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 …
Record donation of $3.5M made to UH Mānoa music department
From UH Foundation A record $3.5-million gift to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa from the Barbara Barnard Smith Foundation will fund the music department’s first-ever endowed chair. The newly established Professor Barbara Barnard Smith Endowed Chair supports the university’s desire and commitment to revitalize its ethnomusicology program and honors the legacy of the late revered UH Mānoa professor who died in 2021. “This …
UH-Mānoa Music Department welcomes new professor Dr. Kim Barclift
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa welcomes new Assistant Professor of Music Dr. Kim Barclift, who will be teaching in the Music Education area. Dr. Barclift comes to us from North Carolina, where she served as the Assistant Director of Bands at Elon University. Additionally, Dr. Barclift supervised student teachers pursuing degrees in instrumental music education at the University of …
Musicology professor featured on award-winning podcast
UH musicology professor, Kate McQuiston PhD, was a featured guest on the March episode of the MUBI Podcast to discuss Stanley Kubrickʻs 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dr. McQuiston has studied film music for years, publishing several articles and the book, “We’ll Meet Again”: Musical Design in the Films of Stanley Kubrick (Oxford University Press, 2013). She first became interested in …
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 …
Thai Ensemble returns in 2023
On Monday, October 31, Dr. Ben Fairfield took the stage at 7:30 pm in the Imin Conference Center at the East West Center. He discussed his background in the Peace Corps and earning his PhD in ethnomusicology. He sang songs, with robust audience participation, he had learned through his time and research in Thailand, and taught the student affiliates and …
Undergraduate Music Students intern with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra
In Summer 2022, Sofia Furtado and Michael Han, undergraduate music students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa performed archival research and analysis of the history of programming at the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra. The project, funded by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, was done under the supervision of professor Mari Yoshihara of the American Studies department, and will serve as …
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 …
Musicology professor published in new collection of essays
Assistant professor of music in musicology, Dr. Elina Hamiltonʻs essay, “Louise Hanson-Dyer (1884-1962): Patroness of Music Publishing” has been published in a new collection, The Routledge Handbook of Womenʻs Work in Music. The publishing company describes the new volume, which was published in December of 2021, as “a unique collection of core research by academics and music practitioners from around …
Sejong Korean Music Orchestra Performs Works Yoomee Baek
"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 music orchestras, the ...