The Aesthetics of Music and Sound              Cross-Disciplinary Interplay between the Humanities, Technology and Musical Practice

Prof. William Westney named HCA-Academy Guest Professor 2009-2010

The Hans Christian Andersen (HCA) Academy was founded in 2001 in order to contribute to the cultivation of ideas and values which may be shared universitywide and across disciplinary borders at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). One of the programs sponsored by the HCA Academy for the promotion of this goal is the annual award of a HCA-Academy Guest Researcher Residency to a scholar from abroad who can exert an invigorating influence within a disciplinary setting at SDU, while also taking part in SDU-sponsored events whose scope is universitywide as well as open to the general public. HCA Guest Researchers are appointed by the Vice-Chancellor (Rektor) upon the recommendation of the HCA Academy for a residency of six months’ duration.

The Aesthetics of Music and Sound is pleased to announce the appointment of Prof. William Westney as HCA Academy Guest Professor for a period of six months distributed throughout the 2009 - 2010 academic year. The appointment of William Westney as HCA Academy Guest Professor brings an outstanding and internationally acclaimed teacher, researcher and concert pianist with marked interdisciplinary interests to SDU. Westney will be affiliated with the Institute of Philosophy, Education and the Study of Religions (IFPR) at the University of Southern Denmark and is a member of the research program The Aesthetics of Music and Sound. As both Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Piano and Browning Artist-in-Residence at Texas Tech University, Westney is uniquely qualified to work within and survey the functioning of both academic and performance milieux.

Westney regards academic research and instrumental performance preparation as two closely related species of information-seeking and integration. He has perfected an engaging presentational style in which  conceptual research is combined with concert-style instrumental performance. The topics on which he currently is working range from the pedagogical (elucidating concepts in education and philosophy through the intense and very "real" prism of concert performance) to the philosophical (delving deeper in the musical implications of the work of pragmatist philosophers such as James, Dewey and Peirce) and the aesthetic/literary (employing the methods of discourse narrative in order to support interpretive choices faced by the practicing musician).  

Westney's work is directly applicable to research being done by PhD students as well as faculty at IFPR. It is also relevant with regard to ideas currently in circulation at IFPR as to how the Institute can contribute more substantively to the support and development of the teaching of music and art in primary, secondary and upper-secondary school.

Westney's international reputation as an educator stems largely from two innovative and revitalizing contributions to the field of music performance and its related psychological/pedagogical issues: (1) His book The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (Amadeus Press, 2003), is now in its second printing, having sold well over 10,000 copies worldwide, and (2) His trailblazing performance workshop (for all performers, regardless of instrument or musical genre), called "The Un-Master Class," which has been held in conferences, universities and conservatories from Beijing and Seoul to London, Vienna, Toronto, Melbourne, Mexico City and most major cities in the U.S. Interestingly, even though he is a prize-winning concert artist (Geneva International Competition, among many others), it is as an educational specialist that he was awarded a U.S. Fulbright "Senior Specialist" grant to teach, lecture, and perform at seven universities in Korea in 2006. He has also been entrusted with a pivotal educational role in the U.S. as chair of the Editorial Committee (since 2005) of American Music Teacher, the largest-circulation musical pedagogy journal in the world. In 2008, Texas Tech selected him for its highest teaching honor, the Chancellor's Council Distinguished Teaching Award.

Another area Westney has focused on throughout his career is the issue of wellness and injury avoidance among musicians. Sharing his empirical findings regarding both the healthy mechanics of playing and the psycho-physical issues of practicing, he has presented at conferences devoted to performing arts medicine.

William Westney already proved before starting his tenure as H.C. Andersen Guest Professor that he could relate well to audiences within the region of Southern Denmark. During November 2008 he toured three of the cities in Denmark where SDU has campi - Sønderborg, Esbjerg and Odense - under the auspices of the IFPR-SDU research program The Aesthetics of Music and Sound. In Sønderborg, Westney's concert lecture at the piano in Alsion on November 19, 2008 attracted an audience of 250-300 and he held a memorable "Un-Master Class" for music school students in the region. In Esbjerg, Westney gave a lecture at the Network for Cross-Disciplinary Studies of Music and Meaning (NTSMB) conference Music In and Out of the Body  (see www.ntsmb.dk) under IFPR-aegis at The Academy of Music and Music Communication (VMK) as well as a concert lecture at the piano and an "Un-Masterclass", and he concluded his 2008-tour here at SDU in Odense on November 26, 2008 with a concert lecture at the piano (for program, see here).

