Community Impact Spotlight | |
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Princeton University Concerts (PUC) brings the community-building and life-affirming power of chamber music to new and stalwart audiences alike through innovative programming that affords a variety of access points.
Spotlight is our new newsletter that shares moments of recent PUC programs promoting access, campus and community engagement, and educational outreach.
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Additions to the Healing with Music Video Series | |
Videos: Pianist Igor Levit speaks about using his platform to respond to global issues, including antisemitism; Clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and visual artist Kevork Mourad discuss how they use their art to respond to the Syrian conflict. | |
This seasons' Healing with Music Series features musicians who use their platforms and artistry to respond to crises in Syria, Germany, and Iran, shedding light on music’s profound impact. Combining filmed interviews, live performance, and conversation with award-winning journalist and Princeton University Professor Deborah Amos, these events are very much in the spirit of Princeton University President Eisgruber’s invitation for the Princeton campus community to create spaces for dialogue about global issues. | The filmed interviews produced by PUC for these events are available for free viewing on our website as one of several free digital resources available to worldwide audiences. You can now enjoy the two latest installments featuring Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh with visual artist Kevork Mourad, and German pianist and activist working against antisemitism Igor Levit. | |
More Campus Ties: All of our 2024-25 Season Healing with Music events are co-sponsored by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor's upcoming residency is co-sponsored by the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. | |
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Collaboration with
Princeton University's Music Cognition Lab
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This December, our Outreach Manager Dasha Koltunyuk and Department of Music Professor and Director of Princeton's Music Cognition Lab Elizabeth Margulis made a collaborative presentation entitled "Music and Healing in Science and Practice" to the Old Guard of Princeton. Dasha spoke about the origins of our Healing with Music series and music's meaning and role in her life, and Professor Margulis discussed some of her lab's findings about music's neurological effects.
More Campus Ties: On Thursday, February 20, 2025 at our concert with the Takács String Quartet and pianist Sir Stephen Hough, the Music Cognition Lab's student researchers will take their work into a live concert setting for the first time, surveying audience volunteers to learn more about music-evoked imaginings.
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Our Latest Artist Residency | |
This fall, the Isidore String Quartet's residency afforded area community members, Princeton University students, and Trenton Central High School students multiple ways in which to engage with these phenomenal young artists beyond their concert appearances: | |
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Free Live Music Meditation | |
"Just looking around the room and seeing numerous people from all ages and backgrounds deeply invested in the tranquility was really fascinating. It made me realize how valuable and appreciative we can all be of a few minutes of peaceful silence and music that we often don't get in our day-to-day lives."
— Jennie Belle Aliaga '28
| Our internationally acclaimed Live Music Meditation program is a collaboration with the Princeton University Office of Religious Life that was created to facilitate poignant, focused listening experiences. All meditations are led by Matthew Weiner, Princeton University Associate Dean of Religious Life. | More Campus Ties: Amid the audience of over 200 participants were Princeton University students from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, who attended as part of Professor Iris Hauser's course "Harmonizing Resistance: Music's Power in the Americas." | | | |
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Neighborhood Music Project:
A Visit to Trenton Central High School
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The Neighborhood Music Project is our collaboration with Trenton Arts at Princeton that supports initiatives aimed at expanding access to the arts and music education in both the Trenton Public Schools and the Trenton community.
The Isidore String Quartet visited Trenton Central High School to play for the students and speak with them about their education and careers in music. Then, the Trenton Central High School String Quartet gave a surprise performance of some pieces they had been working on!
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Post-Concert Talk Back
for Princeton University Students
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Thanks in part to co-sponsorship support from the Department of African American Studies, we hosted a post-concert talk-back between the Isidore String Quartet and Princeton University students after the Quartet's Performances Up Close that evening.
More Campus Ties: Co-Sponsorship from the Department of African American Studies also supported a post-concert talk-back between singer Cécile McLorin Salvant and Princeton University students on October 9, 2024. Undergraduate student Theo Wells-Spackman '25 covered McLorin Salvant's 2023 and 2024 PUC concerts and her talk-back with students in a recent podcast for The Daily Princetonian.
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Artist Dinner with Princeton University Students | | |
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Princeton University undergraduate and graduate students were treated to dinner with renowned British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor on Wednesday, November 6. This was an exclusive opportunity for music-loving students to get to personally know an internationally acclaimed musician in a casual setting and learn more about what a professional career in performance entails. We are grateful to Benjamin Grosvenor for responding to the students' many insightful questions so graciously and candidly.
This special dinner was hosted by: the PUC Undergraduate Student Ambassadors, chaired by Jason Kim '27; Rockefeller Residential College; and Leslie Rowley, PUC Committee Chair and Associate Director of the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science & Public Policy in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and Clancy Rowley, Head of Rockefeller College and professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
More Campus Ties: Undergraduate student Chloe Lau '27 sat down with Grosvenor as part of the evening and published their conversation as an Artist Q&A in The Daily Princetonian.
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Artists Visit the Scheide Library | |
Photo 1: (from right, counterclockwise) pianist Igor Levit, PUC Director Marna Seltzer, PUC Outreach Manager Dasha Koltunyuk, and the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study David Nirenberg; Photo 2: pianist Benjamin Grosvenor | |
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The Scheide Library, housed in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Princeton University Library, is a treasure trove for any musician; it holds original music manuscripts of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Wagner.
Thanks to Eric White, Curator of Rare Books at the Princeton University Library and friend and supporter of PUC, pianists Igor Levit and Benjamin Grosvenor visited the Scheide Library before their PUC performances. David Nirenberg, Director of the Institute for Advanced Study, also visited the Scheide Library with Igor Levit. They all viewed the original music manuscripts by Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner, and Levit and Nirenberg viewed the Gutenberg Bible and a Hebrew bible from 1300s Eastern Europe.
We are proud to bring world-renowned artists to Princeton University's campus and to provide these acclaimed artists with access to the University's unique resources during their stay.
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Fostering Community with Do-Re-Meet | | |
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"Thanks for arranging events for adults that incorporate the real, grown-up activity of going to a concert as a way to meet people organically."
— Do-Re-Meet attendee and Princeton University alumnus
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Our popular Do-Re-Meet series of social events for music lovers paired with concerts continued with a pre-concert speed dating session followed by a concert with the Isidore String Quartet on November 20. Of the 68 speed daters who attended, 80% "matched" with each other that evening.
On December 7, Do-Re-Meet took the form of a pre-concert Holiday "Ugly Sweater Party" for the LGBTQIA+ community. The mingle included holiday-themed icebreaker games, door prizes, and an ugly sweater contest. Revelers then attended our holiday concert with the Chanticleer vocal ensemble.
More Campus Ties: The Chanticleer vocal ensemble is directed by Princeton University alumnus Tim Keeler '11.
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Photo Credits: Second photo under "Collaboration with Princeton University's Music Cognition Lab" and "Artists Visit the Scheide Library" by Marna Seltzer; Second photo under "Artists Visit the Scheide Library" courtesy of Princeton university Library staff; Third photo under "Fostering Community with Do-Re-Meet" by Dasha Kolttunyuk; Photo all other photos by Alexis Branagan | | | | |
