School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 41-60 of 62 Results
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Paul Phillips
Professor (Teaching) of Music
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHave recorded music by Adolphus Hailstork with Stanford Philharmonia, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, and guest artists for inclusion on a commercial recording with a projected completion date in 2025.
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Lesley Robertson
Artist in Residence, Music
BioAfter celebrating 34 years with the internationally celebrated St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ), Lesley Robertson (viola) continues to make her life at Stanford University where along with her St Lawrence colleagues she directs the chamber music at the Department of Music. Ms. Robertson teaches viola, coaches chamber music, and also spearheads the Emerging String Quartet Program at Stanford and the annual St Lawrence Chamber Music Seminar. A graduate of the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, Ms. Robertson also holds a degree from the University of British Columbia where she studied with her mentor, Gerald Stanick. A founding member of the SLSQ, Ms. Robertson toured regularly with the ensemble, performing 100+ concerts worldwide per season (in Berlin, Florence, London, Paris, New York, Toronto, among others) while also nurturing close ties to the Stanford community performing in various classes, dormitories, laboratories, hospitals, and in Stanford's glorious Bing Concert Hall. She participated in the Marlboro Festival for several years and and toured with Musicians from Marlboro before co-founding the SLSQ. She has served on the jury of several international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition and the Concours de Genève. Summer music festivals include Spoleto Festival USA, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Banff Festival, Festival of the Sound, Santa Fe Chamber Music, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Bravo Vail, Music@Menlo and more. Robertson plays on a viola (1992) made by fellow Canadian John Newton and a bow (2016) by Francois Malo.
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Jesse Rodin
Osgood Hooker Professor of Fine Arts
BioJesse Rodin strives to make contact with lived musical experiences of the distant past. Immersing himself in original sources, he sings from choirbooks, memorizes melodies and their texts, and recreates performances held at weddings, liturgical ceremonies, and feasts. A passionate teacher, Rodin has led seminars, workshops, and masterclasses at institutions such as Princeton University, the Schola Cantorum (Basel, Switzerland), the University of Vienna, and the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours, France).
Rodin’s recent monograph "The Art of Counterpoint from Du Fay to Josquin" (Cambridge University Press, 2024) presents a theory of how fifteenth-century polyphonic music happens in time. Other published works include a volume in honor of Joshua Rifkin (2024), "The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music" (2015), a volume for the "New Josquin Edition" (2014), "Josquin’s Rome: Hearing and Composing in the Sistine Chapel" (Oxford University Press, 2012), and articles that bring historiographical, analytical, evidentiary, practical, and embodied perspectives to a range of subjects. An in-progress co-edited book aims to clear the ground and offer a new path forward in Josquin studies.
As director of the vocal ensemble Cut Circle Rodin performs internationally. In partnership with the Belgian label Musique en Wallonie, Cut Circle recently embarked on a project to record the complete music of Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450/51–1521). The first album appeared in 2023; the second, titled "JOSQUIN: II. Motets milanais ; Missa L’ami Baudichon," is forthcoming in fall 2025. Other albums include a disc of anonymous fifteenth-century masses (2021) as well as double albums devoted to the complete songs of Johannes Okeghem (2020), the late masses of Guillaume Du Fay (2016), and music from the Sistine Chapel (2012). A short film titled "Sounds of Renaissance Florence" (2021) recaptures the soundscape of fifteenth-century Italy.
Two projects in the digital humanities strive to make the period as a whole more accessible. Rodin directs the "Josquin Research Project" (josquin.stanford.edu), a digital tool for exploring a large musical corpus. He co-directs "Mapping the Musical Renaissance," which facilitates basic understanding as well as serendipitous discovery.
Rodin is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation; the Université Libre de Bruxelles; the American Council of Learned Societies; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies; and the American Musicological Society. He has been featured in a variety of public forums, including The New Yorker. He prepares new editions of all the music Cut Circle performs; these are freely available through the Josquin Research Project. For his work with Cut Circle he has received the Prix Olivier Messiaen, the Noah Greenberg Award, Editor’s Choice (Gramophone), and a Diapason d’Or. Cut Circle’s latest album was a finalist for a Gramophone Award.
At Stanford Rodin directs the Facsimile Singers, in which students develop native fluency in old musical notation. He has organized symposia on the composer Johannes Okeghem, medieval music pedagogy, musical analysis in the digital age, and regional Italian cooking. -
Stephen Sano
Professor Harold C. Schmidt Director in Choral Studies and Professor (Teaching) of Music
BioStephen M. Sano, Professor at Stanford University’s Department of Music, assumed the position of Director of Choral Studies in 1993. At Stanford, Dr. Sano directs the Stanford Chamber Chorale and Symphonic Chorus, where he has been described in the press as “a gifted conductor,” and his work as “Wonderful music making! ... evident in an intense engagement with his charges: the musicians responded to this attention with wide-eyed musical acuity.” Other reviews have lauded, “It is difficult to believe that any choral group anywhere is capable of performing better than the Stanford chorus under the direction of Stephen M. Sano.”