For more information about William Westney, please see http://www.depts.ttu.edu/music/SOM/WilliamWestney.asp 

and http://www.williamwestney.com. 

Recent press coverage:

• An  interview  with  William Westney  is the cover article in the May/June 2009 issue of Clavier Companion magazine. Click here to read the article.
• For the June 15, 2009 news item appearing  on  the website for   Yale School of Music and announcing the appointment of William Westney as Hans Christian Andersen Guest Professor at SDU, please click here.
• For an interview (in English) with William Westney about his appointment as H.C. Andersen Guest Professor at SDU - "Pedagogy and Philosophy Viewed from the Piano Bench" - which appears on pp. 9-10 in the September 2009 no. 2 issue of the Danish online journal for upper-secondary education entitled GymPæd 2.0, please click here.
• The November 2009 issue of Ny Viden, the monthly magazine  of the University of Southern Denmark, has a feature article on Dr. Westney on pages 12-14 (click here for article - in Danish).
• At the end of November 2009,  ALT-Aabenraa Lokal TV broadcast the first  of  a series of interviews with H.C. Andersen Guest Professor William Westney. To view the clip, please click here.

• At the beginning of January 2010,  ALT-Aabenraa  Lokal TV  broadcast a concert with H.C. Andersen Guest Professor William Westney  recorded live on November 24, 2009 and performed for an  audience of around 350 people at Alsion Concert Hall, Sønderborg.  To view the program as a pdf-file, please click here. To see and hear the concert, please click here. The broadcast is of the concert in its entirety and divided into two parts.  The first part contains music by  Haydn, Fauré, Liszt, Harburg/Arlen, and Arlen  as well as  the first piece by Gershwin. The second  part contains the Gershwin/Wild Fantasy on Porgy and Bess and the Burgmüller encore.

• A   documentary   about  William Westney's   Un-Master Class,  filmed  at  Alsion Concert Hall in Sønderborg November 24, 2009 was broadcast for the first time on ALT-Aabenraa Lokal TV during the week of February 8, 2010. To view the documentary, please click here in order to access the segment directly on ALT's homepage.

• During  the  week  of  February 15 - February 22, 2010, ALT-Aabenraa Lokal TV aired "Music and Meaning: Duets and Dialogues" with H.C. Andersen Guest Professor William Westney and Cynthia M. Grund, Research Director for The Aesthetics of Music and Sound (AMS). To view the documentary on ALTV's homepage, please click here.  This program includes interviews with Westney and Grund, gives an overview of the activities of AMS,  tells the story behind William Westney's connection with the Institute of Philosophy, Education and the Study of Religions at The University of Southern Denmark (SDU), and includes clips from the conference held at SDU-Odense on  November 6, 2009: Art and/or Entertainment? The Fifth Anniversary Conference on Philosophy and Popular Culture.

• February 22 2010, The  Norwegian  cultural site www.kulturkompasset.com   began running  a story  here after the NNIMIPA: Nordic Network for the Integration of Music Informatics, Performance an Aesthetics coordination meeting in Oslo at the Department of Musicology, during which William Westney gave a concert, an Un-Master Class and participated in a variety of motion-capture experiments designed to shed light on the role of gesture in musical performance. To learn more about music, meaning and motion-capture please see here and come to the NordPlus-sponsored Master's Course Music, Meaning and Gesture at SDU, Odense. March 22-26. Please see here for more information.

Please see under Events (click here) for a regularly updated calendar showing William Westney's presentations and performances while HCA Academy Professor at SDU, as well as other activities affiliated with the research program The Aesthetics of Music and Sound.

