Program Description

This seminar is intended for music majors and similarly accomplished performers and composers. Students will have the opportunity to study and create new music in Florence, Italy, in the context of that country’s vibrant musical culture, and in the midst of one of Europe’s most important festivals. During the months of May and June, Florence’s Maggio Musicale features performers renowned worldwide in concerts that include concert music from chamber works to grand opera. The ongoing Florentine musical season continues into July and includes the programs of organizations from the Orchestra della Toscana to Tempo Reale, often featuring the newest European music -- works rarely if ever heard in the United States. The program’s working studios are in the midst of it all, in the heart of the city.

During the four weeks of the seminar, students will have the opportunity to concentrate solely on the interpretation and composition of new music, immersed in a European culture that, perhaps more than any other, values and supports concert music, both old and new.

Florence is a city renowned not only for its treasures of visual art and architecture, but also for the music of its composers, from Landini to Dallapicolla and Berio: it is the city where grand opera was born, and it continues to hold a central cultural position in a country in which concert music and its creation are still very much alive.

Student composers and performers will have the opportunity to work together intensively and extensively. Each day, student performers will prepare works they’ve selected of the most recently published European and American music. Student composers work together with the student performers to create pieces designed specifically for them. Such practical work will be stimulated and enriched by attendance at public concerts in and around Florence, and through discussion in seminar meetings.

Academics

The student body will consist primarily of composition and performance majors at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Students will receive four credits in Music 497: Special Topics in Music. For composition students, these credits will satisfy degree requirements in composition instruction; for performance majors, they may satisfy specific degree requirements depending on the student’s particular program.

During the semester preceding the seminar, student composers will begin writing for student performers who will be taking part in the seminar; they'll work in collaboration with the performers to complete their compositions during the seminar. In consultation with the professor, student performers will select recently published works of European and American concert music; they may begin to work on those pieces with their instrumental instructors during the spring semester, and during the seminar, they'll prepare for performance both the published works they’ve chosen, and the student composers’ music.

A typical day in Florence will involve student composers and performers working on their own for several hours during the morning. Later in the day, seminar members will meet as a group in our studios for consideration of the published works chosen by the performers, the student composers' music-in-progress, and the music heard at public performances. Study will include both theoretical and analytic issues, as well as more specific notation- and performance-related questions. Meetings will often include and be followed by rehearsals, involving both performers and composers.

Toward the end of the seminar there will be a recital and/or a series of recording sessions during which works prepared by the students will be recorded.

Housing

Students will be housed in Florence in shared student apartments. The program will include access to an experienced local staff, computer facilities, and a study area.

Excursions and Activities

Students will, as part of the program, attend several public concerts, to be selected as concert series information becomes available.