Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

The Music and Aesthetics Symposium will examine the creation and performance of music and the aesthetic environment surrounding it. Composers, performers, artists, and of course, and audience will be on hand to share their thoughts and experiences. The two-day event will be structured around six concerts that will provide a rich variety of musical and aesthetic experiences. Panel discussions and lecture/teaching-demonstrations will explore the processes involved in creating, presenting, and experiencing art to enable symposium participants to discuss the secrets of shaping music for greatest emotional impact.

There will be limited opportunities to perform in one of the symposium concerts. Interested professionals should contact Prof. Jonathan Helton with a proposal.

Featured artists:

Arno Bornkamp is a renowned teacher, leading an international saxophone class at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In the summer he teaches at various master classes.

Mark Engebretson is Professor of Composition and Electronic Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Stacy Garrop is a freelance composer serving as composer-in-residence of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, sponsored by New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras’ Music Alive 2016-2019 residence program.

Concert saxophonist Jonathan Helton is currently Professor and Woodwind Area Head at the University of Florida School of Music, a Selmer Paris Artist/Clinician, a Conn-Selmer Artist/Clinician, and a former President of the North American Saxophone Alliance.

Frederick L. Hemke has appeared as a recitalist and soloist with symphony orchestras and wind ensembles in the United States and around the world. He served for 50 years as professor of saxophone at Northwestern University as Louis and Elsie Snydacker Eckstein Professor of Music and Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in the School of Music.

Saxophonist Jonathan Hulting-Cohen appears regularly as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Joseph Murphy has been the saxophone professor at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania since 1987, where he has also served as Department Chair and Director of Bands. He is a clinician for the Selmer Corporation.

Composer Paul Richards is currently Research Foundation Professor of Music and head of composition and theory at the University of Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1999.

Matthew Slotkin directs the guitar program at Bloomsburg University (PA) and has given masterclasses at Oberlin Conservatory, Northwestern University, Victorian College of the Arts (Australia), ESMAE (Portugal), National University of La Plata (Argentina), and the Alexandria Guitar Festival.

Craig Smith is an American media artist whose art and research focuses on the process, aesthetics, and ethics of human‐to‐human interactivity in contemporary art, especially photography, sound, and socially engaged performances. Smith joined the University of Florida in 2010.

Steven Thomas was appointed to the University of Florida’s School of Music in 2007, following a 13-year tenure at the Hartt School, where he had chaired both the String and Chamber Music departments.

All symposium concerts and panel discussions are free and open to the public. View the detailed symposium schedule.
The event is sponsored by the University of Florida Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere with support from the Rothman Endowment. Additional funding and support is provided by the University of Florida Office of Research, the University of Florida College of the Arts, and the University of Florida School of Music.
For more information contact Prof. Jonathan Helton.