and co-authors scholarly works
Music therapy program director Kathy Murphy presented "Equity and fairness in research design and participant selection" as a concurrent session included in the research track at the annual conference of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association, held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in April.
Murphy joined colleagues Annie Heiderscheit and Nancy Jackson in an eight-hour continuing education course, "Clinical Case Study Research." She also joined Heiderscheit to co-author a post titled "Managing the Power of Music to Foster Safety and Avoid Harm" for the Oxford University Press blog.
Murphy was also a panelist in the roundtable discussion "Music Therapy and Treatment of Substance Use Disorder: Current Research and Practice," sponsored by the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. And Murphy, with several other scholars including SUNY New Paltz alum Noah Pomerselig '21g (Music Therapy), collaborated on the research study "Community Music Therapy in the United States: A Qualitative Inquiry," which was included in the research poster session at the Nordic Music Therapy Conference in Helsinki, Finland this past April.
Adam Fontana presents at director symposium
Assistant Professor and Symphonic Band Director Adam Fontana presented a clinic, “Building Creative Community through Interdisciplinary Performances," at the New York State Band Director’s Association Symposium in Syracuse in March.
From the abstract: "One of the ways music programs can ensure their future growth and prosperity is to make themselves indispensable to the communities they serve. By engaging in performances with other disciplines, artists, and entities in creative ways, students get to experience first-hand how their music making can have an impact outside of their school and home. This clinic will illustrate how bands and wind ensembles can easily and effectively engage their communities in new ways, while cultivating musical and artistic excellence in their students."