Dr. Sano has appeared as guest conductor with many of the world’s leading choral organizations, including in collaborative concerts with the Choirs of Trinity College and St John’s College, Cambridge; the Joyful Company of Singers (London); the Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London; the Kammerchor der Universität der Künste Berlin; and the Kammerchor der Universität Wien (Vienna). He often appears as guest conductor of the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra in its collaborative concerts with the Stanford Symphonic Chorus, and has served on the conducting faculty of the Wilkes University Encore Music Festival of Pennsylvania. He has studied at the Tanglewood Music Center and is in frequent demand as a master class teacher, conductor, and adjudicator in choral music. To date, he has taught master classes and conducted festival, honor, municipal, and collegiate choirs from over twenty states, as well as from England, Austria, Germany, Canada, Australia, and Japan.
On Stanford’s campus, Dr. Sano’s accomplishments as a leader and educator have been recognized through his appointments as the inaugural chair holder of the Professor Harold C. Schmidt Directorship of Choral Studies and as the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He was also the recipient of the 2005 Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Sano's recordings with the Stanford Chamber Chorale have appeared three times on the Grammy Awards preliminary ballot in the category "Best Choral Album." His choral recordings can be heard on the ARSIS Audio, Pictoria, and Daniel Ho Creations labels.
Outside of the choral world, Dr. Sano is a scholar and performer of kī hō‘alu (Hawaiian slack key guitar), and an avid supporter of North American taiko (Japanese American drumming). As a slack key artist, his recordings have been nominated as finalists for the prestigious Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award and the Hawaiian Music Award. His recording, "Songs from the Taro Patch," was on the preliminary ballot for the 2008 Grammy Award. Dr. Sano’s slack key recordings can be heard on the Daniel Ho Creations and Ward Records labels.
A native of Palo Alto, California, Dr. Sano holds Master’s and Doctoral degrees in both orchestral and choral conducting from Stanford, and a Bachelor’s degree in piano performance and theory from San José State University. He has studied at Tanglewood Music Center and with Mitchell Sardou Klein, William Ramsey, Aiko Onishi, Alfred Kanwischer, Fernando Valenti, and Ozzie Kotani. -
Elizabeth Schumann
Billie Bennett Achilles Director of Keyboard Programs and Assistant Professor (Teaching) of Music
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAs a concert pianist, I deeply value the rich traditions of classical music. My passion lies in blending this artistry with scientific insights from neuroscience to biomechanics. This isn't solely about music; it's about applying lessons about optimal practice and peak performance to life's broader canvas. Through my research, I strive to evolve musical training, paving the way for the next generation of dedicated and resilient performers.
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Sandra Wright Shen
Lecturer
BioSteinway Artist Sandra Wright Shen has been described as “a classical pianist of the first order.” With her passion, musicality and inspiration, she aims to move hearts and uplift spirits through music.
Sandra has performed across 16 countries in over 600 concerts. Her appearances include prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Chicago Cultural Center, Monte Carlo Opera House, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Frankfurt Cultural Center, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Hong Kong City Hall, and festivals including the Granada International Music Festival, Recontres Musicales de Chaon in France, Brevard Music Festival, Tanglewood BUTI, Chelsea Music Festival, MasterWorks Festival and Steinway Society Concert Series.
She has been featured as guest artist with orchestras appearances around the world displaying a broad repertoire of 26 concertos. She served as Artist-in-Residence with the Charleston Symphony during the 2017–18 season. As a chamber musician, Sandra has performed with renowned artists including Vesselin Paraschkevov (former concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic), Brinton Smith (Houston Symphony), bassoonist Sergio Azzolini, and toured Asia with cellist Nina Kotova.
Sandra received first prize from several major international piano competitions, including First Prize at the 2012 France International Piano Competition, the 1997 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the 1996 Mieczysław Munz Piano Competition, and the 1990 Taiwan National Piano Competition.
Her recordings include a debut CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, both released by Taiwan’s Rolling Stone Music. Her latest album, Momentum, with cellist Miriam Smith, was released on Azica Records in 2022.
Sandra is a piano lecturer at the Stanford University and the piano chair at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division. She has served on the faculty of the Brevard Music Festival, Tanglewood BUTI Young Artists Piano Program, Masterworks Music Festival, Music@Tetauchi, and American Fine Arts Festival in Europe and others. Previous academic appointments include Southern Illinois University and frequent invitations as Distinguished Guest Faculty at Furman University. Her students have won top prizes in competitions such as the International Piano Competition of Orléans (France), Stockholm International Piano Competition, the Chopin Foundation, Young Arts and the MTAC competitions.
