Last weekend, April 26-28, I was fortunate to participate as an invited presenter on Arvo Pärt in the conference “1968 in Europe and Latin America”, organized by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at Notre Dame.  Brilliantly designed by Professor James McAdams, somehow the conference helped me understand the direction of my life and the values I hold. It was amazing to trade insights with a fantastic roster of speakers and engage in a conversation about Hans Werner Henze  with […]

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Historian Jaqui Shine pays a beautiful homage to both her mother and artist Mark Rothko in her meditation about Rothko’s site-specific painting installation named Rothko Chapel. She distills in surprising ways a description about art connecting with the sacred. Rothko’s visual work is so powerful that it spilled inspiration upon a musical work, composer Morton Feldman’s piece for chorus and instruments carrying the same name. I had the privilege of conducting it with Notre Dame Vocale and Ensemble ND at […]

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This lecture was given by Arvo Pärt during commencement at St Vladimir’s Seminary in 2014. He shared thoughts from his musical diaries. It begins with a most powerful question: Have you thanked God for this failure already? Food for thought, because we always must ask the question, what is Art for? http://www.ccwatershed.org/blog/2017/jul/6/most-sensitive-musical-instrument/  

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2016 was a rich and extraordinary year, full of lessons and insights. I will soon share news about projects with Kosmologia, Notre Dame Vocale and Aguavá New Music Studio. For now, let us revel in friendship and celebration of the promise of 2017!

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The South Bend Tribune just published an insightful note about our upcoming performance of “Journeying La Divina Commedia,” an inter-artistic work created by Anton Juan, Robin Kirkpatrick and myself.  It includes a new oratorio on the Paradiso by Robert Kyr, original soundscapes by Christopher Preissing, original art by Gwen Terry, original video art  by Allison Evans, Hugh Sato and Liviu Pasare,  and wonderful choreography by Ayako Kato and Kristina Isabelle, among many other wonderful artists. The image is a rendering of […]

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The excellent compilation of music news delivered by the Jacobs School of Music’s Project Jumpstart curated by Alain Barker came today with an intriguing piece by music journalist Craig Havighurst. It is  titled “Classical Music Needs a New Name.” Havighurst’s interesting post reminded  me that I should finally write into an article the lecture I gave upon receiving the Tracy M. Sonneborn Award at Indiana University in 2010. With some guilt, I will share some of its ideas here. The […]

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