To the UCLA Music Community:

Welcome to the 2012-2013 academic year. It will be a landmark one, in at least one respect: the start of construction on the Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Center, which promises to add important new facilities for use by faculty and students in the future. On September 7, I sent out a preliminary notice about the early schedule of construction, and I plan to update you periodically about the status of the project and what you can expect, especially in terms of noise.

As you will notice, construction fences have gone up, tree removal has been completed, as has some very loud jack-hammering to remove some concrete. Currently and through October 12, a good deal of grading (soil removal and compacting) of the site is going on. The trucks and other machinery all have back-up beepers and are loud when in operation. Some pavement is also being saw-cut to save for later replacement. I recommend that you keep the windows to your offices, studios, and classrooms closed during the construction to minimize noise and dust. Again I ask for your patience as we proceed with this necessary and most welcome addition to the infrastructure of our School.

Every academic year brings a renewal of excitement and hope. This fall we welcome our first class of entering students in the M.M. degree in jazz performance. Mounted in cooperation with the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz, this program fills out and in some sense completes the School’s offerings in jazz. The program will benefit all of us in the School through a very active program of master classes and workshops open to all and a rich outreach program into local schools. Among the master classes we can expect this fall are ones by jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Jimmy Heath, and Billy Childs. The first one will be held this Thursday evening at 8 pm in Popper Theater with bassist Ron Carter. All are welcome.

Later in fall, on Sunday, December 2, our School will host, at the Hammer Museum, an event called “Cage at UCLA,” part of the world-wide celebration of the centennial of John Cage’s 100th birthday on September 5, 1912. Cage worked for the dance department at UCLA in the 1930s and studied with Arnold Schoenberg, when Schoenberg taught composition here during that period. The Centennial will examine his time at UCLA and in Los Angeles, and feature reflections by current UCLA faculty and local Los Angeles experts on the significance of his work for contemporary art making in music, dance, theater, literature, and design. Also featured will be concerts by UCLA faculty members pianist Gloria Cheng and musicology professor Nina Eidsheim. It promises to be an illuminating and important event.

I encourage you to check out school and department websites from time to time:

www.schoolofmusic.ucla.edu

www.ethnomusico.ucla.edu            
www.music.ucla.edu
www.musicology.ucla.edu

Right now there are interesting stories on these sites of the what-I-did-last-summer type, including one on the performances by Music Department students and faculty at a summer music festival in Italy organized by Professor Antonio Lysy, and another on the success of the Ethnomusicology Department’s bluegrass ensemble at the Topanga Canyon Fiddle and Banjo Contest in August. And the Musicology Department reports many prestigious scholarships and grants for its students and faculty.

Finally, in response to students’ requests, faculty and students can access directly the schedule of classes in order to reserve space in them or simply to know that you can (probably) use the classroom for the next hour for your own practice. There are two ways to do this. One way is to go on the HASOM webpage (www.schoolofmusic.ucla.edu), scroll down to one of the “big links” in the list on the left (below the news articles) and click on “Classroom and Theater Availability.” It will take you to a log-in page where you log-in as a guest (no user name or password required) and go to a list of classrooms. Another way, if you have a smart phone, is to use the QR code that is now posted beside the door of each classroom; it will open the same log-in page as the website.

I hope that your year is full of wonderful and enlightening artistic and intellectual experiences.

Sincerely yours,

Timothy Rice, Director
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music