Sandra performed live for WCQS Radio in Asheville, filmed a four-part television series “The Movements of the Master Composers” for Hong Kong TV and "Inspiration From Above" for US Creation TV, and hosted a classical music program for Taiwan’s IC Broadcast Radio FM97.5. Mixing music and philanthropy, Sandra has given benefit concerts for disaster victims, foster children, firefighters, music education for underprivileged children and San Jose Chamber Series.
Born in Taiwan, Sandra earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she studied with legendary pianist Ann Schein. Her teachers also include Zalina Gurevich and Jörg Demus.
www.sandrashen.com -
stephanie sherriff
Lecturer
BioStephanie Sherriff is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, and performer currently based in San Francisco, California. Their work with sound, video, and physical phenomena is ephemeral in nature and culminates as time-based installations and performances that deconstruct fragments of daily life through experimental processes. They received a BA from San Francisco State University in 2014 and an MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University in 2019. Their work has been featured both nationally and internationally at creative centers such as the Institute for Research Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM), the Sfendoni Theater, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), O. Festival, Gray Area, The Lab, Artists Television Access (ATA), and the Center for New Music (C4NM).
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Ory Shihor
Lecturer
BioOry Shihor is an internationally acclaimed pianist and educator. His students have won major competitions, including the Walter W. Naumburg International Piano Competition, Montreal International Piano Competition, Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Bosendorfer and Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition, and gained admission to top music conservatories and universities, such as Juilliard, Yale and Curtis.
A graduate of Juilliard and Curtis, Mr. Shihor is a frequent speaker and master class teacher at major conservatories and universities around the globe such as the Beijing and Shanghai Conservatories, Seoul National University, Taiwan National Normal University, Northwestern University, San Francisco Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory and the Royal Northern College of Music.
For over a decade, he served as piano professor at the Colburn Conservatory and as founding dean of its pre-college academy for highly gifted young musicians. In 2015, he founded the Ory Shihor Institute (OSI) with his wife, Maria Liu, where he continues to teach young gifted pianists and train a new generation of piano teachers using his proven teaching approach.
Mr. Shihor is a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Washington International Piano Competition, a prize winner at the Rubinstein International Master Piano Competition, and recipient of the Gina Bachauer Prize at Juilliard. Based in San Jose, California, Ory Shihor is a Bösendorfer and Yamaha artist.
HONORS & COMPETITIVE AWARDS
Washington International Piano Competition, First Prize
Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Prize Winner
Gina Bachauer Juilliard Piano Competition, First Prize
Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Winner
Maurice M. Clairmont Piano Competition, Winner
America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship, Piano
America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship, Composition
POSITIONS HELD
Lecturer, Piano Pedagogy, Ory Shihor Institute
Instructor, Piano Performance, Ory Shihor Institute
Professor, Piano Performance, Colburn Conservatory
Dean, Colburn Music Academy
Director, Colburn Music Academy Piano Festival and Competition
Co-chair, Piano Department, Colburn School of Performing Arts Community School
Faculty, Keyboard Studies, Colburn Conservatory
Faculty, Piano Performance, Colburn School of Performing Arts Community School
Faculty, Piano Performance, Idyllwild Arts Academy
Faculty, Keyboard Studies, Idyllwild Arts Academy
Teaching Assistant, Piano Performance, University of Southern California -
Julius Smith
Professor of Music, Emeritus
BioSmith is a professor emeritus of music and (by courtesy) electrical engineering (Information Systems Lab) based at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Teaching and research pertain to music and audio applications of signal processing. Former software engineer at NeXT Computer, Inc., responsible for signal processing software pertaining to music and audio. For more, see https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/.
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C. Kwang Sung, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) and, by courtesy, of Music
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLaryngology
Otolaryngology
Professional voice -
Ge Wang
Associate Professor of Music, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Computer Science
BioGe Wang is an Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He specializes in the art of design and computer music — researching programming languages and interactive software design for music, interaction design, mobile music, laptop orchestras, expressive design of virtual reality, aesthetics of music technology design, and education at the intersection of computer science and music. Ge is the author of the ChucK music programming language, the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk). Ge is also the Co-founder of Smule (reaching over 200 million users), and the designer of the iPhone's Ocarina and Magic Piano. Ge is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, and the author of ARTFUL DESIGN: TECHNOLOGY IN SEARCH OF THE SUBLIME—a book on design and technology, art and life‚ published by Stanford University Press in 2018 (see https://artful.design/)
