Associate Professors of Music Bruce Cain and David Asbury were invited to perform at the Just Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 7th-9th. A social justice and human rights festival, the Just Festival is part of Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival whose events aim to challenge perceptions, celebrate differences, and encourage dialogue on the key issues of our time. The duo was also invited to perform at the Hispanic Heritage Festival at Palm Beach Atlantic University on October 14th. The program for the concerts in Scotland featured works on environmental themes written for the duo by composers Matthew Dunne, Jason Hoogerhyde, Diego Luzuriaga, Eduardo Martin, Julio Cesar Oliva, and Diego Vega, while the concert for the HHF was comprised of works based upon Spanish texts.

Associate Professors of Music Bruce Cain and David Asbury recently released a video recording of BESOS, the first movement from a song cycle written for them entitled CANCIONES POR LA VIDA by noted Cuban composer Eduardo Martín. View the video here.

Associate Professors of Music Bruce Cain and David Asbury were invited to perform at the College Music Society Southwest Regional Conference in March and as featured guest artists at Rollins College in April. The programs for these concerts featured works on environmental themes written for the duo by composers Susan Cohn Lackman, Daniel Crozier, Matthew Dunne, Jason Hoogerhyde, Diego Luzuriaga, Eduardo Martin, Julio Cesar Oliva, and Diego Vega.

Professor Emerita Lois Ferrari, Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities Holly Dalrymple, and Instructor of Applied Music Chaz Nailor collaborated with Austin-based soprano Natalie Joy Howard, the Southwestern University Chorale, and the Austin Civic Orchestra to give the Texas premiere of a work recovered, edited, and published by Professor of Music Michael Cooper: the choral/orchestral version of Margaret Bonds’s setting of W.E.B. Du Bois’s iconic Civil Rights Credo. Given on February 25, the performance was many students’ first time singing with an orchestra – and the opportunity to lift their voices in song to proclaim Du Bois’s magisterial text with Margaret Bonds’s music was, in the words of one student, “a life-altering experience.” Those interested in hearing or re-hearing the performance can find it here. The Chorale will perform the Credo again, now in its original version with piano accompaniment, with Professor of Music Bruce Cain (baritone), Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Julia Taylor (soprano), and Part-Time Instructor of Music Bruce Cain (piano) in another concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater on April 15.

In June of this year, Associate Professors of Music Bruce Cain and David Asbury made video recordings of works written for them. They are releasing them as the editing process is completed. The next video in this series, Luz, is the fourth song from the cycle Sobre La Naturaleza by Diego Luzuriaga. The composer, originating from Ecuador, has a special affinity for writing music derived from traditional sources and connects deeply with themes from the natural world. The video can be viewed here.