The Music Department was well represented at the annual UH-Mānoa Awards Ceremony this year, with two faculty and one staff member being recognized for their achievements. Donald Reid Womack, Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of …
Hawaiʻi Symphony to premiere new educational symphony
The Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra is set to perform Symphony of the Hawai’i Forests at the Hawai’i Theatre Center on April 20th and 21st. The concert will be exclusively for 4th through 12th-grade students, and will feature six movements of new music written by local composers accompanied by original animations by local animators, a hula presentation, and a collection of artworks …
Saxophone and Horn duo complete semester-long residency in new music with UH composition students
Dr. Jennifer Blackwell (Music Education) and Performer-Composer Brian Kavolius-Matherne (Brian KM) have completed a semester-long residency working with six of UH’s graduate composition students on original compositions for Alto Saxophone and Horn. The residency, which took place in Fall 2021, consisted of reading sessions, individual meetings with composers, and informational sessions on writing for the instruments, culminating in the recording …
PhD candidate Andrew Filson wins Korea National University of Arts International Composition Competition
PhD candidate Andrew Filson was recently announced as the winner of the Korea National University of Arts International Composition Competition for one of his pieces. The Korea National University of Arts International Composition Competition aims to discover a variety of creative works that combine Eastern and Western instruments based on traditional Korean music, pioneering the way for traditional Korean music …
Sejong Korean Music Orchestra Performs Works Yoomee Baek
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text] “The Ojakyo Project” is a program to promote creative new music with orchestras and composers supported by the Korean Culture and Arts Commission. Yoomee was selected as a composer for the two-year project from 2021 to 2022, and this year’s second Ojakyo project will be carried out with the Sejong Korean Music Orchestra. “Unlike other Korean traditional …
Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra plays student composers’ works
From UH News University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa music composition students are required to compose several original pieces spanning different genres, including orchestral works. Having a live orchestra perform those works is an integral part of the learning experience, however, some students do not get to hear their creations played by live musicians, much less a professional orchestra. In late June 2021, four UH Mānoa …
Eastbound: Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship awarded to graduate student Chris Molina
Christopher Molina, PhD candidate in Composition at UHM, has been named the recipient of the 2021-22 Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship. This highly-competitive scholarship is offered those whose studies and research intersect with Japan, and offers students the opportunity to travel to Japan in order to deepen their knowledge and experience. The vision for the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship Foundation is …
From Home: New Album by UH-Mānoa Ph. D. student Rafael Borges Amaral
UH-Mānoa Ph.D. student Rafael Borges Amaral has recently released a new album for duo guitar, From Home, in collaboration with Wesley Amorim. According to Rafael, the album explores Brazilian songs that he and Wesley listened to while growing up in Brazil. The album includes compositions from Gilberto Gil, Djavan, and Tom Jobim, Rafael’s arrangement of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed …
UH-Mānoa Composer Donald Reid Womack’s “Labyrinth”
Although the world has drastically changed over the past few months due to the Coronavirus pandemic, musicians and organizations have adapted and found creative ways to share music with audiences. In response to the cancellation of live performances, the top institution for Korean music, the National Gugak Center, held a competition for performing ensembles, in which two different groups entered …
Composer Donald Reid Womack awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor of Music Composition and Theory Donald Reid Womack was named a 2020 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The Guggenheim Fellowship is one of the major competitions for the arts and other fields. Womack is among a diverse group of 175 writers, scholars, artists and scientists from the U.S. and Canada to receive the achievement. The candidates were chosen through a …