Department of Music // Department of Music

Music Historian and Liturgical Scholar Margot Fassler Wins International Book Prize

2012-01-03T15:00:00-05:00

Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy and co-director of the Master of Sacred Music program at the University of Notre Dame, has won the biennial ACE/Mercers’ International Book Award.

The award from Art and Christianity Enquiry (ACE) recognizes Fassler’s 2010 book The Virgin of Chartres: Making History Through Liturgy and the Arts as “an outstanding contribution to the dialogue between religious faith and the visual arts.”

A detailed history of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres in France, the book draws on local histories, letters, obituaries, chants, liturgical sources, and reports of miracles to explore the cult of the Virgin of Chartres and its development in the 11th and 12th centuries. The book offers a detailed study of the West façade, interpreting the art in the context of liturgical and musical understandings.

“I was shocked to be a finalist, let alone to win, and very, very grateful,” Fassler says of the award, which she hopes will encourage more scholars to invest time in interdisciplinary research.

“There are no shortcuts,” she says. “You have to learn another field, and then you have to learn how to combine knowledge from two fields in creative yet responsible ways.”

Art and Liturgy

Fassler says her inspiration for The Virgin of Chartres stemmed from an earlier book she wrote on the music and liturgy of the Abbey of St. Victor in France. The abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution, and Fassler says she was heartbroken that she could not personally experience the beauty of a place she had come to know and love through her research.

For subsequent work, Fassler looked for inspiration among buildings she could visit in person. She says she was immediately taken with Our Lady of Chartres, which has a magnificent 12th-century façade that incorporates sculpture and glass.

“I was very powerfully drawn into the ways that the music I knew would sound in my head when I looked at the art,” Fassler says of the cathedral. “Of course, it is designed to stimulate the memory, to make the glass and sculpture sound. The brilliant ways the exegetical understandings are embodied in the portal, with various uses of perspective, still continue to amaze me after all these years.

“I think the most surprising thing of all was realizing, about three years into the book, that the arts and related music constituted a giant history-making enterprise and that the identity of a community depended on knowing it, on learning to negotiate its meanings.”

Theology and Music

A musicologist and liturgical scholar in the College of Arts and Letters, Fassler is on the faculty in both the Department of Music and the Department of Theology.

“Over the last 15 years, I have become increasingly interested in the intersection of music and art in a liturgical context,” she says. “Although I always focus on music, I am a committed interdisciplinarian. I work on music, religion, and art—and I make documentary films for teaching about these subjects.”

Currently, Fassler is completing work on a textbook and a companion guide on medieval music, as well as a book on Hildegard of Bingen, which “will include digital modeling, and bringing her compositions and the illuminations for one of her treatises together in an interdisciplinary study. “She demonstrates the importance of music as a theological discipline.”

Fassler is also organizing two conferences, one at the Notre Dame Centre in London, which will focus on the cantor-historian in the Middle Ages, and another featuring the compositions of James MacMillan, who will be in residence on Notre Dame’s main campus for the Feast of the Holy Cross and the Seven Sorrows in September 2012.

Over spring break 2012, she is escorting a class of Notre Dame undergraduate students to Chartres to learn more about the cathedral, the people, and processes of reading the arts theologically.

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Originally published by Joanna Basile at al.nd.edu on December 22, 2011.

Notre Dame Department of Music Alumnus Nominated for Three Grammys.

2011-12-02T13:00:00-05:00

Patrick Quigley ’00, Serephic Fire’s artistic director was recently nominated for three Grammys. The celebrated choir was recognized for two recordings.

Its disc of Brahms’ German Requiem was nominated for best Choral Performance of the Year and Best Producer of the Year for Peter Rutenberg. And A Seraphic Fire Christmas is up for Best Small Ensemble Performance. This is the first time Quigley’s choir has been nominated for a Grammy in any category.

