Boston Globe reporter David Weininger spotlights Prof. Peter Child’s new work, “Lamentations.” Child explains that the piece focuses on, “the crisis we’re living through in terms of migrant people and refugees and undocumented people here in the United States . . . whole peoples being maligned and ignored who are suffering and are constantly stateless.”
Despite new discoveries regarding Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas,” mystery remains, writes Prof. Emeritus Ellen Harris in The New York Times. Even with the lack of certainty surrounding details that provide understanding of a piece of music, “the history of ‘Dido and Aeneas’ has only grown richer as we have discovered how little we actually know,” concludes Harris.
Boston Globe reporter Mark Shanahan spotlights Senior Lecturer Ken Urban’s new holiday song, “The Time of the Year.” “I had an idea to write a song that was truthful about the holidays — or at least more ambivalent than the stuff you hear in stores,” said Urban.
Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald is the recipient of the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, which includes a residency and public talk by the singer-actress, reports Don Aucoin for The Boston Globe.
Senior Lecturer Ken Urban speaks with HuffPost reporter Michael Levin about the burgeoning theater program at MIT. “There is a lot of institutional support for the arts in all of its forms at MIT and I think it’s because that process of being creative and realizing that it’s super-important for engineers,” says Urban.
Senior Lecturer Mark Harvey speaks with Lisa Mullins on WBUR’s All Things Considered about the evolution of jazz in Boston. “It’s definitely more diffused and dispersed,” says Harvey about the current state of jazz in the city. “I think the music schools have filled the void that’s left by a lot of those older clubs.”
Boston Globe reporter Marc Hirsh writes about a performance of David Bowie’s final album “Blackstar” at Kresge Auditorium, conducted by Prof. Evan Ziporyn. Hirsch notes that the “orchestra’s approach took advantage of the rich, jazz-infused harmonic palette of ‘Blackstar.’”
Prof. Evan Ziporyn and Visiting Artist Maya Beiser speak to Arun Rath of WGBH about their work at MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) and their performance of David Bowie’s final album. Ziporyn explains that CAST’s purpose is to “energize cross relations between those disciplines, which is something MIT has had going on basically since it was MIT.”
Prof. Evan Ziporyn speaks with Jeremy Goodwin of WBUR’s The Artery about his orchestral arrangement of “Blackstar,” David Bowie’s final album. The key to this arrangement isn’t recreating the album, it’s about “finding the feel of each of the movements and finding how are you going to get that to function with live players in large forces,” Ziporyn explains.
Prof. Eran Egozy will debut NoteStream, an app that provides real-time information about performances, at an upcoming concert at MIT, writes The Boston Globe’s Zoë Madonna. “We want people who are listening to music, especially if they’re listening for the first time, to be able to appreciate more of it as they’re listening to it,” says Egozy.
Boston Globe reporter David Weininger writes about “Persona,” a new opera by Prof. Jay Scheib and Prof. Keeril Makan, based on a 1966 Ingmar Bergman film. The opera is staged as if the action is being filmed, which allows viewers to be “more involved with what’s happening than I think they’re expecting,” explains Makan.
Boston Globe correspondent Terry Byrne writes about “Arcadia,” which is being presented in part by the Catalyst Collaborative @MIT, a collaboration between Central Square Theater and MIT. “As we started on our second decade of the Catalyst Collaborative, we decided to go back to the three plays that really defined the genre,” explains director Lee Mikeska Gardner.
Prof. Evan Ziporyn organized and conducted a tribute concert in honor of David Bowie. Boston Globe writer Matthew Guerrieri described the concert as “heartfelt, celebratory, just freewheeling enough.”