NEWS & UPDATES
April 3, 2026
| | The Beat: News from Our Music Community | | |
A Global Path in Music: Allie Mangel ’22 from Fulbright in Germany to Ph.D. Study | |
After graduating summa cum laude from Princeton in 2022 with a degree in Comparative Literature and certificates in Violin Performance and Humanistic Studies, Allie Mangel continued to explore the deep connections between music, language, and culture that first shaped her work on campus.
Following a Fulbright year in Dresden, Germany—where she taught English and performed with several ensembles—Mangel is now pursuing a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley. In this conversation, she reflects on her musical experiences at Princeton, the interdisciplinary ideas behind her senior thesis, and how performance, scholarship, and curiosity about sound continue to shape her path.
| Steve Mackey's Memoir on April 18 & 19 at McCarter | |
Memoir is a theatrical musical work by GRAMMY Award–winning composer and William Shubael Conant Professor of Music Steven Mackey, created with director Mark DeChiazza. Inspired by the unpublished memoir of Mackey’s mother, Elaine Mackey, Memoir is a visually and sonically captivating reflection on resilience, identity, and the power of storytelling.
Use Code: COMMUNITY26 for 15% off or 35TIX for $35 ages 16-35 (subject to zones and availability.)
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Labyrinth Books Discussion
Simon Morrison's new book: A Kingdom and a Village: A One-Thousand-Year History of Moscow
WHEN: April 28, 2026 at 6:00PM
WHERE: Labyrinth Books, Princeton, NJ
Learn more.
Elizabeth Margulis's new book: Transported The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams
WHEN: May 19, 2026 at 6:00PM
WHERE: Labyrinth Books, Princeton, NJ
| Class of '27 and '28: Apply to Minor in Music! | The Minor in Music (MUS) invites students to explore a diverse range of fields, from composition and electronic music to musicology, theory, sound studies, music cognition, jazz studies, and more. With only 5 required courses, students can curate their own pathway through an array of musical arenas. Interested Class of '27 & '28 students apply here. | | |
Simon Morrison's A Kingdom and a Village Review by Times UK
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A review in The Times highlights A Kingdom and a Village: A One-Thousand-Year History of Moscow by Simon Morrison as a sweeping portrait of Moscow that doubles as a history of Russia itself. The book traces the city’s transformation from a small medieval settlement into the political and symbolic center of a vast empire, shaped by rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin.
The review emphasizes Morrison’s argument that Moscow reflects a long-standing tension in Russian identity—between inward-looking, authoritarian traditions and outward-looking European aspirations. By exploring myths, power struggles, and architectural legacies across centuries, the book shows how Russia’s past continues to shape its politics and global role today.
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Princeton Alumni Weekly: New Sounds at Old Nassau
How Rudresh Mahanthappa reshaped Princeton’s jazz program amid an Ivy League surge
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A new Princeton Alumni Weekly feature spotlights how saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa has transformed jazz at Princeton University over the past decade. Since becoming the Anthony H. P. Lee ’79 Director of Jazz in 2016, he has reshaped the program by recruiting prominent performing artists to the faculty, expanding performance opportunities, and integrating professional-level jazz practice into a liberal arts environment.
“I went in there and saw a program that seemed like it needed a boost in a couple different ways,” says Mahanthappa. “I wanted to make sure everyone teaching was out there playing. I wanted people in the program that students could get excited about, that they could go see play in a club in New York or Philadelphia.”
Critically acclaimed guitarist Miles Okazaki, who joined the Princeton faculty in 2021, says students across majors — even those with no musical background — can benefit from studying jazz. “My take on it is, you’re studying the highest form that human improvisational music has ever reached,” he says. “If students can understand how it was created, it can complement all these other analytical tools that they’re learning in other classes… this stuff, you get it in your bones.”
“All the greatest music, regardless of genre, engages your intellect and your heart and soul simultaneously,” says Mahanthappa, reflecting on his first decade of teaching. “It hits you in the heart and totally engages your brain. I’m trying to figure out as many ways to emphasize that, in as many different paths as possible.”
| Leland Ko '20 wins Avery Fisher Career Grant | |
2026 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipients (L-R): Dmitry Yudin, Keila Wakao, Leland Ko, and Nathan Meltzer. Photo by Jennifer Taylor
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Congratulations to all 2026 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipients, especially Princeton German Major/ MPP Certificate student Leland Ko ’20!
The Avery Fisher Career Grants provide professional recognition and support to today’s exceptional rising instrumentalists and ensembles. Since the program began in 1976, more than 183 outstanding artists have been recognized.
