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‘Fight On, Pennsylvania’ celebrates a century
Two pages of sheet music for the song Fight On Pennsylvania.

One hundred years ago two Penn freshmen, David Zoob and Ben McGiveran, wrote the music and lyrics to “Fight On, Pennsylvania,” which became the University’s official fight song for athletic contests. (Image: Penn Archives, from "Songs of the University of Pennsylvania.")

‘Fight On, Pennsylvania’ celebrates a century

One hundred years ago two Penn freshmen got together in a Quad dorm room and wrote the music and lyrics to a song they named “Fight On, Pennsylvania.” The University’s official fight song became a tradition at football games, and today is played thousands of times a year.

Louisa Shepard

Five events to watch for in November
Students examine Queen Puabi's Haddress through glass case

Penn students examine Queen Puabi’s Headdress through a glass case at the 2018 Penn Museum Student Gala. (Image: Penn Museum)

Five events to watch for in November

On the calendar for November around campus: an art party at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Penn Museum's annual Student Gala, and much more.
Three-concert festival celebrates composer and Penn professor emeritus George Crumb
George Crumb sitting next to a piano with a hand-notated musical score in front of him.

George Crumb was a music professor at Penn from 1965 to 1997. (Photo Sarah Shatz)

Three-concert festival celebrates composer and Penn professor emeritus George Crumb

A three-concert festival will celebrate decades of music by Penn professor emeritus George Crumb, a Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Oct. 10-12 at the Annenberg Center. 

Louisa Shepard

Fall into the arts
Metal sculptures with lettering

“Talking Continents” by Jaume Plensa. (Photo: ©Jaume Plensa, courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co)

Fall into the arts

An active time of year for the arts community, the University’s fall arts and culture offerings range from a sculpture exhibit from Jaume Plensa, at Arthur Ross Gallery, to a viewing garden along the Rail Park.
Woodstock at 50
Three people sitting on high stools on a stage surrounded by windows, two playing guitars and one speaking or singing into a microphone.

Author Anthony DeCurtis (center) teaches writing at Penn and holds conversations with and about musicians at the Kelly Writers House. 

Woodstock at 50

During three days of Woodstock in August of 1969, Anthony DeCurtis of the School of Arts and Sciences was 18, growing up in New York City and obsessed with the music that would form the foundation of his writing and teaching.

Louisa Shepard

Stage presence
Student standing on steps of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.

Rising Penn senior Leo Sarbanes, a music major, is an intern with Opera Philadelphia through the Summer Humanities Internship Program.  

Stage presence

Senior music major Leo Sarbanes has become a leading voice on the little-known opera “The Love for Three Oranges” during his summer internship with Opera Philadelphia.

Louisa Shepard

Musical merger of academics and performance
Student playing the cello in front of class and professors and another student playing the piano.

Music 236 combines professional performance instruction with academic study of music history and analysis. Tom Kraines (standing), a cellist and artist-in-residence with the Daedalus Quartet and pianist Yu Xi Wang (seated center), of the Curtis Institute of Music work with Penn sophomore Justin Blum on the cello and freshman Jasmine Chen on the piano. 

Musical merger of academics and performance

Music 236 emerges students in focused study on one classical composer through academics and musical performance with the Daedalus Quartet.

Louisa Shepard

A life of writing and song
Rosanne Cash speaking at microphone at table with professor Al Filreis looking at her and smiling.

Singer-songwriter and author Rosanne Cash (left) met with students at the Kelly Writers House as part of the Fellows program, now in its 20th year. She made two public appearances, including a discussion with Al Filreis (right), English professor and Writers House faculty director.  

A life of writing and song

Rosanne Cash, a Kelly Writers House Fellow, was on campus for a course taught by English Professor Al Filreis that focuses on three eminent writers each spring semester.  

Louisa Shepard

Seeing, hearing, and encountering post-apartheid South Africa
Group of students and professor gathered at monument with mountain in back.

The Penn Global Seminar course Seeing, Hearing, and Encountering South Africa, taught by Professor of Music Carol Muller, took 16 students on two weeks of travel throughout that nation, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria. 

Seeing, hearing, and encountering post-apartheid South Africa

A Penn Global Seminar course taught by Carol Muller took the 16 undergraduates to South Africa to explore that nation's history and post-apartheid present day through music and culture. The students demonstrated the impact of the journey through final projects including a painting, a written paper, a poem, a film, a photo essay, a musical score—even a set of political cartoons.

Louisa Shepard