Isabel Leonard visits Notre Dame

2011-04-27T10:28:00-04:00

Back in November, 2010 Over dinner after a production at the Metropolitan Opera of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Louis MacKenzie, Chair of the Department of Music, suggested to mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, who that night had just sung Dorabella, that she come to Notre Dame later the next Spring to work with the cast of Opera Notre Dame’s production of Le nozze di Figaro. She accepted and the weekend of April 2, she came. Ms. Leonard is winner of a number of prestigious awards, including this year’s Beverly Sills award for young singers having already appeared in featured solo roles at the Met. A Mozart specialist (Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte), Ms Leonard gave a masterclass and an informal, but intense workshop to the our cast made up primarily of undergraduate students. She also shared her insights into the day-to-day life of a performing and very much in-demand artist who is also mother to a 10 month old son.

What distinguished Ms. Leonard’s visit to Notre Dame was her uncommon generosity of spirit and time. Her masterclass—the first she had ever given-- with Angelina Delmastro-Smith was a model of enthusiasm, encouragement and imaginative suggestions.. What is more, it was just plain fun. Over the course of the afternoon, Ms. Leonard often had the 50 or so people in attendance exploding in laughter. Mark Beudert, Director of Opera Notre Dame, who considered it one of the best masterclasses he had ever seen, also had this to say:

“It is not unusual to have premier performers work with our students. What is unusual is that, she is young enough to be part of their generation and nearing the pinnacle of her career. Leonard’s dedication to art and to excellence in performance demonstrated the potential in each of them to have a similar career. The opera cast was prepared and attentive to her insights, enabling her to provide instant feedback and allowing the cast to respond immediately.”

As for Delmastro-Smith, she couldn’t have been happier with the experience of working one on one with a singer such as Isabel Leonard: “It was such an honor to be able to work with such a skilled artist. “She was able to break through so many of my barriers as an actor and singer in such a short time. It was an experience I will never forget!”

After the master class, Ms. Leonard spent some two and a half hours working on scenes from Nozze. It was amazing to see the student and faculty singers grow into their roles and inhabit more fully their characters.

Her generosity and enthusiasm did not end when she left to return home to New York City. On opening night of the opera, two dozen roses and a typically thoughtful note from Ms. Leonard appeared. To say that this was appreciated by the cast would be a huge understatement.

"I wanted to thank you again for welcoming me into your production this weekend.” Leonard wrote to MacKenzie, “ It was such a warm atmosphere and wonderfully open group of students and teachers. I really had a wonderful time getting to know everyone. I know I've said it many times: but I hope I was able to impart something productive and useful to the students all within the realm of what you and your fellow musicians have been teaching them. It was a privilege for me to "play" with them (as I say). They are very smart and have done such excellent work with Nozze. I hope they are proud of themselves. It is no easy task.”

Isabel Leonard came to Notre Dame directly on the heels of a triumphant run in Paris as Sesto in Haendel’s Giulio Cesare. After her visit to Notre Dame she sang with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and most recently with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra where she performed one of Mozart’s great concert arias, Ch'io mi scordi di te? She is back in Paris this month to reprise Cherubino. In the Fall she returns to the Met as Rosina in Rossini’s Barbiere di Sivigila, followed by Zerlina (Don Giovanni) in the Spring, also at the Met. It was, to second Lina Delmastro-Smith, who was brilliant as Cherubino, a role that Isabel Leonard “owns,” a weekend and an experience none of us will ever forget.

Links to Isabel Leonard:

http://www.wmagazine.com/w/blogs/editorsblog/2009/10/08/five-minutes-with-operas-itgir.html

http://www.cami.com/?webid=1878

Mat Madonia accepted to Aspen Music Festival

2011-03-30T10:11:00-04:00

Mat Madonia has been accepted into the Aspen Music Festival this summer. He will be the first Department of Music student ever accepted. It is one of the most competitive music festivals in the United States.

Mat Madonia is a student of Carolyn Plummer.

First Mozart Marathon was a success!

2011-03-07T14:52:00-05:00

The Department of Music held the first annual Mozart Marathon to celebrate the birth of Mozart on January 27, 2011. O'Shaughnessy Great Hall was filled with musical performances by faculty, staff and students. The audience was entertained with vocal performances, chamber music, piano pieces and harpsichord music. The all day marathon ended with a trip to the museum to learn more about Mozart with a musical performance and lecture.

Professor Carolyn Plummer, Mat Madonia, Professor Craig Cramer and Professor Karen Buranskas pictured below.