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Leland Ko at the ceremony with Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of Sinfonia, Ruth Ochs
| Academic and Financial Assistant, Maureen Riggi, Recognized for Fifteen Years of Service at Princeton | Maureen Riggi was recently recognized as an honoree at the Staff Members Service Recognition Luncheon for her fifteen years of service at Princeton. Prior to joining Music in 2023, Maureen worked in Forbes College as the College Office Coordinator, and in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students as a Dean’s Assistant. Congratulations! | |
Jazz Creative Large Ensemble Concert Featuring Alto Saxophonist Gary Bartz
WHEN: April 11, 2026, 8 pm
WHERE: Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall
Learn about CLE Concert
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Senior Recital: Tienne Yu
WHEN: April 12, 2026, 3 pm
WHERE: Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall
Learn about Senior Recital Series
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Princeton Sound Kitchen presents Generals Concert
WHEN: April 14, 2026, 8 pm
WHERE: Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall
Learn about PSK Generals Concert
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Princeton University Orchestra and Glee Club Concert
WHEN: April 17, 2026, 7:30 &
April 18, 2026, 7:30 pm
WHERE: Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall
Learn about PUO and Glee Concert
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Steven Mackey: MEMOIR
WHEN: April 18, 2026, 7:30 pm & April 19, 2026, 2 pm
WHERE: Berlind Theatre, McCarter Theatre
Learn about Memoir
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Early Music Princeton Concert
WHEN: April 20, 2026, 7:30 pm
WHERE: Princeton University Chapel
Learn about EMP Concert
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Monday, April 13, 2026
WHEN: 12:00-1:15 PM
WHERE: Prospect House
WHAT: Music students are invited to join Elizabeth Margulis, Acting Chair, for lunch at Prospect House! You won't want to miss this chance to meet with the Chair and a small group of both graduate and undergraduate students from the Music Department, share your thoughts and ideas about the music student experience, and ask any question that’s on your mind. It’s a great way for undergraduate and graduate students to meet each other, as well as the Chair, in a friendly and casual setting. Space is limited to eight students for each Lunch with the Chair date.
Please fill out this Lunch with the Chair form if you are interested in joining or to let us know that you’re interested in a future opportunity. We will do a lottery to fill the eight spots available, and then we will email you later on to confirm participation.
| Mendel Music Library News | |
Want to watch operas from the Met for free, from your own device? Mendel Music Library has access to more than 900 full-length Metropolitan Opera performances with the online streaming database Met Opera on Demand. Performances range from recent HD video of new works like Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, to historic 1950s audio of Verdi’s Aida.
https://library.princeton.edu/resource/14692
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New at the Library: Pick up Borrow Direct and ILL at Mendel
The Library is happy to announce that you are now able to pick up your Interlibrary Loan and Borrow Direct material at Mendel Music Library and other branch libraries. To change your pick-up location, navigate to "update profile" on your ILLiad user account home screen, select a delivery location, and click on the submit information button.
| Mendel Music Library co-sponsors upcoming event: “Founding Families and Their Musical World” | |
Mendel Music Library is proud to co-sponsor this upcoming event featuring the Practitioners of Musick and John Burkhalter, dedicated Mendel Library patron and independent researcher. The Practitioners of Musick will show how the amateur performers in American founding families kept London cultural life alive across the Atlantic. The program will include selections by Handel, Arne, Hopkinson, and Reinagle, and other masters with an illustrated lecture of the families’ surviving portraits, instruments, sheet music, and play scripts.
Suitable for children 14 and up.
Date: Sunday, April 12, 2026
Time: 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Location: Friend Center - The Convocation Room (Friend 113)
Registration: https://libcal.princeton.edu/event/16567309
Image credit: Replica of Nelly Park Custis’s harpsichord in Mt. Vernon’s New Room. Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association.
| | | Around the Corner: Campus Collaborations | | Organ Concert by James Kealey at Princeton University Chapel | |
Friday, April 24, 2026, at 7:30 pm
James Kealey is the First Prize and Audience Prize winner of the 2022 American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP), and newly appointed Director of Music at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, PA. He will perform a program perfectly suited to the Princeton University Chapel instrument: works by Demessieux, Howells, Barraine, Duruflé, and Willan.
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Mark Your Calendars: The Princeton Festival
June 5-21, 2026
Performance Pavilion
Morven Museum & Garden
Look forward to unique, music-filled evenings in a garden setting. Enjoy live opera, dance, tribute concerts, and more featuring top artists. This year's Festival culminates in a joyful celebration of America at 250. Mark your calendars, and join us!
Learn More: princetonsymphony.org/festival
Tickets:
princetonsymphony.org/festival/events
| | | Please submit any event or news you would like to share with the Department of Music students, faculty, and staff in future iterations of the Synthesizer. | | |
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