Nine-year-old A.J. Racy would often make small flutes out of the reeds growing a short distance away from his family’s home. He would cut suitable reeds from the garden and dry them, turning them from green to a light brown. The nay, a reed flute popular in Arab music, is created in precisely the same […]
Category Archives: Music
UCLA music students perform Armenian pieces in Yerevan, lauded by natives
The audience paused for a brief moment before rising to its feet in a standing ovation for the musicians of VEM Quartet and their mezzo-soprano, Danielle Bayne. Just days before, members of the group, none of whom are ethnically Armenian, were feeling the immense pressure of performing Armenian classical music in its native homeland. Bayne, […]
Sounds of Schoenberg: The Scottish fiddle
When Georgia Broughton decided to learn the Scottish fiddle, she went straight to Scotland. This was the farthest she had ever traveled alone, and she did not know what to expect in an unfamiliar land. Yet, once greeted by the angular landscape of the Scottish Highlands, it was clear to Broughton that she had to […]
Album Review: ‘Mind of Mine’
When Zayn Malik announced his departure from One Direction last year, he said it was to pursue a quiet life as a normal 22-year-old. Since then, though, he has fought with collaborator Naughty Boy, engaged in his fair share of Twitter feuds with former bandmates and appeared on multiple magazine covers. “Mind of Mine,” Malik’s […]
Music school spins out DJing competition for student DJs
Classically trained violinist Nolan Isozaki picked up an electronic music controller for the first time two and a half years ago, not expecting it to become anything but a hobby. On April 14, he will be DJing the after-party for the first-ever Electronic Music Awards and Foundation show in Los Angeles. The Herb Alpert School […]
Alumni group hooks up fans with satirical, Tinder-inspired music video
Michael Yanoska entered an unfamiliar world when he graduated in 2013, where online “dating” had taken a modern turn. In this dating world, rejecting a match could be done with just an easy swipe. When Tinder started to gain popularity in late 2013, several of Yanoska’s friends downloaded the app to look for short-term romance. […]
Chamber group debuts professor’s composition influenced by Persian poetry
David Lefkowitz found the long and storied history of the Jewish people in the plaintive sounds of the Persian ney and oud. In their dispersion from their religious center of Jerusalem, the Jewish people searched for over 2500 years for a place to once again call home. Lefkowitz heard in the flute-like ney, the […]