Ike Turner's Rocket 88, first rock'n'roll song, turns 60 but remains obscure in music history

Sixty years later, many historians consider [Rocket 88 by Ike Turner] the first-ever rock 'n' roll song, and musicians revere the tune, as well as the band's livewire performance, wrote The Canadian Press May 22: And yet, most regular people don't know that the track even exists. "If I went to my local grocery store […]

Music scholar Judith Cohen wins Library of Congress fellowship

Over the next four months, ethnomusicologist Judith R. Cohen will spend her days in Washington, DC’s Library of Congress poring over the 1952 diaries of Alan Lomax, the legendary field collector of folk music in the 20th century. For the past 10 years, Cohen, a York lecturer and performer who specializes in Judeo-Spanish Sephardic songs, […]

Music Professor Dorothy de Val aims to preserve Gaelic songs

The Gaelic Song Project is York music Professor Dorothy de Val’s next project once her book on Lucy Broadwood, the English folk song collector, is published in May. De Val is studying traditional Gaelic songs and aiming to foster an awareness of the language while also contributing to its preservation. A key part of this […]

Professor Sarah Flicker to participate in Ottawa Café Scientifique on HIV and Aboriginal Youth

Is it really such a stretch to think of art as a sort of medicine, or at least as a healing tool that can literally affect our health? wrote the Ottawa Citizen March 23: Expand the definition of art as a health tool, and consider it as an essential link, as a bridge between those […]

Winters College fundraiser March 22 draws high-profile performers, including Oscar Peterson Chair

A slew of entertainers will perform at the Winters Gala Fundraiser to raise awareness and funds for the renovation of student space in Winters College. The gala evening will take place Tuesday, March 22, starting with student performers at 6pm, followed by headlining acts from 7 to 10pm. Right: Rita di Ghent Jazz musician and […]

Juno-nominated Professor Christina Petrowska Quilico to launch two CDs

Juno-nominated pianist and York music Professor Christina Petrowska Quilico will launch her 24th and 25th CD, Glass Houses Revisited and The Liszt Anniversary Collection, at a concert Thursday at the Glenn Gould Studio. The CD launch and recital will take place at 7:30pm, March 17, at the Glenn Gould Studio, CBC Building, 250 Front St. […]

Ron Westray, Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance, headlines March 1 concert

York University's Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance, Ron Westray, makes his Faculty Concert Series debut March 1 with a swinging concert of jazz standards and original works in the Tribute Communities Recital Hall on York’s Keele campus. Joining Westray on stage will be Toronto jazz artists Chris Banks and John Maharaj on bass and […]

City Institute grad student Simon Black on cultural funding and long-term urban planning

Rappers Kardinal Offishall and Saukrates, singer Jully Black, video director Lil’ X and deejay collective Baby Blue Soundcrew may not be familiar names to Torontonians over the age of 40, but anyone born after 1969 who loves hip hop and R & B is aware of these artists’ foundational roles in Canada’s urban music culture, […]

CFI awards York researchers $274,000 in funding

Funding will support three projects in biology, kinesiology and psychology The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has awarded York University $274,689 in infrastructure funding to support the research of three York professors. Olivier Birot, professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in York's Faculty of Health and a member of the Muscle Health Research […]

Professor Marcus Boon's book and blog detail why copying is necessary to our evolution

A new book by a York University professor argues that the act of copying, much maligned in our culture, is fundamentally necessary to our evolution. In Praise of Copying, which was officially launched last night in Toronto, explores different aspects of copying and looks at everything from quilting and cooking to gang warfare and martial […]