Research Director for

The Aesthetics of

Music and Sound:

Cynthia M. Grund

cmgrund@ifpr.sdu.dk

Updates

February 27, 2010: Norwegian coverage of NNIMIPA.

On February 22 2010, the Norwegian  cultural site www.kulturkompasset.com  began running  a story  here after the NNIMIPA: Nordic Network for the Integration of Music Informatics, Performance an Aesthetics coordination meeting in Oslo at the Department of Musicology, during which William Westney gave a concert, an Un-Master Class and participated in a variety  of motion-capture experiments designed to shed light on the role of gesture in musical performance.

February 22, 2010: New comprehensive website for NNIMIPA: Nordic Network for the Integration of MusicInformatics, Performance and Aesthetics.

For more  information regarding NNIMIPA: Nordic Network for the Integration of Music Informatics, Performance and Aesthetics, the network behind Music, Meaning and Gesture, please see www.nnimipa.org.

February 21, 2010: Course schedule now up for NordPlus-sponsored Nordic Master's Course on Music, Meaning and Gesture, SDU-Odense March 22-26, 2010.

After a productive coordination meeting in Oslo February 18-19, there is now a course schedule available here for Music, Meaning and Gesture. Please check regularly for updated information.

February 15, 2010: Televised documentary "Music and Meaning: Duets and Dialogues" with WILLIAM WESTNEY and CYNTHIA M. GRUND.

During the week of February 15-February 22, 2010, ALT-Aabenraa Lokal TV will be airing "Music and Meaning: Duets and Dialogues" with H.C. Andersen Guest Professor William Westney and Cynthia M. Grund, Research Director for The Aesthetics of Music and Sound (AMS). To view the documentary on ALTV's homepage, please click here.  This program includes interviews with Westney and Grund, gives an overview of the activities of AMS,  tells the story behind William Westney's connection with the Institute of Philosophy, Education and the Study of Religions at The University of Southern Denmark (SDU), and includes clips from the conference held at SDU-Odense on  November 6, 2009: Art and/or Entertainment? The Fifth Anniversary Conference on Philosophy and Popular Culture.

February 8, 2010: Televised documentary on the Un-Master Class with WILLIAM WESTNEY.

The Aesthetics of Music and Sound (AMS) hopes that everyone has experienced a good start to the spring semester, 2010. We are pleased to present more television coverage of the activities of William Westney during his tenure as  H.C. Andersen Guest Professor her at the Institute of Philosophy, Education and the Study of Religions at SDU 2009-2010.  This time it is a documentary about William Westney's Un-Master Class, filmed at Alsion Concert Hall in Sønderborg November 24, 2009 and broadcast for the first time on ALT-Aabenraa Lokal TV during the week of February 8, 2010. To view the documentary, please click here in order to access the segment directly on ALT's homepage.

   To keep up with what is going on in AMS during the spring semester of 2010, please keep and eye on the  "Events" page - you can click here - for details as these become available.

January 5, 2010: Televised concert  with WILLIAM WESTNEY.

The Aesthetics of Music and Sound wishes everyone a very Happy New Year and is pleased to bring you a New Year's concert. ALT-Aabenraa Lokal TV has broadcast a concert with H.C. Andersen Guest Professor William Westney  recorded live on November 24, 2009 at Alsion Concert Hall, Sønderborg.  To view the program as a pdf-file, please click here. To see and hear the concert, please click here. The broadcast is of the concert in its entirety and divided into two parts.  The first part contains music by  Haydn, Fauré, Liszt, Harburg/Arlen, and Arlen  as well as  the first piece by Gershwin. The second  part contains the Gershwin/Wild Fantasy on Porgy and Bess and the Burgmüller encore.

November 30, 2009: TV interview with WILLIAM WESTNEY.

ALT-Aabenraa Lokal TV has broadcast the first of a series of interviews with H.C. Andersen Guest Professor William Westney. To view the clip, please click here.

(Includes the description of the SDU-IFPR research program The Aesthetics of Music and Sound which initially appeared online in Danish as Musikkens og Lydens Aestetik during the fall of 2006.)