Last modified: Wednesday, April 29, 2009
IU Jacobs Professor Jeffrey Hass awarded Bogliasco Fellowship
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Professor of Composition Jeffrey Hass was recently awarded a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship to live and work at the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities on the Mediterranean coast south of Genoa, Italy. Hass, who also serves as director of the Center for Electronic and Computer Music at the Jacobs School of Music, will begin the fellowship in September 2009.
The fellowship announcement follows three other honors for Hass, including a $17,000 IU New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grant; first prize and an orchestral commission for a work for the 2009 Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake City; and having a piece accepted for performance at the 2009 conference of the International Computer Music Association in Montreal this August.
Approximately 50 Bogliasco Fellowships are awarded each year to those doing advanced creative work or scholarly research in any of 12 disciplines that include film and video, history, music and visual arts.
An IU faculty member since 1987, Hass plans to work intensively on "Together and Apart," his third symphony for orchestra, electronics and video, during the one-month fellowship period.
Hass plans to base the piece on the transcribed oral history of his family and the writings of scholar Shimon Redlich as both recounted their harrowing ordeal of survival in the small Polish town of Brzezany -- now part of Ukraine -- around World War II.
The multimedia work will incorporate processed audio recordings of interviews from the remaining survivors in Israel, including family members Hass has not yet met, and historic images provided by Redlich, as well as Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish folk and popular music of that era and locale.
Hass also received a $17,000 IU New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grant from the IU Office of the Vice Provost for Research to write his symphony during a 2009-10 sabbatical.
"Discovery of the fascinating family history, introduction to Professor Redlich by Halina Goldberg (a Jacobs associate professor of musicology) and the realization that the number of living survivors has dwindled to a handful has made this a most timely project," said Hass. "I am grateful for the opportunities these awards have afforded me to pursue this work."
Additionally, Hass was awarded first prize and an orchestral commission for a celebratory work to premiere during the 2009 Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake City.
Hass is a member of the 2008 class of the IU Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities (IDAH) faculty fellows. IDAH fellows are linked to disciplinary and technical expertise available through the Wells Library and University Information Technology Services and receive project support and course release time to develop digital projects.
The IDAH fellowship helped support his work on "Unstrung," which premiered on Jan. 16 and 17, 2009, in IU's Ruth N. Halls Theatre. The eight-minute piece for solo dancer, violin, interactive electronics and video is part of the realization of Hass's proposed IDAH fellowship project, "Creative Application of an Integrated Interactive Sensor Environment for Music and Dance Performance."
"Unstrung" has been accepted for performance at the 2009 conference of the International Computer Music Association in Montreal this August. From the 615 works submitted, only 59 were chosen for concert performances at this prestigious event. It was created in collaboration with choreographer Liz Shea, coordinator of the IU Contemporary Dance Program.
Hass previously taught on the faculties of Rutgers University and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Recordings of his works have been released by the Indiana University Press, the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the U.S. (SEAMUS), Arizona University Recordings, Albany Records and RIAX Records. His compositions and videos of his dance works can be viewed at www.music.indiana.edu.
