PrincetonUniversity
 

Students explore creativity through collaboration

by Karin Dienst
This spring, the vocal group Anonymous 4, which is best known for its medieval music, is collaborating with Princeton students in an Atelier that explores the development of American sacred vocal music. The quartet, which has a wealth of recordings and a long chronology of performances, is giving new expression to the creative process.

The Atelier program, now in its 10th year, brings together on campus guest artists from different media for an intensive, in-residence collaborative effort with each other and with Princeton faculty and students. A total of 40 students are enrolled in the four sections of the course being offered this spring.

The Atelier involving Anonymous 4 is a special milestone for the four-member ensemble, which after 17 years is embarking on its final touring season. It also is a return visit to campus for the singers, Marsha Genensky, Jacqueline Horner, Susan Hellauer and Johanna Maria Rose, who collaborated with MacArthur Fellow and Princeton Professor of Music Peter Jeffery on an Atelier here three years ago.

"We formed our ensemble in part so that we could explore certain musical repertoires together, so that we could create programs and steep ourselves in the historical, cultural, literary and religious contexts in which these repertoires were created and sung," said Genensky. "What we're trying to do in our Princeton Atelier is to provide an opportunity for participating students to make an experience like this for themselves as well."

The Atelier attracted senior religion major Emily Crozier, who sings with the student a cappella group the Tigerlilies, and who will be teaching English in Vietnam after graduation before starting medical school. "We started our study with mid-18th-century New England music and have traced its development to the present," she said. "I was interested in learning about this early form of a cappella music from academic and musical perspectives."

The Atelier includes weekly guest lecturers who discuss a specific tradition within American sacred music and then lead students in singing songs from that period. Recently, the Atelier included a member from the African-American female quintet Sweet Honey in the Rock. Princeton faculty members Peter Jeffery, Cornel West from religion and Daphne Brooks from English also participated in a discussion on lyrics.

The Atelier will culminate in two concerts: Anonymous 4 will debut its recording and concert program, "American Angels," on April 29, and the students will perform songs from their research on May 7 (see sidebar).

The Atelier program was created in 1994 by Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, who was inspired by her own experience collaborating with other artists. The current co-director of the Atelier, Paul Muldoon, the Howard Clark '21 University Professor in the Humanities, regards the program as a "crucible for artistic collaborations that have a life beyond campus."

The full story is available in the Weekly Bulletin.