Department Highlights
Tufts New Music Ensemble director Donald Berman mentioned in NYT
September 2024
Donald Berman, pianist and president of the Charles Ives Sonata, is mentioned in "5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now" in The New York Times after the release of his album of Ives's piano works. Berman's recording received rave reviews from the BBC and Fanfare Magazine and he has been invited to perform and speak at Carnegie Hall on November 21, 2024.
Tufts Composition Professor John McDonald commissioned by the Wyoming Music Teachers Association
September 2024
Commissioned by the Wyoming Music Teachers Association for their 2024 Biennial State Conference at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, John McDonald's Week In, Week Out: Seven One-A-Day Piano Pieces explores pianistic work-life concepts designed to engage the curious intermediate to advanced keyboard aficionado.
McDonald presented a talk that discussed the educational goals of Week In, Week Out, and expanded to present an overview of some of his more recent didactic teaching projects with illustrations from several brand new pieces.
Tufts Music Chair Kwasi Ampene delivers keynote lecture
October 2023
Professor Ampene's lecture "What is African Music? Reflections on decolonizing the study and performance of the musical arts of Africa in the Academy" served as the keynote for the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Ottawa, Canada on October 20, 2023.
Society for Ethnomusicology awards Professor Rich Jankowsky
October 2023
In October 2023, Professor Jankowsky received the prestigious Alan P. Merrian Prize at SEM's 68th Annual Meeting for his monograph Ambient Sufism: Ritual Niches and the Social Work of Musical Form (Chicago 2021). At the conference, Professor Jankowsky was also the joint keynote speaker for the Society for Arab Music Research and Religion, Music, and Sound Section. His book received honorable mention for the American Institute for Maghreb Studies L. Carl Brown Book Prize.
Kwasi Ampene, Tufts Music chair, receives lifetime achievement award
October 2023
Professor Ampene was awarded a 3G Legend and Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th Edition of 3G Annual Awards and Celebrity Bash in New York City on October 7, 2023 in recognition of outstanding contribution to highlife music in Ghana and the US, and the music industry in Ghana.