Three musicology graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have been awarded summer fellowships at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
The students will research the 1975 musical “Chicago,” the National Negro Opera Company and the World War II music of American composer Samuel Barber.
The recipients of the 2008 James W. Pruett Summer Research Fellowships in Music are Naomi Graber of Silver Spring, Md.; Christopher Wells of New York City; and Jeff Wright of Mesa, Ariz. The fellowships honor James W. Pruett, chair of UNC’s music department from 1976 to 1986 and chief of the music division of the Library of Congress from 1987 to 1994. Now retired, Pruett lives in Chapel Hill.
The program represents collaboration between a leading public university and a major U.S. research institution. The fellows will spend half their time processing archival collections for the music division of the Library of Congress and the rest conducting their own research.
“We are delighted to host three students from UNC’s music department this summer,” said Susan H. Vita, chief of the music division of the Library of Congress. “The fellows will help us make available new materials for patrons worldwide, and they will acquire valuable archival experience that will serve them in their future scholarly endeavors.”
Tim Carter, chair and David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, called the partnership “one of those light-bulb moments.”
“The Library of Congress holds one of the world’s greatest research collections in music, and we have one of the strongest graduate programs in musicology in the country,” said Carter. “What better than to put our smartest graduate students in a position where they can learn their trade on the job while also benefiting the research community as a whole?”
Graber, a magna cum laude graduate of Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., is pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in musicology at UNC. She will analyze the Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon collection, specifically the materials relating to the 1975 musical “Chicago.”
“I hope to further investigate ‘Chicago’ – a story of manipulation of the press – in light of the Watergate scandal,” Graber said. “By looking at the different stages of the libretto, first drafted in August 1973 [one year before President Nixon resigned], I hope to discover how the greater political climate affected the show in its creation, production and reception.”
Wells graduated with honors from Guilford College in Greensboro and is pursuing a master’s degree in musicology at UNC. While at the Library of Congress, he will focus on the papers of the National Negro Opera Company, which was founded in 1941.
“I want to look at how the National Negro Opera Company survived by setting up networks of patronage in various communities,” said Wells, who plans to study the public marketing of the company. “I’ll also look at how they managed to secure performances on opera house stages,” including the Metropolitan Opera House and Carnegie Hall.
Wright is a magna cum laude graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. He received a master’s degree in musicology in 2007 from UNC, where he is now pursuing a doctorate. Wright is currently writing a dissertation on Barber’s musical activities during World War II.
“I will be analyzing the holograph score of Barber’s unpublished ‘Funeral March,’ completed early in the composer’s tenure in the Air Force, as well as investigating and compiling Barber’s various correspondence during the war period,” Wright said.
The James W. Pruett Fellowship program is funded by UNC’s music department, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, the Graduate School and an anonymous private donation.
Music department Web site: http://music.unc.edu
Library of Congress music division Web site: http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/div-intro.html
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu