Professor Adam Fontana
On February 16th, Professor Fontana presented at the College Band Directors National Association National Conference at the University of Georgia. His presentation, “The Way Broadly: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for Conductors,” illustrated various methods for utilizing principles, techniques, and styles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on the podium, and in the teaching of conducting. Read about the presentation here.
In January 2023, Professor Fontana appeared as guest conductor of the Woodstock Symphony Orchestra, and the guest conductor of the Rockland County High School All-County Band.
Professor Phyllis Chen
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, who teaches music theory and composition, was one of 180 Guggenheim Fellows selected from a pool of nearly 2,500 applicants from across the United States and Canada.
The acclaimed composer and sound artist’s work, hailed as “spellbinding” and “delightfully quirky matched with interpretive sensitivity” by the New York Times, is largely rooted in the possibilities of the toy piano and other unusual instruments like hand-cranked music boxes.
The fellowship will support Chen as she continues a new sound installation performance using the Sounding Stone sculptures of Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi. As Chen began to “explore the sonic possibilities” of these sculptures, which were privately loaned to her by the Noguchi Museum in winter 2020, she was taken aback by the sound they produced when struck with a mallet: “a crisp bell-like sonority.” The installation will be the first piece to feature all six Sounding Stones as musical instruments.
Read more here.
