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Curiosity drives Lydia Wagenknecht, a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology and recent recipient of a Fulbright Research Award. “I care that my research will help us understand something in a more broad-based way that we didn’t understand before,” she says.

“While there’s no playbook for the unprecedented and the unknowable, by channeling collective despair into collective creativity, we become artistic entrepreneurs, contributing to society in impactful ways.” In this year-end reflection on triumphs over turmoils, Dean Davis offers his perspective on music as essential to human betterment.

This spring’s Outstanding Graduating Senior award goes to composition major Nelson Walker. Congratulations to Walker and all our outstanding 2022 grads!

On April 22, the CU Flute studio will present diverse works by Valerie Coleman, Jennifer Higdon, Toru Takemitsu and Annika Socolofsky to commemorate Earth Day.

In a delayed celebration of the College of Music’s 100th anniversary, the CU Symphony Orchestra will perform a specially commissioned work by renowned composer Christopher Theofanidis. “The one thing you can do is create something that represents you—a musical poem that you leave behind for others to enjoy and perform,” says the Grammy-nominated composer whose “On the Bridge of the Eternal” will debut in Macky Auditorium on April 26.

As the 2021-22 academic year races toward the finish line, there are still many terrific performances to enjoy! Don’t miss the final two Chamber Music Showcase performances featuring student groups from every department … and including new group arrangements and diverse repertoire.

To support our students’ and our community’s musical development, the College of Music offers summer session courses and richly varied summer programming.

The College of Music’s Diverse Musicians’ Alliance presents this year’s Diversity in Performance event—“Roots and Branches”—on March 31.

Recently, The Washington Post listed “22 composers and performers to watch in 2022.” Included were two ���������� College of Music students: Kedrick Armstrong, a first-year master’s student in orchestral conducting and composer Anthony Green, who attended our Doctor of Musical Arts program. Be inspired by the impressive trajectory of their careers and learn how both confront issues of diversity in classical conservatory curriculum.

In this edition of our monthly Dean’s Downbeat, John Davis reflects on our students’ successes, introduces new violin faculty—welcome, Alex Gonzalez!—and celebrates Susan Thomas’ BFA Excellence Award. Transcending pandemic burnout, “our faculty offer anchorage through their teaching excellence, and their wonderfully consistent artistic achievements as performers, composers and researchers,” he writes.