News

Ontario Mennonite Music Camp (OMMC) at Conrad Grebel University College is a small camp with a big impact! With a focus on communal music-making, campers receive exceptional instruction in voice or a variety of instruments, learn new musical techniques, and explore church music and worship. Campers stretch their comfort zone and learn to be leaders in a congregational setting, starting with a daily chapel service. During this two-week overnight camp in Waterloo, Ontario, campers also prepare a church service with readings and music and then share it with a local congregation.  OMMC takes place this year August 11-23, 2024, and registration is open on the Grebel website. Subsidies are available for campers who demonstrate financial need.

On Wednesday, February 28, Chicago-based musician and Classics degree holder Joe Goodkin will be bringing the awe-inspiring tales of Ancient Greece to Conrad Grebel University College’s Noon Hour Concert Series. Performing as a modern-day Bard, Joe has previously toured the United States, performing his unique one-man folk opera retelling of Homer’s Odyssey. Now, Joe has moved his sights to Homer’s other epic: Iliad. Joe will perform a 17-song adaptation of the classic tale and transport his audience to the Ancient Greek battlefields filled with the horror, grief, and love of the Trojan War.  

Matt Metwalli, a fourth-year music student at the University of Waterloo and Conrad Grebel University College, is preparing for his upcoming grad recital. While practicing the saxophone piece "As I Am," Matt knew delivering a memorable performance would require meticulous practice and a profound understanding of the piece's composition. By chance, Matt's studio instructor, saxophonist Ernie Kalwa, recently learned that Steven Banks, the composer of "As I Am," would be performing the piece in Toronto. Pouncing on the opportunity, Ernie snapped up some tickets and scheduled a private saxophone lesson between Matt and Steven. "In just one hour," remarked Matt, "Banks opened my mind to a multitude of new things I never would've thought of prior. He is truly a master of the reed."

The connection between music and math is well established, particularly in the Jazz Ensemble at UWaterloo.  Every term the ensemble reforms, with over 50% of the players coming from a Math field of study.  See article from Waterloo News, courtesy of Melodie Roschman and the Math faculty.  If you are interested in joining the Jazz Ensemble next term, here is the link: Jazz Ensemble

University of Waterloo Music Professor Maisie Sum will share about the social, political, and spiritual significance of musical instruments to individuals and societies, at the 2023 Benjamin Eby Lecture at Conrad Grebel University College on Thursday, November 9. The Benjamin Eby Lecture is an annual lecture that presents the research of a faculty member at Grebel. This year’s lecture is titled Trace, Trajectory, and Truth: A Story of Morocco’s Iconic Lute.   

Conrad Grebel University College’s Music Professor Kate Kennedy Steiner and long-time adjunct Professor Debra Lacoste join the Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission (DACT), a 7-year partnership project recently granted $2.5 million in funding by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The aim of the project is to collect, analyze, and trace the transmission of plainchant through time and place, beyond Europe and the Middle Ages.

Tucked into spacious facilities on the lower level of the College “across the creek” from the sprawling campus of the University, the Department of Music welcomes a diverse student body to learn about and to make music. Over decades, hundreds of students have graduated from Waterloo with degrees in Music, and tens of thousands more have taken courses or participated in music ensembles. The Department of Music is large enough to create a vibrant and creative community of music-making and learning yet small enough that students get to know faculty, staff, and each other, personally.

Students choose to integrate music into their university life for various purposes—to pursue their musical passion, be part of something bigger than themselves, or to build meaningful friendships. We asked a group of students from all faculties at the University of Waterloo to tell us how Music connects with their other academic pursuits. Their answers reveal that Music has contributed to a stimulating interdisciplinary environment, revealing surprising partnerships between different fields of study.

Congratulations to Leah Dau (Honours Music) on being this year’s recipient of the Departmental Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Music for the graduating class of 2023.

On behalf of the Department of Music, congratulations, Leah, on your academic achievement and very best wishes from all of us! 

We'll also miss you in our choral ensembles!

Flood Impacts, Carbon Pricing, and Ecosystem Sustainability (FINCAPES) is a new climate-change adaption and mitigation development plan created by the University of Waterloo in support of the Government of Indonesia climate change goals, with funding from Global Affairs Canada. To signify a strong collaboration between Indonesian partners and UWaterloo’s faculties of Mathematics and Environment, the Balinese Gamelan Ensemble from UWaterloo’s Music Department at Conrad Grebel University College was invited to perform at the Canadian launch.