Princeton Names Rudresh Mahanthappa Director of JazzSaxophonist-composer will begin appointment in the fall
By http://jazztimes.com/contributors/876188-carolina-worrell" rel="nofollow - Carolina Worrell
Princeton University’s Department of Music has named
saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa Director of Jazz.
Mahanthappa, who comes to Princeton with an extensive jazz background
and a voice “intent on transcending cultural divides by hybridizing
progressive jazz and non-Western musical traditions," according to a
press release, will begin his appointment as the Anthony H. P. Lee ’79
Senior Lecturer in Jazz Studies at the start of the fall term. He will
succeed Dr. Anthony D. J. Branker, founder of the Program in Jazz
Studies.
Recently, Mahanthappa’s Bird Calls was named Album of the Year
in the 2015 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. Additionally, that same year
Mahanthappa joined the United States Fellows, the latest in a series of
honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two New York Foundation for
the Arts Fellowships and the highly coveted Doris Duke Performing Artist
Award.
“Joining the Princeton University Music Department as Director of
Jazz is an honor and a tremendous opportunity to influence and shape the
future of jazz as a contemporary American art form,” Mahanthappa said
in a press release. “Music at Princeton continues to put forth a
forward-thinking energy with regard to performance, composition and
musicology. I am truly excited to join this amazing group of
faculty. Together, we can surely expand and embrace the ever-shifting
roles of music in 21st-century global culture.”
Anchored by the 17-piece Concert Jazz Ensemble, the Program in Jazz
at Princeton University, which encompasses the historical, cultural,
social, theoretical, stylistic and creative aspects of jazz in both
study and practice, is host to a wide array of smaller groups. These
include the Jazz Composers Collective, Jazz Vocal Collective and
Crossing Borders Improvisational Music Ensemble, among others.
In 2008, a multi-million-dollar gift established a Certificate in
Jazz Studies, and as the program continues to expand and attract a
number of prominent guest artists and lecturers, the department “is
grateful to have one such distinguished performer in residence
overseeing the directorship of jazz at Princeton,” according to a
release announcing Mahanthappa’s appointment.
from http://jazztimes.com
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