Professor Emeritus of Musicology Calvin Bower, was presented with the Claude V. Palisca Award at this year’s Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society in Rochester, for his musical edition entitled The Liber Ymnorum of Notker Balbulus (Henry Bradshaw Society, 2016).

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Notre Dame junior Alex Mansour admits he's not much of a sports fan. Yet, when confronted with a crunch-time challenge, he came through with a prime-time performance befitting any Irish athlete making a game-winning play. Mansour's assignment? Create the musical score for the 80-second video that would be shown on the Notre Dame Stadium video board just before the Irish team took the field. Three days before the 2017 Irish season opener against Temple, the video remained incomplete — and Mansour was on the spot.

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The fall semester saw the Department of Music welcome two eminent pianists to campus. Victor Rosenbaum, the greatly esteemed longtime faculty member of the New England Conservatory, offered two masterclasses, and Stephen Hough presented a residency as the Nanovic Institute for European Studies Visiting Artist.  

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Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush participated on Friday, October 27, in the dedication of O'Neill Hall of Music   

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Returning to the Notre Dame campus this past August invoked many different feelings for Brandon Hollihan, who graduated with a BA in Vocal Performance in 2005.  But as he begins his doctoral studies in choral conducting as a part of the Sacred     Music Program, he knows there’s no other place he’d want to be.…

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This November, Andrew Malilay White (class of ‘12) will present his research on the composition and social construction of nineteenth-century yodeling styles at the 2017 meeting of the Society for Music Theory in Arlington, Virginia. The Society’s Annual Meeting is the premiere venue in the field for “live” presentation of research; speakers are invited only after blind peer review of their proposals with an acceptance rate of approximately 20%. Andrew is in his third year as a PhD candidate in music theory at the University of Chicago—one of the top 2-3 doctoral programs nationwide. His primary interest is nineteenth-century improvisatory piano practice methods and the relationship between musical structure and bodily skill.…

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Two-time Grammy Award winner and international opera superstar Deborah Voigt returned to the University of Notre Dame in October 2016 to continue her multi-year position as Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Music.  A special feature of the October 2016 residency was Ms. Voigt's performance of "God Bless America" at the football game between Notre Dame and the University of Miami on Saturday, October 29.  View the "First Time Fans" mini-documentary about her visit here…

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Music and Honors Mathematics major Katie Gallagher, ’19, recently completed a summer of viola performance studies at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York as part of the Chautauqua Music Festival. This was Katie’s fourth time in residence at Chautauqua. The Festival’s course of study is distinctive for its holistic emphasis on three core components: solo repertoire, chamber music, and orchestral playing.…

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Daniel Schlosberg, Associate Professor of the Practice, will make his debut at the Ravinia Festival on Thursday, August 31st, in a special performance of Gustav Mahler’s monumental 6th Symphony, arranged for piano four-hands by Alexander Zemlinsky. Joining him will be the noted pianist Inna Faliks. They will also be taking this program to the National Gallery of Art in D.C. in December, and to various venues in the 2018-19 season, including Notre Dame.…

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Music and Neuroscience major Joanne Kim, '19, has recently been awarded a grant from Notre Dame's Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement to fund, and thereby enhance, her service recital project. The project aims to bring live classical music to elderly populations with limited exposure to musical performances. Joanne, a piano performance concentrator in the music major at Notre Dame and co-president of the Classical Music Club…

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Professor of Music Theory and Department Chair Peter H. Smith has been appointed to the editorial board of Music Theory Spectrum for a three-year term, beginning in January 2018.  Spectrum is the flagship publication of the Society for Music Theory and is widely recognized as the leading journal in the field.  Of Smith's numerous scholarly articles, four have appeared in Spectrum…

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Construction of O'Neill Hall of Music is well underway, and the building is on-schedule to open for the winter-spring semester of 2018.  View this video of Department Chair Peter Smith discussing the features of the building and get a sneak preview of the LaBar Family Recital Hall, one of the two state-of-the-art performance venues on the ground floor.  O'Neill Hall will also house the music library, classrooms and seminar rooms, a large lecture hall, rehearsal spaces, practice rooms, and faculty offices, all tailored to the specific needs of the Department of Music and the Program of Sacred Music.…

