School Notes: School of Music
November/December 2009

Program fosters community involvement

A new project at the school, the Community Engagement Think Tank, is encouraging students to explore new ways to become involved in the cultural life of their communities. In a series of Saturday seminars, students attend lectures by distinguished guests and then hold small-group discussions on relevant topics. The lectures and discussions will be streamed live as well as recorded and posted online. Participating students will be able to apply for community engagement grants to help develop projects of their own. The ultimate aim of the program is to develop a series of principles for community engagement and shape policy statements that will guide the School of Music and, it is hoped, the classical music community in this pursuit.

Digital portfolios for YSM students

The School of Music now provides an online service for students to showcase their music, performances, press kits, resumes, and research. Powered by a company called Digication, the service allows students to create their own web pages without the need for any web programming experience. Pages are customizable so that in addition to essential materials such as biographies and photographs, students can post recordings, samples of compositions, and feeds from social networking sites such as Twitter.

East Coast premiere of Kernis work

The Yale Philharmonia will join with the Yale Camerata, Glee Club, and Schola Cantorum to present the East Coast premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis's Symphony of Meditations. Shinik Hahm will conduct the concert, which will take place on November 6. The choral symphony is based on texts by the eleventh-century Andalucian poet Solomon ibn Gabirol, as translated by Peter Cole. Kernis, a member of the composition faculty and an alumnus of the School of Music, wrote the work as an exploration of issues of spirituality and Judaism.