Piano Student traveled to Israel and Palestine

2010-12-23T09:54:00-05:00

In the summer of 2010, Rebecca Roden (piano performance '12) traveled throughout Israel and Palestine researching the cultural impact of Palestinian hip-hop on the region, with the support of the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts

Student accepted to SUNY/Purchase

2010-12-23T09:53:00-05:00

Kate Zinsmeister, piano performance '10, is now pursing the Master of Music degree in piano at SUNY/Purchase

Students admitted to Brevard

2010-12-23T09:52:00-05:00

Michael Rodio, Piano performance '12, and Chris Gautsch, Piano Performance '11 were admitted to Brevard for summer 2010.

Student accepted to Killington Music Festival

2010-12-23T09:51:00-05:00

Andrew White, Piano Performance '12 and Theory/History '12, was accepted to Killington Music Festival's 2010 Summer Residency. Located in Rutland, Vermont, the festival includes performances, masterclasses with renowned musicians, and chamber music.

Student completes Doctoral program

2010-12-23T09:41:00-05:00

- Kui Min has completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

The New York Times - review of Paul Appleby's recital

2010-12-02T12:56:00-05:00

Paul Appleby '05 recently performed in Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center.

In February he will be singing one of the principal roles of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride under the baton of Maestro James Levine in February, and making his Met debut later in the spring in Ariadne auf Naxos.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/arts/music/02paul.html?_r=1

Paul Appleby featured in NYT article

2010-02-01T10:11:00-05:00

Paul Appleby was recently featured in a New York Times article for his performance of Copland's " Tender land" at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Julliard.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/arts/music/01tender.html

Student Accomplishment: Michael Alan Anderson

2010-01-01T10:17:00-05:00

Michael Alan Anderson, (ND’97) is a Ph.D. candidate beginning his sixth year of graduate study in the History and Theory of Music at the University of Chicago. Michael was awarded the prestigious Alvin H. Johnson American Musicological Society 50 Dissertation-Year Fellowship for the academic year 2007-8 to complete his dissertation entitled “Symbolizing the Saints: Theology, Ritual, and Kinship in Music for John the Baptist and St. Anne (1175-1520).” Supplementary dissertation grants include the Whiting Foundation Dissertation-Year Fellowship and the Grace Frank Dissertation Grant (awarded by the Medieval Academy of America). His first article, “The Organization and Complexes of the Bologna Q 15 Hymn Cycle,” appeared in the Italian journal Studi musicali at the end of 2006. He is scheduled to present this summer at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference in Vienna, as well as at the national meeting of the AMS this coming fall.

Student Accomplishment: Megan Walsh

2010-01-01T10:16:00-05:00

Megan Walsh, M.M. ’03, piano performance, has been appointed Director of the Preparatory Piano Program at the University of Miami. She also received her doctorate in piano performance in May 2007 from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.

Student Accomplishment: Noelle Thorn

2010-01-01T10:15:00-05:00

Noelle Thorn, B.A. ’05, cello performance, has been accepted into the Steinhardt School of Education and the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University to pursue a M.A. in Performing Arts Administration. The program also incorporates full-time internships in the field of arts administration and a summer abroad program in various locations in Europe.

Student Accomplishment: Kui Min

2010-01-01T10:15:00-05:00

Kui Min, M.M. ’04, piano performance, is a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.

Student Accomplishment: Emily Sladek

2010-01-01T10:14:00-05:00

Emily Sladek, B.A. ’07, vocal performance, has been accepted in to the Master’s program in vocal performance at Roosevelt University. She is currently teaching musical theatre at community summer camps in Iowa.

Student Accomplishment: Rebecca Roden

2010-01-01T10:13:00-05:00

Rebecca Roden, piano performance '12, was invited to participate in the intensive summer piano program at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.

Student Update: Nicholas Shaneyfelt

2010-01-01T10:12:00-05:00

Nicholas Shaneyfelt, piano performance '09, was awarded a full scholarship and teaching stipend for the Master of Music program in piano performance at UMass-Amherst, where he will enroll in fall, 2009. Last summer, Nicholas performed and studied at the Killington Music Festival in Vermont.

Student Update: Joshua Frilling

2010-01-01T10:11:00-05:00

Joshua Frilling, piano performance '07, performed this season with the Grand Forks Symphony, and also collaborated in ensembles with members of the orchestra.