Over winter break, Associate Professor of Music Eric Nathan was at a mountain retreat in Italy when he got inspiration for a violin concerto... one of Nathan’s three projects for his three-year position as an inaugural composer in residence for the R.I. Philharmonic... [he] plans to compose two other “dream projects”: a symphony and a requiem.

“These are all really big pieces that one doesn’t get the opportunity to work on often,” he said, noting that more modern compositions tend to be shorter due to rehearsal time constraints, while the pieces he’s working on are longer works like many older compositions.

James May, a Ph.D. student in Brown's Music and Multimedia Composition program, presented an immersive installation inspired by his time living in New Orleans in April 2026. In a featured video, May describes the project, the ideas that animate him, and how he translated those ideas into eventually there's nowhere.

Brown University PhD candidate Sofía Fresco (formerly Chiarandini) is a recipient of the 2026 Neil Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School (RI Phil) is pleased to announce the appointment of acclaimed composer Eric Nathan as Composer in Residence for a three-year term, beginning in September 2026.

“I first met the composer Wang Lu on a warm weekend in south Brooklyn in the spring of 2008. The International Contemporary Ensemble, where I'm a pianist and original member, was about to premiere her “Siren Song.” It was by far the craziest-sounding piece on the program. “This one is beyond the beyond,” I said to one of my colleagues.”

Devanney Haruta, a Brown University PhD candidate in Musicology & Ethnomusicology, earned the award for her paper “A Matter of Life and Death: Performance, Preservation, and Instrumental Ethics in Musical Instrument Museums.”

Alexander Hardan awarded 2026 Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Dissertation Prize

Each spring, the Department of Music faculty vote on and bestow academic and performance awards to outstanding undergraduate students at Brown University. The awards are presented in person at the Honors & Awards Ceremony. This year's ceremony was presided by Professor Eric Nathan, Director of Undergraduate Studies. The 2026 awardees are listed below. Congratulations to all recipients of awards this year!

For Alexaner Hardan, a doctoral candidate in Musicology and Ethnomusicology, the true heart of education isn't found in a cinematic lecture hall, but in the quiet, "invisible" hours of preparation: the meticulous selection of a reading, the shaping of a question, or a transformative comment left in the margins of a student’s draft.

It is this dedication to the hidden architecture of learning that has earned Hardan the 2026 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching.

After a rigorous nationwide search, the Yale School of Music announced that Erica Haskell, Ph.D., has been appointed Managing Director, effective early summer 2026. Congratulations, Dr. Haskell!

Last Friday, acclaimed clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh joined the Brown Jazz Band for a poignant eight-song performance at the 38th Eric Adam Brudner ’84 Memorial Concert in the Lindemann Performing Arts Center. The concert was directed by Timo Vollbrecht — an associate teaching professor of music and Azmeh’s longtime friend.

David Fossum (PhD '17, Ethnomusicology) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre at Arizona State University. His project discipline tied to this NHC grant is "Remembered Innovation: A History of Creativity in Turkmen Music." Congratulations, Professor Fossum!

Erickson's article is part of Ethnomusicology Vol. 70, Issue 1.

Annie Kim, Brown University PhD candidate in Musicology & Ethnomusicology, authors article for Opera Quarterly

Ruby Erickson's "Kriolu voices sounding: Tending to epistemic justice and conflict in collaboration" published in the February 2026 issue of Anthropology Today