Join Boston University Alumni Association for a discussion about the critical interventions in arts education that have occurred at the College of Fine Arts throughout the last six months. Faculty from the School of Music, School of Theatre, and School of Visual Arts will reflect on adjustments that have had to be made and discuss the upcoming academic year.
Moderator:
Gregory Melchor-Barz
Director, School of Music; Professor of Music, Musicology/Ethnomusicology
Gregory Melchor-Barz is an ethnomusicologist who has engaged field research in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Israel. He received the PhD from Brown University and the MA from the University of Chicago. A former opera singer, Melchor-Barz’s latest book is a co-edited volume titled Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology (Oxford). In addition, he has co-edited The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing in Music and the Arts (Oxford) and two editions of Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology (Oxford). His monograph, Singing for Life: HIV/AIDS and Music in Uganda (Routledge) applies the central tenets of medical ethnomusicology to a study of HIV prevention in East Africa. His book, Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture was also published by Oxford. He has produced 4 compact discs and a documentary film and received a GRAMMY nomination in the Best Traditional World Music category as producer of Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda (Smithsonian Folkways). Melchor-Barz comes to us from Vanderbilt University where he was interim dean and professor of ethnomusicology.
Panelists:
Joel Brandwine (CFA'01'21)
Assistant Professor, Technical Production
Joel Brandwine has been working as a technical director, production carpenter, automation technician, and rigger for over 20 years. His Broadway credits include Jersey Boys, American Idiot, Legally Blond, Catch Me if You Can, Cinderella, American Psycho, 9 to 5, and Evita. His touring credits include Riverdance, the 25th Anniversary Tour, Beautiful; The Carol King Musical, Blast and Jersey Boys. During his time in New York, Joel worked at some of the premier Off-Broadway stages such as Second Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, The Signature Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, and The Atlantic Theatre Company. He was the technical director at Cedar Lake Dance Company and the shop foreman at the Julliard School. Additional credits include Williamstown Theatre Festival, Maine State Music Theatre, The Huntington Theatre Company, American Repertory Theatre, PRG, The Silk Road Ensemble, and Holland America Cruise Lines through Showman Fabricators. Previous to Boston University, he taught Stage Craft at Purchase College. In other news, Joel is the Chairman of the Mansfield Municipal Airport Commission.
Kính T. Vu
Assistant Professor of Music & Dissertation Progress Coordinator, Music Education
Dr. Kính T. Vu is an assistant professor of music at Boston University where he teaches music education and performance courses in general music, history and philosophy, and conducting. Focusing his teaching, learning, and research model on innovation and entrepreneurship, Kính’s pedagogy is community-based with partnerships emerging in Boston and around the globe. Current research centers on exploring connections between music education and involuntary or forced human displacement in Sweden, Cambodia, and Kính’s homeland Việt Nam where he was abandoned at the end of the American War. His co-edited book (with Dr. André de Quadros), My Body was Left on the Street: Music Education and Displacement, will be published by Sense Publishers in 2019. Dr. Vũ was recently appointed to a Faculty-In-Residence position at Kilachand Hall and will coordinate the Writers Corridor (in memoriam Eugene O’Niell) in collaboration with BU’s Kilachand Honors College and Residence Life.
Photo credit: Jacob Chang-Rascle
Mary Yang
Assistant Professor of Art, Graphic Design
Mary Yang is a designer and educator based in Boston, MA. She is the founder of Open Rehearsal, a design practice that works with clients and collaborators in the arts, music, and academia. She joined the faculty of Boston University as an Assistant Professor in 2019, where she teaches in the Graphic Design program. Her recent research and projects explore the relationship between design and music, identity design in public spaces and urban design, exhibition design, and publishing. Collaboration with cultural clients include the RISD Museum, Verso Books, among others. She has exhibited at institutions, lectured and served as guest critic nationally and internationally in the US and UK. Previously, she has taught and lectured at the Rhode Island School of Design and University of Washington and has worked on the graphic and brand design team at Victoria’s Secret PINK in NYC, the University of Washington Press in Seattle, WA, and Studio Blue in Chicago, IL.
The webinar will be conducted using the online Zoom webinar platform. Access information and additional instructions on using the Zoom platform will be provided via email upon successful registration. This webinar is open to all members of the BU community including alumni, students, faculty, and staff.