Music School Unveils 2020-21 Dean's Office Scholarship Awardees
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music has announced the recipients of the 2020-21 Dean's Office Opportunity Award, a programme that supports faculty research and creative activities at the School of Music. This year, the funding was allocated to nineteen projects that emphasize themes of community, social justice, and interdisciplinary collaboration with other arts units as well as Los Angeles’s diverse communities.
Robert Fink, academic associate dean and chair of the school's music industry programs, made a statement about the projects, highlighting the critical role of music in connecting, healing, and facilitating meaningful change during challenging times. Eileen Strempel, the school's inaugural dean, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the influential role of music in transcending barriers.
The selected projects aim to grapple with historic injustice and the post-pandemic reality intentionally. For instance, some projects will curate and highlight various aspects such as woman composers of Jewish heritage, a new version of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue,' a revival of Mexican baroque music, a bilingual song-life podcast in Santa Ana, and more.
Collaborative interdisciplinary performances and workshops involving students and faculty from the Herb Alpert School of Music together with other UCLA arts departments (like the Department of Theater, Dance, or the School of the Arts and Architecture) are also part of the funded initiatives. These projects often explore social justice topics including racial equity, immigration, and community empowerment.
Community engagement projects where musicians worked directly with Los Angeles area organizations, reflecting the city’s cultural diversity to create cross-cultural musical experiences that also addressed pressing social issues, were also supported. Compositions and performances centered on narratives of marginalized or underrepresented communities, aiming to amplify voices often excluded from mainstream artistic platforms, were another focus.
Panel discussions, artist residencies, and virtual events aimed at fostering dialogue between artists, scholars, and community members around themes of identity, equity, and collaboration were also part of the funded projects.
In response to COVID-19, faculty were encouraged to consider projects that could be completed in a physically distanced manner while in lockdown. The funded projects represent music's broad reach across cultures, generations, and political affiliations. The awarded faculty projects aim to advance the school's mission and embrace cross-collaboration with UCLA's other arts units.
While there is no single publicly available comprehensive list detailing every individual project funded under that award for 2020-21, the initiative broadly supported endeavors that showcase the power of music to connect, heal, and facilitate change during challenging times. For more detailed project names or principal investigators, the best approach is to directly contact the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s Dean’s Office or check their official announcements and press releases from that academic year. They sometimes publish summaries of award recipients and project descriptions highlighting how these initiatives align with the school’s commitment to social justice and community engagement.
Despite the pandemic, the funded projects of the 2020-21 Dean's Office Opportunity Award at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music focus on the power of music for education-and-self-development and entertainment, with projects such as the bilingual song-life podcast in Santa Ana and a revival of Mexican baroque music. These projects also aim to address pressing social issues, such as racial equity and community empowerment, echoing the school's commitment to social justice and community engagement.
