The relationship with our students doesn’t end with commencement; it is merely a beginning.
-Craig Paré
a Creative Convocation
Following the launch of the new School of Business and Leadership last fall, DePauw’s Creative School launch this semester will complete the university’s three-school model. The Creative School at 69ɫƵ is a dynamic community dedicated to collaboration and multidisciplinary exploration. The school empowers musicians, artists, writers, performers, scholars and innovators to push the boundaries of creativity and develop meaningful forms of cultural expression.
This event is free and open to the public.
a Theatrical Performance
As the result of a curse by a once-beautiful witch, a baker and his wife are left childless. Three days before the rise of a blue moon, they venture into an enchanted forest to find the ingredients needed to reverse the spell and restore the witch’s beauty: a milk-white cow, hair as yellow as corn, a blood-red cape, and a slipper of gold. During their journey, they encounter a trove of storybook characters—Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Jack—each one on a quest to fulfill a wish, as they chase their deepest desires into the woods.
a Recital
an Ensemble Concert
A shared program of wind music, conducted by Director of Bands Craig Paré, and string repertoire, conducted by Orchestra Director Orcenith Smith.
a Recital
Pianist Claude Cymerman and cellist Eric Edberg, both emeritus music professors, share their 35-year continuing musical friendship with favorite romantic pieces for cello and piano, as well as their own transcriptions of songs by Strauss and Korngold.
an Ensemble Concert
DEPAUW UNIVERSITY CHOIRS
Bryon Black II, director of choirs
Tickets: Free
DePauw Institute of Music presents its fall choral concert directed by Dr. Bryon Black II.
a Theatrical Performance
In a seventeenth century rural village a young woman named Alice takes as a lover a married man who lives on a neighboring farm. After she rebukes the man’s further advances both Alice and her widowed mother are accused of witchcraft following their neighbors’ growing family strife and agricultural failures. The two women eventually must submit to the doctors who would cure them as well as to the land speculators who covet their meager farm. Another kindred spirit, a betrothed young daughter of a prosperous landowner, is judged to be insane and is locked away because she doesn’t wish to marry. And in the minds of the local villagers, behind it all is Vinegar Tom, the stealthy black cat who is often seen lurking about, boldly plundering barns and milk sheds.
a Festival
Please join us for a premier jazz education event featuring pianist, bandleader, and composer Steve Snyder. The all-star DePauw Jazz Festival Orchestra, made up of seasoned education and performance professionals, will be the accompanying band and also serve as judges and clinicians throughout the day.
Ideal for precollege students and ensembles of all levels, this education-focused event, offered in a non-competitive environment, will feature just 12 high school jazz ensembles, so sign up soon!
The final evening concert features keyboard virtuoso Steve Snyder, accompanied by the DePauw Jazz Festival Orchestra, an all-star band of seasoned professionals.
The relationship with our students doesn’t end with commencement; it is merely a beginning.
-Craig Paré
Each year, we invite artists of international renown to perform as part of our endowed Green Guest Artist series. Among the incredibly talented guests who have performed at the 69ɫƵ Green Center are Yo-Yo Ma, Rhiannon Giddens, Thomas Hampson, Bobby McFerrin, Postmodern Jukebox, The Kings’s Singers, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Frederica von Stade, to name only a few. These concerts are often preceded by master classes, workshops, and classroom visits to give all of our students a chance to meet and work with some of the best artists in the world.
2023-24
Founders ensemble, trumpeter Sean Jones, and multi-instrumentalist Jerron Paxton.
2022–23: Sweet Honey in the Rock, The American Brass Quintet, Terell Stafford, Sinta Quartet, Wet Ink, Sandeep Das and the HUM Ensemble
2021–22: Rhiannon Giddens, Eighth Blackbird, Attacca Quartet, Baltimore Consort
From fully staged operas and musicals to more intimate revue-style performances, we do it all. Each fall, our beautiful Moore Theatre whirls into action as the collaborative process of presenting a musical begins. This is closely followed by our opera each spring. In the between-time, Thompson Recital Hall hosts the performances by our “Music for the Stage” class as they perform scenes from various operas and musicals.
