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The Department of Music offers a broad range of courses every year, from
Music in Theory and Practice and History of Jazz to A Survey of Western Music and Electronic Music Studio. A full-time faculty of
10 professors provides courses in theory, history, and ethnomusicology
designed to meet the needs of both students who choose to major or minor in
music and those who wish to explore music one course at a time. Music majors
combine study in all of these areas, and may choose to emphasize one or more
of them. Private instrumental and vocal instruction, available to all
students, is offered by some members of the full-time faculty and by a
part-time performance faculty of 25.
 Departmental performing ensembles are open to all qualified students
regardless of major; ensembles currently offered include the College Choir,
Glee Club, Orchestra,
Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble, Balinese Gamelan and Rotating
non-Western Ensemble. There is also the opportunity to study and perform
chamber music. Music students benefit from superb concert halls and practice
facilities with Steinway pianos, a variety of pipe organs and harpsichords,
and a collection of string and wind instruments.
The music faculty at Pomona is distinguished in both scholarship and
performance. College Organist William Peterson, active both as a performer
and scholar, has given recitals throughout the country and has edited a
published collection of essays on nineteenth-century French organ music. A
recording of compositions by Tom Flaherty has been released on Bridge
Records, and he is also active as a cellist, often performing with his wife,
Pomona’s viola instructor Cynthia Fogg. Soprano Gwendolyn Lytle is
especially known for her interpretations of compositions by African-American
and women composers. Band Director and Director of Music Programming and
Facilities Graydon Beeks has published extensively on the music of George
Frideric Handel and his contemporaries.
Pianist Genevieve Lee has given solo and chamber music performances around
the world, including France, Italy, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Brazil and
China. Orchestra Conductor and cellist Eric Lindholm has conducted
professional orchestras in the United States, South America and Eastern
Europe. Choral Conductor and musicologist Donna M. Di Grazia has received
support from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her research on
17th-Century English laments; she is also an active choral musician in the
Los Angeles area. Music theorist and violinist Alfred Cramer
received the Society for Music Theory’s 2004 Outstanding Publication Award
for his article on the music of Arnold Schoenberg. Music theorist, guitarist, and
mandolinist Joti Rockwell has recorded and performed across the country
as a folk/rock musician and recently completed his dissertation on bluegrass music.
Ethnomusicologist Katherine Hagedorn, whose book Divine Utterances: The
Performance of Afro-Cuban Santerķa won the Alan Merriam prize for best
ethnography in 2001, is currently working on a new project titled “Toward a
Theology of Sound,” for which she won a Mellon New Directions Fellowship for
2005-2006. Jazz Ensemble
director and cornet player Bobby Bradford, who has received National
Endowment for the Humanities grants for jazz history research, has performed
and recorded with Ornette Coleman, Quincy Jones, David Murray, and the late
John Carter. Guitarist Jack Sanders is well known for his solo and chamber
music performances as well as for his skill in building plucked stringed
instruments.
All members of the performance faculty are active in the Los Angeles area
music scene, performing with leading ensembles including the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles
Chamber Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony and Musica Angelica; giving chamber
music recitals at leading venues here and throughout the country; and
recording in the Hollywood studios.
Recent majors have gone on to undertake graduate studies in performance,
composition, music history, ethnomusicology and librarianship. Some
graduates of the department have established careers in music as performers,
teachers, and scholars, while others have used their undergraduate training
in music to enhance their careers in law, business, medicine, psychology,
and many other fields. |
