1st July 2024 to 20th July 2024 (2 credits)
About the Program
Music of our time holds a generative and rich bounty of cross-cultural conversation. This course will explore how music as an art form reaches across cultural boundaries to bring diverse traditions into collaboration with one another. We will investigate how composers and performers find inspiration from their own cultural backgrounds to develop unique musical voices. We will listen to and consider a wide variety of musical styles, compositional techniques and cultural traditions from around the world to better understand how music connects the global community.
Course Objectives
- Deepen understanding of musical styles and traditions
- Study musical artistry through examination of specific composers and performers
- Build team skills through project preparation
- Build writing skills
Faculty
David Russell
Co-Director - Wellesley Chamber Music SocietyHailed as "superb," "incisive,” and “sonorous and panoramic” in The Boston Globe, David Russell maintains a vigorous schedule both as a soloist and as a collaborator in the U.S. and Europe. He was appointed to the teaching faculty of Wellesley College in 2005 and currently serves as Senior Lecturer and Director of Chamber Music. A strong advocate of new music, Russell has performed with such ensembles as BMOP, Firebird Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Music on the Edge, Dinosaur Annex, Collage, the Fromm Players at Harvard, and entelechron. Recent projects include recordings of works by Eric Moe, Lee Hyla, Tamar Diesendruck, Donald Crockett, Chen Yi, and Roger Zahab; premieres of chamber works by Barbara White, Daron Hagen, José-Luis Hurtado, Robert Carl, and Gilda Lyons; premieres of works for cello and orchestra by Sam Nichols and Laurie San Martin; and new works for solo cello by Andrew Rindfleisch, Nicholas Vines, Martha Horst, and John Mallia. He is a busy performer in the Boston area, making regular appearances with such ensembles as the Cantata Singers and Ensemble, the Worcester Chamber Music Society, and Emmanuel Music. He serves as the principal cellist of Odyssey Opera. Russell has recorded for the Tzaddik, Albany, BMOPSound, CRI, Centaur, and New World Records labels.