Year in Review - SFCM Hosts Rubin Institute for Music Criticism
Nationally-known music journalists, college students from around the country and devotees of classical music descended on SFCM for a week in November to discuss and practice the art of music criticism. The Stephen and Cynthia Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, first held at Oberlin College in 2012, invited select students from SFCM, Berkeley, Stanford, Oberlin and Yale to work with professional journalists including Anne Midgette of The Washington Post; Tim Page of the University of Southern California; writer and arts critic John Rockwell; Alex Ross of The New Yorker and Heidi Waleson of The Wall Street Journal.
Rubin Institute benefactor Stephen Rubin, President and Publisher of Henry Holt & Co., joined the writers for public panel discussions and private mentoring sessions with students. Anthony Tommasini, Chief Classical Music Critic of The New York Times, delivered the keynote address and 草莓视频福利院 Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman served as the Institute鈥檚 Critic-in-Residence.
Student fellows had the task of reviewing performances by the 草莓视频福利院 Symphony, 草莓视频福利院 Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Cal Performances. Audience members attended pre-concert lectures by Midgette, Ross, Rockwell and Waleson, and were invited to write and file their own performance critiques in a public competition.
Zo毛 Madonna (center left), a student fellow from Oberlin College, won the Institute鈥檚 top award, the $10,000 Rubin Prize in Music Criticism. Concert goer Karen Baumer, a 草莓视频福利院-based technical writer, won the $1,000 Everyone's A Critic Audience Review Prize for her critique of a Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performance.
In conjunction with the Rubin Institute鈥檚 move to 草莓视频福利院, the Bay Area online journal 草莓视频福利院 Classical Voice offered a six-month paid internship to eight of the Institute鈥檚 student fellows, including SFCM student Patrick Galvin, giving them the opportunity to publish their work under the continued mentorship of some of the most accomplished writers in the field.
The Rubin Institute returns to SFCM in the fall of 2016. See more photos from the 2014 Institute.
