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“Eight Saxophones” commission
Professor of Composition Carter Pann released his newest large work—”Eight Saxophones”—with thanks to a grant from the Dr. C.W. Bixler Family Foundation Faculty Initiatives Fund. “Without Bixler support, this huge project would not have seen the light of day," says Pann. My gratitude is immense!”

“Eight Saxophones” was commissioned in 2021 by the Capitol Quartet and h2 Quartet for a premiere performance at Chicago’s Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. This work, and other works by faculty composers, was featured on the College of Music’s Faculty Tuesdays series on Nov. 5, 2024, with Assistant Professor of Saxophone Nathan Mertens' saxophone studio and the ~Nois Saxophone Quartet.�� ����

College of Music hosts 2025 Colorado Clarinet Day
Dec. 20, 2024
By Marc Shulgold

On Jan. 19—despite polar vortex temperatures—Colorado Clarinet Day returned to the CU Boulder College of Music! The annual day-long event brings together the clarinet programs of Colorado’s four major Front Range universities: CU Boulder, Colorado State University, the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. This year’s event, hosted by Professor of Clarinet Daniel Silver, welcomed internationally acclaimed clarinetist Mariam Adam and showcased our college’s strong sense of community as well as our reputation for collaboration, innovation and artistic excellence.��

We thank all participating staff, faculty, and guest artists and teachers; and we thank the Roser Visiting Artists Program, the CU Boulder Center for Humanities & the Arts and Conn-Selmer for their support of Colorado Clarinet Day.��

The “Song of Pueblo” film—related to research initiatives of our Soundscapes of the People: A Musical Ethnography of Pueblo, Colorado project—premiered at the Pueblo Film Festival in April 2025. We’re proud of this collaboration including our CU Boulder Chamber Orchestra, with funding support from the CU Boulder College of Music, CU Boulder Office of Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship, Roser Visiting Artists Fund and University of Texas College of Fine Art.��

Congratulations to all involved, including former AMRC Director Susan Thomas, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and AMRC Faculty Affiliate Austin Okigbo, alumna and AMRC Research Affiliate Xóchitl Chávez, Associate Director of Orchestras Renee Gilliland, alumnus and Assistant Teaching Professor Max Wolpert, alumnus Ilan Blanck and film director Justin Bregar (JERBCO, Ltd.)—among others!��Learn more about the American Music Research Center's Soundscapes of the People project.

Sept. 12, 2024

The Glenn Miller Collection now has a dedicated archivist—A. R. Flynn—in the University Libraries to review and catalog over 1,400 boxes of artifacts from the legendary big band era musician.��

In 1923, Alton Glen “Glenn” Miller attended CU Boulder for three semesters before becoming one of the most successful big band musicians of the 20th century. A gift from a group of committed jazz supporters allowed the University Libraries to hire an archivist to review and catalog the boxes safely secured in the Libraries Rare and Distinctive Collections (RaD).��

“My hope is that this collection will support instruction on similar topics within the College of Music and particularly the Jazz Studies Program,” says Flynn. “We’ll be bringing materials from the Glenn Miller collections into classrooms to make students aware of the different kinds of resources available to them.

“The Glenn Miller collection is one of RaD’s largest ‘cornerstone’ collections. This work will highlight CU Boulder, the American Music Research Center and RaD as an internationally recognized hub for research into American popular music for jazz and big band studies, in particular.”