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Kiera Duffy Kiera Duffy, associate professor of the practice in Notre Dame’s Department of Music, recently received the 2017 Hunt Family Award for Emerging Artists from New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.…

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Several current music majors, in performance and composition, were admitted to competitive festivals which take place during 2017 Summer. In addition to many performing opportunities, these students will also study with renowned faculty from other universities and conservatories, and collaborate with other advanced performers from around the world.   Zhengyi Zhang…

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Where the Hudson Meets the Nile: Teaching Coptic Liturgical Chant in Jersey City, a short documentary film by Christian Jara and Margot Fassler, explores theways chant has been taught at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Jersey City by singers David Labib and Steve Soliman, with attention to the place of the music in the formation of communal identity. Filmed over several years of time, the film enters into teaching practices within a completely memorized oral tradition developed by the singers to encourage children and youth to learn a vast and highly complex repertory of melodies.Through this teaching children are prepared for roles in the church of the future as congregants, as deacons, and as future monks and priests.The Coptic Orthodox Church has grown exponentially since the 1960’s when St. Mark’s in Jersey City was founded. There are now nearly 200 Coptic churches in the USA and two monasteries, and the chant is central to the liturgical practices and institutional lives of these establishments. The teaching skills displayed by Labib and Soliman in their work include breaking down melismas to their simplest components, developing personalized systems of “notation” to trigger thememory, comparative study of master chanters, and mastery of the Coptic texts so the singer understands what is being sung and can pray while singing. The film concentrates upon several stages of learning, with an emphasis on the use of technology both within the service, and for personal and group study. Commentary on footage of music and the liturgy is provided through a filmed conversation between musicologist Margot Fassler, an outsider to thetradition, and Bishop Kyrillos (Formerly Fr. John Paul Abdelsayed), a theologian and auxiliary bishop in the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles.…

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Nathan Gunn, Grammy Award-winning Metropolitan Opera baritone and artist-in-residence for the Department of Music, has visited campus twice this spring to help the students prepare for Opera Notre Dame's production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).  Gunn has sung the role of Papageno from this opera in many of the world's leading opera houses in his impressive 25 year career.…

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This special performance culminated in a 'Dance Party' wherein Tricia & Taylor improvised and played music in all styles for the students, encouraging them to move and dance in accordance to the mood, tempo, melody, and character of the music they heard. 

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The Medieval Academy of America is pleased to announce the election of Margot E. Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, as President of the Medieval Academy. The Medieval Academy of America is the largest organization in the world promoting excellence in the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the quarterly journal Speculum, and awards prizes, grants, and fellowships. Professor Fassler’s year-long term will culminate with her Presidential Address at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy on 2 March 2018 at Emory University. Additional duties and responsibilities include presiding at meetings of the Academy’s Council, Executive Committee, and Corporation, and representing the Academy at home and abroad. She will also be responsible for appointing the Chair of the Nominating Committee and members of the selection committees for the Academy’s Haskins Medal and John Nicholas Brown Prize.…

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The gift was made to the University by Helen Schwab and her husband, Charles, in honor of her brother Joe O’Neill. O’Neill Hall joins Corbett Family Hall and the Duncan Student Center as the three structures surrounding Notre Dame Stadium, and will be a six-story, 100,000-square-foot building for the Department of Music, the Sacred Music at Notre Dame program, and hospitality space, with completion scheduled for August.

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Having recently been awarded a prestigious fellowship from the MacDowell Colony, Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Theory John Liberatore has been awarded a second fellowship from the Millay Colony for the Arts.

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The newest member of the Department of Music faculty, soprano Kiera Duffy, has been featured in a rave review and followup interview in the NY Times for her performance of Bess in Missy Mazzoli's opera "Breaking the Waves."

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Not one, not two, but three of the world’s most eminent collaborative pianists—Martin Katz, Roger Vignoles, and J.J. Penna—will be visiting the University of Notre Dame in Spring 2017 both to perform and teach public masterclasses for our students. To accompany the most accomplished singers and instrumentalists takes unique skill, distinct from solo piano artistry, and the three musicians who will be honoring us with their presence are world-famous for their mastery. Add to these visits the ongoing residencies of two great singers, the dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt…

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