12/19/2023 0 Comments Luciform claire chase iceThe former system effectively privileged students with prior training in the classical tradition, but the new curriculum is designed to appeal to students with diverse musical backgrounds and aspirations. At the same time, her appointment contributes to a major shift within the music department itself, which in recent years has fundamentally rethought its mission and last year overhauled its undergraduate curriculum. Historically, the University’s institutional environment has had little in common with that of an artist-led collective, which has sparked what Chase calls a “productive and wonderful” tension with her ideas. “What I’m able to do is to open more pathways for people to think of themselves as artists, whether that translates into a professional manifestation or…just a more fulfilling life.” “I actually find it incredibly liberating to work with people who are coming at the practice of music from so many different angles,” she remarks. All of her classes culminate in concerts, and students are responsible for each element, from concept to publicity to the performance itself. In “The 21st-Century Ensemble Workshop,” for instance, each class meeting begins and ends with collective music-making. This “life-changing, heart-expanding moment,” she recalls, catalyzed an enduring commitment to a musical practice that rejects hierarchy for its own sake, fosters self-direction, and emphasizes the social significance of artistic work.Īt Harvard, Chase cultivates an environment where peer-to-peer learning thrives. (As a teenager, Chase was involved in numerous causes, including LGBT advocacy and immigrant rights.) It also showed her how much she could learn from her peers. It matters where you’re needed.” The advice was revelatory: articulating a clear connection between her musical and her social-activist endeavors. When she was 15, and had just won “some silly flute competition,” a friend said, “You know, Claire, it doesn’t matter what you do. She is less interested in expediting individual success than in what she calls “the politics of organizing a group of people to make music.” But Chase says she has doesn’t identify too closely with “entrepreneurial” thinking. The group is committed to a collective, artist-led structure in which many musicians also take on staff roles, and all ensemble members have a say in administrative and programmatic decisions.īecause she has achieved remarkable success by unorthodox means, Chase is often described as an “arts entrepreneur.” The label reflects a broader state of affairs in classical music: a dismal job market, anxieties about cultural irrelevance, and a general sense of precariousness have transformed once-reliable goals (like landing a tenured orchestra position) into near-impossibilities. Their performances, which often feature multimedia and electro-acoustic compositions, have a vividly theatrical feel. Its 35 members perform in various configurations, from intimate chamber groups to all-hands-on-deck endeavors, and have given more than 500 premieres. In 2001, on a $500 budget, she launched the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), which now stands at the zenith of the new-music scene-widely admired for its adventurousness and seemingly limitless aesthetic capacities. Her eclectic repertoire, centered upon music of the present and very recent past, augments the sonic possibilities of the flute through the use of extended techniques and electronics she delights in works that require her to act, vocalize, and otherwise heighten the drama of a performance. A commitment to rethinking the social role of the artist is at the core of her creative work.Ĭhase is among the most important figures working in classical music today. The demonstration was organized by and mostly comprised faculty members from the history department having a new professor of the practice of music in their midst might have seemed unusual. During her first week of teaching at Harvard, the flutist Claire Chase was arrested while blocking traffic on Massachusetts Avenue-part of a protest last September prompted by the Trump administration’s announcement that it would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
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