I am very happy to announce that, with funding from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (see this post), this fall I will begin a two-year Master of Music in Music Composition program at NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions located in the heart of New York City. NYU Steinhardt offers a hybrid conservatory and university setting where performers and researchers work alongside each other and composers are encouraged to develop interdisciplinary collaborations with choreographers, visual artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars in other departments at NYU. In addition to the concert music composition program, directed by the wonderful composer Julia Wolfe (founding member of the legendary Bang On a Can collective), Steinhardt offers high-caliber study in composition for film and multimedia.
The composition faculty includes Julia Wolfe, Ron Sadoff, David Spear, Ira Newborn, Michael Gordon, Justin Dello Joio, and Herschel Garfein, among many others. As a first-year graduate student, I will receive a performance of a new string quartet by the internationally renowned JACK Quartet in a public New York City venue, in addition to opportunities for student performances. I am thrilled to be able to take advantage of the many opportunities that NYU will provide, not least of which will be getting a head start in developing ties within the music and arts community in New York.