Music Graduate Students' Association

02/02/2024

Our amazing EDI office is seeking a part-time employee! Send your application to [email protected] if you think you would be a good fit!

08/08/2023

MGSA is in the process of planning our Welcome Event for the 2023-2024 academic year. To help us avoid any scheduling decisions that may lead to the exclusion of students of faith, we are asking students to provide an answer to this poll to the best of your ability and within your comfort level. The poll is anonymous and none of the information provided will be used for purposes other than scheduling the welcome event for September 2023.

https://forms.gle/kpsD6rwTCkEP7yDi7

Thank you for sharing with us!

04/03/2023

Join us for the final Salon Collective event of the semester, featuring .cello !

Here is the abstract:
“I would like to present a lecture recital on two works for solo cello by each of the members of the flute duo Flutronix that focus on different aspects of the female experience. The two pieces are Dam Mwen Yo for Solo Cello and Recorded Voices by Nathalie Joachim and Stolen for Solo Cello by Allison Loggins-Hull. The pieces have a total performance time of ten minutes (five minutes per piece), leaving fifteen minutes for a lecture presentation on the works. The two pieces together present a dichotomy of subject matter: Dam Mwen Yo (translated from Haitian Creole as “my ladies”) is about the sense of sisterhood and camaraderie within communities of women, while Stolen is a somber reflection on the risks of being taken from your home and exploited due to your gender. These pieces explore polar opposites of the female experience. One work celebrates womanhood, while the other reveals its dangers. What is even more compelling is that these two works were written by two flutists who work together on a regular basis as collaborators in performance. Both composers are African-American women, so they present very unique viewpoints on composing as members of the female gender and a minority group. I would like to explore this more by presenting a short lecture-recital (c.20-25 minutes) that is supported by research on compositions for cello by African-American women, the role of African-American women in contemporary composition, and conversations with the composers that will better inform the performance of these two works for future cellists."

03/24/2023

We very much look forward to our fourth - and final - MusEd Colloquium event of the 2022-23 season: Dr. Danielle Sirek's visit to the Faculty of Music on Thursday, March 23rd, culminating in the talk, "Teacher education in the arts before and during (and after) COVID-19."

03/17/2023

Swipe for two PAID union service opportunities! Help Unit 1 get a new round of bargaining off the ground 🙌🏻. Let us know if you apply!

02/09/2023

if you majored in instrumental performance in your undergrad, check out this study! it won’t take very much time, and you’ll be helping out one of our PhD candidates in music and health!

02/09/2023

Check out this concert on Sunday featuring a lot of UofT students, including a premiere from grad student ! Tickets available at tickets.choralnation.com

02/08/2023

Join the CUPE Labour Choir!

🍻🗣

02/02/2023

01/09/2023

MGSA is working with FMUA on their Winter Wonderland Semi-Formal! This event is happening on Friday, January 13, 2023, from 7:30-11:30 PM at the Great Hall in Hart House.

Faculty of Music students will be able to purchase a ticket for $20/person.
Non-FOM (as a plus one) will be able to purchase a ticket for $30/person. The image says $35 but please note it is actually $30

FMUA will also be selling tickets in person when classes resume on the 9th (till the 13th) on the 3rd floor of EJB.

12/01/2022

The Salon Collective’s first event is TONIGHT! Come out and join us for a wonderful lecture-recital by .v !

Here is the abstract for Arlan's talk:
The German composer Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739–1796) occupies an uneasy nexus between historical figures and categories. Rust’s formative training with the Bach family, Franz Benda, Giuseppe Tartini, and Padre Martini is a testament to his fascination and connections with his musical forebears; his work often looked retrospectively to instruments and forms which had long since fallen out of fashion. Simultaneously, Rust was deeply committed to novelty, enthusiastically employing innovative violin techniques and keeping abreast of the newest musical trends. By the late 19th century, Rust’s tendencies toward invention were even posthumously—and fraudulently—appropriated by a campaign to frame him as a lost visionary who had pre-empted Beethoven’s innovations by centuries.

Rust’s life and works are early representations of a musical culture that, like ours today, was torn between allegiance to the past and rapidly shifting demands of the present. The ways in which Rust navigated his artistic creativity through and around the presence of monumental personalities like Bach and Haydn provide new sources of inspiration for historical performance practice in the present day, including credible alternate performance approaches to the music of J.S. Bach. Simultaneously, Rust’s work sheds light on a post-Bach Saxony which maintained regional traditions and styles even under musical pressure from Viennese Classicism and the nascent Paris Conservatoire. Performance examples will include some of Rust’s most intriguing historical references and novel inventions, including his tributes to Bach’s iconic solo violin sonatas and the centuries-in-the-making Canadian premiere of Rust’s Harmonica: a piece for inverted violin bow playing on all four strings at once.

Photo credit: Bo Huang Photography