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How many students are in the department?
There are 30 enrolled students; 14 undergraduates and 16 graduate srudents.
Who are the faculty?
William Bolcom, Evan Chambers (chair), Michael Daugherty, Kristin Kuster, Erik Santos,
Paul Schoenfield and Bright Sheng
What are the performance opportunities for composers at UM?
There are a significant number of opportunities for performances of student works.
Each year the University Symphony Orchestra presents a concert of premieres of works for
orchestra written by composition students. In addition, the Ann Arbor Symphony has
performed one student work for the past several years.
Large and small ensemble works can be submitted for inclusion on the Midwest Composers’
Symposium, a yearly gathering of the Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and Oberlin
composition departments that rotates from school to school.
The choral and wind ensembles are open to performing student work as well – in ‘03-‘04 the
Chamber Choir and symphony Band each performed two student works.
Numerous student works are commissioned by other students and performed on recitals;
performance faculty have also sometimes performed or commissioned student works.
Composition students here have been very active and supportive in performing each other’s
work, and frequently organize their own concerts in the community—recent examples include
a concert of orchestra works that was entirely organized by a student, yearly concerts by an
organization supporting women composers, and concerts of religious music by students at
area churches.
There are five composers’ forum concerts per year, two in the fall and three in the winter
term. You simply submit information about your piece, and it is programmed. Students
arrange for their own performers—see the next item.
Will it be difficult to get performers to play my music here?
There is a strong culture of new music performance at the University of Michigan School of
Music, Theatre & Dance so securing performers is not difficult. Studio teachers are extremely supportive of
their students playing contemporary music, many student recitals have works by our students
on them, and the large ensembles frequently perform contemporary works.
How are teaching assignments handled?
You will be asked to submit a first choice and second choice for a private composition
teacher. We try to honor all requests, but if you do not receive your first choice the first time,
we will try to make sure you get your first choice the next time. Priority is given to departing
students, who might not otherwise get a chance to work with a certain faculty member. You
will generally work with a teacher for one year and then switch. Undergraduates begin private
study with composition faculty from their first semester.
What are the possibilities for collaboration with artists in other disciplines?
There are many, including coursework options: Dance and the Related Arts, a production
course in which students develop a performance with enrolled students from dance, music
tech, art, theater, etc; Words and Music, a course that creates collaborations between poets and
composers; and Music and Media, a class taught in conjunction with the art school on sound
and multimedia. There are two faculty members in the School with joint
appointments in the School of Art (both are composers in the Music Technology department).
Our students regularly write works for Dance Department productions, incidental music for
theater, and music for student films. There are two annual student-produced intermedia art
shows on campus.
What is the arts scene like in Ann Arbor? Are there many cultural events?
Ann Arbor is a town that lives more like a city when it comes to cultural events. The
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance presents over 500 performances each year. Ann
Arbor is home to the University Musical Society, one of the largest concert presenters in the
country. It brings in top artists on its yearly dance series, chamber music series, orchestra
series, and world music series. It has also participated in several commissions of new works,
and has drawn artists such as Meredith Monk and Laurie Anderson to Ann Arbor to rehearse
and premiere major new works, such as Anderson’s opera Moby Dick. The Metropolitan
Opera touring company comes here almost every year, and the Royal Shakespeare Company
is in residence every year as well. There are two professional theater companies in the area,
several independent film series, an annual film festival, and at least two independent
professional dance companies. There are jazz clubs, three professional orchestras in easy
driving distance (Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Toledo), a thriving post-techno scene and a vibrant
rock scene in Detroit, a major folk music performance venue in town (the Ark) that also runs
an annual folk festival, and three large dance clubs in the immediate area. One index of musical life here is that when the Vienna Philharmonic took two tours of North America in
the 1980s, they traveled to New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Ann Arbor. It’s a little
staggering sometimes….
Take a look at the Ann Arbor Observer monthly calendar of events on Arborweb.com to get
an idea what’s going on now.
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