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UNC, Library of Congress launch summer music fellowships
Three graduate students in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will research the music of composer Samuel Barber during World War II, the National Negro Opera Company and the 1975 musical “Chicago” with new summer fellowships at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
The program represents an innovative collaboration between a leading
public university and a major U.S. research institution. The fellows
will spend half of their time processing archival collections for the
Music Division of the Library of Congress and the remainder of their
time pursuing 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.”
“It was one of those ‘lightbulb’ moments,” added Tim Carter, chair and David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. “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. 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 is a magna cum laude graduate of Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. She is pursuing master’s and doctorate degrees in musicology at UNC. She will be analyzing 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 in disgrace], I hope to discover how the greater political climate affected the show in its creation, production and reception.”
Wright is a magna cum laude graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. He received a master’s in musicology from UNC in 2007, where he is now pursuing a doctorate. Wright is currently writing a dissertation on American composer Samuel 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.
Wells graduated with honors from Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., and is pursuing a master’s 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 and how they managed to secure performances on opera house stages (the Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall), as well as how they staged certain operas and marketed the company to various segments of the public,” Wells said.
The James W. Pruett Fellowship program is funded by UNC’s music department, the College of Art and Sciences, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, The Graduate School and an anonymous private donation.
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589