An annual summer tradition for music educators from Minnesota and beyond, the Wind Band Conducting Workshop experience is soundly intertwined with its location. Participants stay in student dorms, lunch at local restaurants on the West Bank, and spend afternoons on the Ted Mann Concert Hall stage, taking turns conducting pieces like Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Grainger or Sheltering Sky by John Mackey. Emily Threinen, Director of Bands, faced a challenge when COVID-19 prevented an in-person event this year. How could a workshop which traditionally depends on the nuance of personal instruction, focused on something as delicate as baton movement, adapt to a virtual format? 

Roque (pronounced Rocky) Diaz talks a mile a minute and exudes optimism. A trumpeter, educator and scholar with two master’s degrees, ABD for his Ph.D. (ABD means “all but dissertation,” and he’s working on that now), he wants to change how music is taught.

To all members of the School of Music community, There are simply no words to describe the events of the past week. The barbaric and horrific killing of George Floyd has left indescribable pain in its wake as our nation struggles to understand and confront its deeply ingrained systemic racial inequities, injustices, and hypocrisies.

Like other courses across the University of Minnesota, Fernando Meza’s Percussion Studio Class had to adapt to an online format when COVID-19 interrupted the semester. Meza is adjusting to the absence of being in the same place by giving students a unique experience: creating international connections for his students in the new virtual environment.

PhD Candidate (music education) Roque Diaz currently serves as the Director of School Partnerships at MacPhail Center for Music, a state leader in virtual Music Education. We had a discussion with him to learn more about how his role plays into the quickly-expanding alternative learning environment that we are experiencing today. We also learned how his role has changed to adapt to the new learning situation. 

Jerry Luckhardt, Associate Professor and Associate Director of Bands, took a Spring 20 sabbatical to partner with SOM alumnus and high school band director, Bradley Mariska to create a podcast series for band directors. We caught up with him to find out how his project, “Band in Minnesota,” is going. 

School of Music COVID-19 Preparedness and Response

This weekend, students will get the chance to perform alongside professional jazz saxophonist Dave Pietro in the annual University of Minnesota Jazz Festival. Student Varun Chandrasekhar, (music theory and guitar) sat down with us to discuss the upcoming performance and more about his day to day life at the School of Music.

Musicology Professor Peter Mercer-Taylor has won a NEH-Mellon Fellowship for Digital Publication. This grant will allow him to take a Fall 2020 leave to finish up the website associated with his forthcoming book, "Gems of Exquisite Beauty: How Hymnody Carried Classical Music to America."