Music: Related Content

A public art installation by music faculty member and TED Senior Fellow Susie Ibarra offers a musical pilgrimage through 12 culturally significant locations in lower Manhattan, each featuring an original composition inspired by the history of the site itself.

Sylvan Esso, a new side project of Amelia Meath ’10 (of the hugely popular Bennington trio Mountain Man) is touring this fall with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Collections of Colonies of Bees, who’ve together formed the band Volcano Choir.

Faculty member Kitty Brazelton was awarded the 12th annual Carl von Ossietzky Composition Prize by the University of Oldenburg for her setting of Psalm 104 for mixed choir, percussion, and organ.

Music faculty member Julie Last is the audio engineer behind bestselling chantmaster Krishna Das’ latest album, Live Ananda, which was nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album. 

The New Yorker's Ben Greenman showed love for the latest Spinto Band album (featuring Thomas Hughes ‘06 and Sam Hughes ’08), saying: “Some songs are melancholy, some ebullient, some stately, some hyperactive, and others are all at once, like 'What I Love.'"

PopMatters magazine wasn’t short on accolades in a recent profile of singer/songwriter Will Stratton ’09, proclaiming: “this Bennington graduate’s fourth full-length [album], Post-Empire, just so happens to be one of the best albums released so far this year."

Bennington music faculty member Susie Ibarra joined leading musicians from all 204 Olympic nations for a two-day music festival celebrating the opening of the 2012 Summer Games in London.

Mountain Man, the up-and-coming folk trio of Amelia Meath '10, Molly Sarle '12, and Alex Sauser-Monnig '09, continued to impress on their recent summer tour, which included a stop at the 2011 Newport Folk Festival (listen on NPR), and an "engrossing performance," according to The New York Times, at the famed Mercury Lounge.

Longtime Bennington faculty member Gunnar Schonbeck was honored at Mass MoCA's Solid Sound Festival recently when Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche performed using the unique handcrafted instruments for which the late music teacher is known.

A year after forming as Tom Greenberg ‘10's senior project in music, BOBBY, a band made up of current Bennington students and recent grads, has been signed by Partisan Records and will be releasing their self-titled debut album on June 21. The album was featured this week on NPR's First Listen series, which previews select, upcoming albums in their entirety.

Music faculty member and jazz percussionist Milford Graves will perform at a benefit concert for Japan on Friday, April 8, at the Abrons Art Center in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Graves will join an esteemed lineup that includes Thurston Moore, Elliott Sharp, and Matthew Shipp, among other renowned performers.

The famed electric chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered a commission composed by faculty member Nick Brooke this month at the Merkin Concert Hall as part of the inaugural Ecstatic Music Festival—a three-month, 14-concert event showcasing collaborations between songwriters, composers, and performers from classical and popular music traditions.

A recent profile in the New York Press placed singer/songwriter Will Stratton '09 in good company, likening music from his latest album, New Vanguard Blues, to "Nick Drake... suddenly blessed with John Fahey's blues guitar picking skills."

Author and music faculty member Allen Shawn discussed his newly released memoir Twin this week on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Critics everywhere are praising music faculty member Allen Shawn’s new memoir Twin, which looks back at the inextricable bond and life-defining relationship he’s shared with his autistic twin sister, Mary, who was placed in an institution for the mentally disabled at the age of eight.

An excerpt from author and music faculty member Allen Shawn's forthcoming memoir Twin, to be published in January by Viking, appeared in the December 4 issue of the New York Times.

A live performance by Mountain Man, the singing folk trio of Amelia Meath '10, Molly Sarlé '12, and Alex Sauser-Monnig '09, was aired this month on NPR's World Cafe, a nationally broadcast program that showcases indie rock, singer-songwriters, folk, alternative country, blues, and world music.

Music faculty member Tom Bogdan has been awarded his second Fulbright Grant to teach American composer Meredith Monk's A Celebration Service to musicians and dancers abroad.

Award-winning musician, director, and composer Elizabeth Swados '73 looked back on her Bennington days in a recent LA STAGE article announcing the revival of The Good Woman of Setzuan, a play for which she composed the original score.

Sunfest, Bennington's annual, all-day music festival, will begin on Saturday, May 1, at 12:00 pm. This year's bill features a number of student bands and incoming acts, including Real Estate—featuring Alex Bleeker '08 on bass—whose self-titled album was ranked among the top 20 of 2009 by Pitchfork.com.

The Late Show with David Letterman, Rolling Stone magazine, NPR, and Spinner.com are just a few of the news and entertainment outlets that have featured music by Bennington students or alumni in the past month.

A violin concerto composed by music faculty member Allen Shawn, commissioned by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), was performed on Thursday, March 11, and Saturday, March 13, at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre in Rochester.

Jonathan Mann's lo-fi musical exploits landed him in the news again last month when he was named winner of Microsoft's first-ever "Bing Jingle Contest."

Music faculty member Bruce Williamson can be heard performing the jazz classic "Bye Bye Blackbird" with Diana Krall on the soundtrack for Public Enemies, a new movie starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. He also played on the soundtrack for the recent PBS documentary, Antonia Pantoja ¡Presente!

Jonathan Mann '04, who has been posting a new song every day on his website, was featured inTime Magazine and The Huffington Post, and appeared on MSNBC recently after his song about Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.

Bennington guitar teacher and composer Frederic Hand has earned a 2008 Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award from the Classical Recording Foundation for his arrangements and performance on flutist Paula Robison's new album, Places of the Spirit: The Holy Land.

The June 22 issue of The New York Times Magazine features a personal essay by music faculty member Allen Shawn.

 Joan Tower '61,  one of America’s preeminent composers won three Grammy Awards for her orchestral composition "Made in America."

Field Work Term is Bennington College's annual work-learning term during which students gain hands-on experience and test their classroom ideas in the world of work.

This photo contest brings those experiences  to life. Students use #FieldWorkTerm to share photos of themselves making, working, and learning to tell the story of their unique work exploration over Field Work Term.