The Global Music Experience (GME) at DePauw provides programming focused on musical traditions from different cultures. Each year, DePauw students, faculty, and staff delve into the culture and artistry of a different country or area of the world, exploring that region’s music through lectures, experiential learning opportunities, concerts, and other connected events. We host renowned experts to perform music and dance, share their scholarships, and teach a wide range of students about their musical traditions. The GME welcomes all members of the DePauw community, regardless of area of study, and involves collaborators across campus.
Creative Convocation is a showcase for diverse expressions of creativity from across 69ɫƵ. Launched in 2023, student artists, performers, and makers from all disciplines come together to share their creative work with the entire campus community co-presented by the Institute of Music and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion.
Music of the 21st Century is a week-long composer residency immersing the Institute of Music students, faculty and staff in the work of accomplished guest composers through a transformative shared learning experience. During the residency, our community is collectively focused on new music. Virtually all students, staff and faculty are involved in welcoming guest composers and their music into our classes, rehearsals and public events, including two culminating concerts of the guests’ music. This valuable opportunity for students to work directly with distinguished guest composers is generously funded by DePauw alumni Robert and Margaret Schmidt and coordinated by faculty member Eliza Brown.
A choral extravaganza for high school vocalists led by director of choral activities Dr. Bryon Black II. It is a day for attendees to collaborate and make music with their peers from other schools and participate in master classes and workshops with DePauw voice faculty.
A celebration of all things piano and string through performance classes, creative workshops, demonstrations, ensemble collaborations, and a closing concert and reception. Open to piano and string students, age 12 and older, family members and music teachers.
A day of music with the 69ɫƵ applied music faculty at our beautiful Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts. Attendees will take part in master classes with our world-class instrumental wind and percussion faculty, participate in a large ensemble experience (which will include learning about conducting, large ensemble performance techniques, and repertoire selection), enjoy lunch in our expansive Hoover Dining Hall, tour our beautiful campus, and a have a personal Q & A session with our applied faculty.
During this annual celebration of jazz music, various high school jazz ensembles perform and receive feedback from guest artists and our own professor of music, Steve Snyder. As the day progresses, master classes are held around campus, leading up to a performance by the 69ɫƵ Jazz Ensemble.
This lunchtime series features live music in downtown Greencastle. The free 50-minute musical presentations are offered at Music on the Square. Enjoy a catered lunch or bring your own and take a break with the DePauw Institute of Music.
The 69ɫƵ Institute of Music is home to five unique large ensembles: University Orchestra, University Band, Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Singers and Vox Animae. Students enrolled in these ensembles have the opportunity to make music communally with their peers and perform both classic and contemporary works.
Additionally, DePauw hosts various smaller ensembles and chamber groups, and its Symphonic Band, a collective ensemble open to students, faculty and staff from the campus community. The Putnam County Festival Choir, co-sponsored by the Greencastle Arts Council, is another opportunity for DePauw-Greencastle collaborations as students, faculty, and staff from our campus community and members from the local area come together with a single voice to create truly incredible performance experiences.
69ɫƵ Orchestra
Pines of Rome — Ottorino Respighi
Symphony No. 7 — Ludwig van Beethoven
Pictures at an Exhibition — Modest Mussorgsky
Voices Shouting Out — Nkeiru Okoye
Hansel and Gretel — Engelbert Humperdinck
69ɫƵ Band
Aurora Awakes — John Mackey
Symphony No. 6 for Band — Vincent Persichetti
magneticfireflies — Augusta Read Thomas
Hip Hop Etudes — Daniel Bernard Roumain
The Dog Breath Variations — Frank Zappa
DePauw Jazz Ensemble
“African Skies” — Michael Brecker, arr. Riss
“Dear Rudy” — Terell Stafford, arr. Gray
“Blame It on my Youth” — Oscar Levant, arr. Cunliffe
“Hey, It’s Me You’re Talkin’ To” — Victor Lews, arr. Sharpe
Vox Animae
“It Isn’t a Dream” — Melissa Dumphy
“Deer Song” — Craig Hella Johnson
“Not While I’m Around” — Stephen Sondheim
Chamber Singers:
Le Ballet des Ombres — Hector Berlioz
Geistliches Lied — Johannes Brahms
Ballade to the Moon — Daniel Elder
Great God Almighty — Stacey Gibbs
I Need You — Daniel Bernard Roumain
To the Hands — Caroline Shaw
