NEWS & UPDATES
November 8, 2025
| | The Beat: News from Our Music Community | | |
On the Road to Carnegie Hall: Leland Ko ’20 Steps Into the Spotlight
The award-winning cellist talks about his musical evolution, the influence of a liberal arts education at Princeton, and what he hopes to discover onstage.
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The Music Department recently caught up with Leland Ko ’20 to discuss his blossoming solo career as a cellist. Leland graduated from Princeton with a degree in German Literature, and went on to earn a Master of Music from The Juilliard School and an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory. He is a first prize winner of the Concours Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Concert Artists Guild Louis and Susan Meisel Competition, and the Walter W. Naumburg International Cello Competition. On December 11, 2025, Leland will present his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall.
In our conversation, we spoke about his path in music since graduating, his takeaways from studying German at Princeton, and his philosophy about music, performance, and art more broadly.
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🏆 Donnacha Dennehy
receives Grammy Nomination 🏆
| We’re thrilled to share that Professor of Music and Director of Princeton Sound Kitchen, Donnacha M. Dennehy, breathtaking work Land of Winter, was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Congratulations! | | Spring 2026 Courses are Live! | |
The Music Department offers a wide range of Spring 2026 courses across musical cultures, history, creation, and performance.
Students can explore everything from opera, jazz, Russian music, and post-1945 modernism to new courses on Confucian and Daoist musical thought and music in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Creative and practical classes include theory, counterpoint, composition (MUS 210*), music production, and live electronic performance, with advanced workshops in electronic music (MUS 316*) and composer-performer practice (MUS 329*).
Performance opportunities span chamber ensemble (MPP 208—audition on Nov. 11), vocal literature (MPP 214*), choral conducting (MPP 216*), steel band (MPP 231*), West African drumming, and jazz arranging (MUS 261*).
* = permission of instructor required.
Learn more about our Spring 2026 course offerings
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Pointing Out Ways to Engage with Music at Princeton!
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Don’t miss our latest Instagram reel created in collaboration with Princeton University Concerts, highlighting the many ways students can engage with music on campus.
Featured moments include the Music Cognition Lab, faculty-led ensembles such as the African Music Ensemble, concerts at Richardson and Taplin, finding resources at Mendel Music Library, and practice and rehearsal spaces in Effron (with a cameo by Sarah Yuan '27). You’ll also spot some special guests — including our unofficial mascot, Louie the dog, plus a visit from the Princeton Coffee Club.
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Théo Ould Returns to Princeton for Two Days of Performances
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Accordionist Théo Ould will be on campus December 9–10 for performances with both Princeton Sound Kitchen (PSK) and Princeton University Concerts (PUC). This fall, Théo visited campus to collaborate with graduate students in the Music Department’s Composition Program, who created new works especially for him.
Tuesday, December 9 — PSK Performance
8:00 PM · Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall
Théo will premiere all of the newly composed works by Music Department graduate students.
Free and open to the public; no tickets required.
Wednesday, December 10 — PUC Events
12:00 PM · Live Music Meditation
Free and unticketed
6:00 PM & 9:00 PM · Performances Up Close
Théo will perform select graduate student works alongside Bach, Piazzolla, and more in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.
Tickets available at puc.princeton.edu.
Check out our Video Highlights: Théo Ould working with Composition Program graduate students Kennedy Taylor Dixon and Sophie Cash.
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Give ’em what they want
The memoirs of a high- and lowbrow émigré composer
By Simon Morrison
| | Ira Gershwin, left, and Vernon Duke, 1937 | © Bettmann/Getty Images | | Professor of Music, Simon Morrison, offers a vivid look at the many lives of composer Vernon Duke—Broadway hitmaker, classical musician, and émigré poet—in his review of Duke’s newly republished memoir Passport to Paris. Morrison explores the artistic tensions, reinventions, and surprising depths behind the man best known for “April in Paris,” revealing a far more complex and compelling figure than his popular songs suggest. | | Rebecca Foon with Nathan Schram and Aliayta Foon-Dancoes at National Sawdust | | |
Cellist-composer Rebecca Foon brings her distinctive blend of contemporary chamber music and ambient sound worlds to National Sawdust. Before joining Foon and bassist Mishka Stein on stage, Princeton Ph.D. candidates in Composition Nathan Schram (viola) and Aliayta Foon-Dancoes (violin) will open the evening with solo sets featuring their own work.
Foon—known for her projects Saltland, Esmerine, and Thee Silver Mt. Zion—creates immersive soundscapes that interweave cello, voice, electronics, and minimalist rhythms. The performance will include selections from her forthcoming album Black Butterflies, co-produced with Jace Lasek, accompanied by lighting sculptures by Kai.
