Roger Bourland, Chair, Department of Music, The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Photo by Hamid Fatemi Roger Bourland Named Chair of UCLA’s Department of Music
ROGER BOURLAND has been named Chair of UCLA’s Department of Music, succeeding Ian Krouse, who remains on faculty.
A composer, Bourland joined UCLA in 1983 and has taught Composition, Music Theory, Orchestration, Electronic Music, and other courses in the curriculum. As an administrator at the university, Bourland has served as the Chair of the Committee on Committees (1997 - 98 and 2001 - 03), the Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee in the Arts (five years) and as President of the UCLA Faculty Center (2004 - 05). Professor Bourland was awarded the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award for 2005 - 06.
Over the past two years, Bourland had five new works premiered: "The Night Train," commissioned by the St. Matthews Chamber Orchestra; a new film titled "Cages"; a new song cycle titled "Four Apartsongs"; an arrangement of Mozart's "Trauermusik" for wind ensemble; and the premiere of his "A More Perfect Union," performed by the Boston Gay Men's Chorus in Boston and in Poland. Bourland is now working on commissions for two new works: Vox Femina/LA ("Alarcon Madrigals, Book 3") and three
In 1993, Bourland established Yelton Rhodes Music, a publishing house for choral music. In 1994, he was commissioned to compose "Ozma" in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra. "Rosarium," with a libretto by William MacDuff, was premiered in 1999 at UCLA's Royce Hall, and Bourland and MacDuff followed with a commission for the U.S. Navy's choral ensemble, The Sea Chanters, titled "Keeping the Ocean Free," in honor of their 45th anniversary, and "The Crocodile's Christmas Ball and Other Odd Tales," which was premiered by the UCLA Wind Ensemble and UCLA Chorale with the composer conducting.
Bourland received his education from the University of Wisconsin/Madison (B.Mus), the New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.) and Harvard University (A.M., Ph.D.). He received the Koussevitzky Prize in Composition at Tanglewood, the John Knowles Paine Fellowship at Harvard and two ASCAP Grants to Young Composers. Bourland has composed more than 100 works for all media: solo, instrumental, chamber, vocal and choral music, electro-acoustic music, and music for orchestra, which are published by E.C. Schirmer Music/Boston and Associated Music Publishers, Inc., and recorded on Northeastern Records, 1750 Arch, OpenLoop and GM Recordings.
John M.D. Pohl Named the Fowler Museum’s First Curator of the Arts of the Americas
JOHN M.D. POHL has joined the Fowler as the Museum’s first curator of the arts of the Americas. In this newly created position, Pohl will develop exhibitions, publications and programs on the arts and expressive culture of the Americas, from the
Pohl’s wide-ranging background in archaeology, art history and media production have taken him from museum exhibition development with the Walt Disney Company’s Department of Cultural Affairs to the Princeton University Art Museum, where he served most recently as the first Peter Jay Sharp Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas. He has conceived several major exhibitions on North and Central American Indian peoples, including at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina; the new museum for the Moundville Archaeological Park in Moundville, Alabama; and the Princeton University exhibition on ancient Mexican divinatory practices, Sorcerer's of the Fifth Heaven.
In addition to curating exhibitions for the Fowler, Pohl will
John M.D. Pohl, curator of the arts of the Americas at the Fowler Museum at UCLA
Pohl received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in archaeology at UCLA and his B.A. degree from Hampshire College.
Natalie Limonick
In Memoriam
NATALIE LIMONICK was a revered figure in the field of vocal studies throughout her long and distinguished career. She was Professor and Associate Director of the UCLA Opera Workshop in the early 1950s under Jan Popper, until his retirement, and influenced the careers of many generations of singers until her death on December 1 at the age of 87.
Limonick was born in New York City and first studied piano at the Juilliard School of Music. At 17, she moved to Los Angeles and studied with Fritz Zweig and Arnold Schoenberg, making her stage debut in 1942. Limonick continued her studies at UCLA and went on to teach there until 1974.
One of the first women and Americans to coach at the legendary Bayreuth Festival from