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James Primosch continues to compose during COVID
James Primosch seated at his piano.

Professor of music James Primosch. (Image: Omnia)

James Primosch continues to compose during COVID

The professor of music, who won an award and released two new albums during the pandemic, discusses composition, text as music, and embracing electronic music in the absence of concert halls.

Susan Ahlborn

What happens to a dream deferred? 60-Second Lectures on racial injustice
Screenshot of four people in a grid form, top left is Mary Frances Berry, top right is Margo Natalie Crawford, bottom left is Guthrie Ramsey, bottom right is Dagmawi Woubshet

Clockwise from top left: Mary Frances Berry; Margo Natalie Crawford; Guthrie Ramsey; and Dagmawi Woubshet. (Image: Penn Arts & Sciences)

What happens to a dream deferred? 60-Second Lectures on racial injustice

In an effort to amplify the messages of the recent protests against racist violence, Penn Arts & Sciences created a special series: What Happens to a Dream Deferred? 60-Second Lectures on Racial Injustice.

From Omnia

Newly digitized Marian Anderson collection now accessible online
Portrait of Marian Anderson in 1920 with her chin resting on top of her hand.

Marian Anderson ca. 1920. (Image: Penn Libraries collection)

Newly digitized Marian Anderson collection now accessible online

Penn Libraries has completed digitization of more than 2,500 items from its Marian Anderson collection, now available for public view on a new website.

From Penn Libraries

Guthrie Ramsey’s creative journey of healing, collaboration, and persistence
Professor sitting at a piano

Music Professor Guthrie Ramsey has released a new album of songs, “A Spiritual Vibe, Vol. 1,” meant to pay homage to his many musical partnerships. (Image: NJR2 Photography)

Guthrie Ramsey’s creative journey of healing, collaboration, and persistence

Music Professor Guthrie Ramsey has released a new album of songs meant to pay homage to his many musical partnerships. The project was prompted by his cancer diagnosis and influenced by the global pandemic and uprising against racial injustice.
Celebrating alma maters: 125 years of ‘The Red and Blue’ and ‘Hail, Pennsylvania!’
two pages of musical notes and lyrics

Sung at all official University occasions, “The Red and Blue” was composed by William J. Goeckel, College Class of 1895 and Law Class of 1896. The words were written by Harry E. Westervelt, Medicine Class of 1898.

Celebrating alma maters: 125 years of ‘The Red and Blue’ and ‘Hail, Pennsylvania!’

President Amy Gutmann says singing along to “The Red and Blue,” composed 125 years ago, is the “most cherished” and “best known” tradition in song at Penn. The official alma mater, “Hail, Pennsylvania!” was also written in 1895. (Video)
Penn Flow Chinese-Western chamber music ensemble plays from home
Flora Feng, a senior mathematics and economics major, plays the traditional Chinese guzheng

Flora Feng, a senior mathematics and economics major, plays the traditional Chinese guzheng in a video she made in her California home. She is a member of the new Penn Flow Chinese-Western chamber music ensemble.

Penn Flow Chinese-Western chamber music ensemble plays from home

The Penn Flow Chinese-Western chamber music ensemble juxtaposes traditional Chinese instruments with Western instruments. Student members are featured playing the traditional Chinese erhu and guzheng at home in videos posted by the Music Department.
The unique subculture of Cuban punk
A young mohawked man with a leather vest featuring a red anarchy symbol styles another young man's hair into a mohawk

Mohawks, tattoos, and piercings are all familiar aspects of the punk aesthetic, setting "los frikis" apart from mainstream society. Image credit: Samuel Reina Calvo, an audiovisual technician and photographer that accompanied Torre Perez during field work.

The unique subculture of Cuban punk

Often idealized through images of painstakingly restored Chryslers and romantic, backroom rumbas, Cuba has untold subcultures that one graduate student, Carmen Torre Pérez, is analyzing through a social history of Cuban punk.

Kristina García

Understanding the Americas through material texts
Professor standing with hands on her hips in the library with a chandelier in the background

Glenda Goodman, assistant professor of music at Penn, collaborated with a friend at Princeton to organize the American Contact project on material texts. 

Understanding the Americas through material texts

Penn and Princeton partner to create a now-virtual symposium to explore 38 objects, including books, journals, maps, musical scores, visual art, wampum, textiles, stone tablets, and various kinds of handwork. 
#GLASSFEST brings Philip Glass scores to Penn
Philip Glass at piano with headphones Composer Philip Glass works on the score for “The White Lama: The Improbable Legacy of Theos Bernard.” (Image: Bob Finkelstein)

#GLASSFEST brings Philip Glass scores to Penn

#GLASSFEST, which runs for three weeks at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, celebrates the legacy of composer Philip Glass.
The healing power of music
david falcone playing guitar with balloons in the background Monica Trent, left, a patient at HUP, listens as guitarist David Falcone plays the chords of a familiar rock song.

The healing power of music

WXPN celebrates 15 years of its Musicians On Call volunteer program, which has brought music to more than 100,000 patients in Philadelphia hospitals.