Tickets are on sale now.
| | Upcoming Shows from Nathalie Joachim, Assistant Professor of Music | | |
LA Phil performs Joachim's "I'm Right Here" on their Green Umbrella Series
- November 11, 8 PM
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(Check out the piece in this live performance video from last year's premiere at Carnegie Hall on Youtube. A piece by Christian Quinones, Princeton PhD student, is also programmed!)
Le présent éternel (the first unveilings of Joachim's forthcoming opera-in-progress)
"The piece explores the fragile yet profound notion of Black liberation using my beloved Haiti as a point of departure. It reimagines and reengages the spiritual and creative tools that sparked the Haitian Revolution, changing the world as we know it, and is underpinned by the founding documents of Haiti and the United States which offer powerful perspectives on the relationship between democracy and freedom. It continues the legacy of Black Surrealists and Afrofuturists, reaching towards dreams of collective liberation. And it engages history that feels all too resonant today." -Nathalie Joachim
Joachim's first concert as Composer-in-Residence for Opera Philadelphia
- November 19, 7 PM
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Including excerpts from the opera as well as songs from her Grammy nominated album, Fanm d'Ayiti.
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Fall scenes by Carnegie Lake
Photo Credit: Lilia Burtonpatel '27
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Major; Music Minor
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Evening view of the Effron Music Building
Photo Credit: Donnacha Dennehy
Professor of Music; Director of Princeton Sound Kitchen
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Testing out "Sound Installations," an exhibition by graduate student composers Gulli Björnsson, Sophie Cash, Ellie Cherry, Liam Elliot, and Hannah Ishizaki.
Photo Credit: Donnacha Dennehy, Professor of Music; Director of Princeton Sound Kitchen
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A Masterclass with Shai Wosner, piano
WHEN: Nov. 9, 2025, 2:00 pm
WHERE: Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall
Learn about Masterclass with Shai Wosner
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Live Music Meditation: Emi Ferguson, Flute (Princeton University Concerts)
WHEN: Nov. 13, 2025, 12:00 pm
WHERE: Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall
Learn about Live Music Meditation
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Emi Ferguson, Flute and Ruckus, Early Music Band (Princeton University Concerts)
WHEN: Nov. 13, 2025, 6:00 & 9:00 pm
WHERE: Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall
Learn about Emi Ferguson and Ruckus
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Mendel Library News
New Online Music Resource: RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazines
| Mendel Music Library has acquired a new database, RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazines (RAPMM), which features independent popular music magazines and fanzines from the 1960s to the present and from countries around the world. Each issue is completely scanned for front-to-back reading and full-text searching. The zines focus on punk and its many subgenres, but cover other popular music genres, including rock, indie, hip hop, and country. Many titles include interviews with recognized and unknown artists, band profiles, album and live show reviews, and histories of record labels. | | | Around the Corner: Campus Collaborations | | |
The After Noon Concert Series is a weekly opportunity for the Princeton Community to enjoy performances at the Princeton University Chapel by various local, national, and international organists. These half-hour concerts showcase the flexibility of the magnificent Skinner/Mander Chapel organ. Each visiting organist rehearses and performs, bringing forth a different voice and character from the organ.
12:30-1:00 PM
*November 13 – Chase Loomer
Cathedral of St. Philip
Atlanta, GA
November 20 – Abigail Wood
Student, Peabody Conservatory of Music
Baltimore, MD
* = Live Broadcast on WWFM planned
Learn more about After Noon Concert Series
| |  | From Paris to Romania: Music of George Enescu | |
Kevin Matheson, violinist; Tim Fuller, pianist
November 18, 7:30 pm- 9:00 pm
Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall
Humanities Council; Department of Music
Violinist Kevin Matheson and pianist Tim Fuller will present music by the Romanian composer and virtuoso George Enescu at Taplin Auditorium on the Princeton University campus.
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Imaginations of the Womb – Uterine Imaginaries
Graduate Student Workshop
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November 20–21, 2025
Thursday – Friday
November 20: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm, Rocky/Mathey Theater
November 20: 4:30 – 6:00 pm, 46 McCosh Hall
November 21: 8:30 am – 12:00 pm, 103 Chancellor Green
This two-day event fosters graduate-led research and discussions in the humanities on the ethical, symbolic, and cultural meanings of the womb across traditions and epochs
This workshop is open to the public and to all Princeton graduate and undergraduate students regardless of identity.
| | | A Yuletide Feast for Organ and Brass | |
University Organist Eric Plutz is joined by Timberdale Brass in a concert highlighting Christmas music for brass quintet, organ solo, and combined forces. The program will include several opportunities for the audience to join in singing Christmas carols.
December 8, 2024
2:30-3:30 pm
Princeton University Chapel
| | | 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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