Professors Land New Grants

Three Berklee faculty members win grants from the college for projects relating to music and culture from Taiwan and Brazil.
April 28, 2008

Berklee College of Music announces DJ Hatfield, Rosey Lee, and Wendy Rolfe are recipients of the 2008 Faculty Development Grant. The Faculty Development program engages Berklee faculty by inspiring the student within the teacher. The program has been awarding grants for over 10 years, allowing Berklee faculty members to pursue private study, composition of original works, research, or investigation into art forms that will enhance their artistic and pedagogical development. The grant will give this year's winners the opportunity to study their chosen subjects: Taiwanese musicians post-martial law, the ancient Taiwanese music Nan-Guang, and the Brazilian musical art form known as choro.

DJ Hatfield, assistant professor of liberal arts, was awarded the grant for his proposal "Traces of the Diverse/Taiwan Soundscapes: Sounding Histories on Taiwan after Martial Law." Hatfield's project will document and interpret the role of musicians in the reconstruction of civil society and culture on Taiwan after the end of martial law. Hatfield, a resident of Wellesley, Massachusetts, is a socio-cultural anthropologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, who joined Berklee's liberal arts department in 2007. Hatfield's articles on religion and popular culture in contemporary East Asia have appeared inAmerican Ethnologist, Anthropology and Humanism, and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. He is also the author of a book-length monograph on pilgrimage. At Berklee, Hatfield teaches courses on world civilization from 1500, modern East Asia, and ethnomusicology. In his free time, he sings from four shape tunebooks and practices Taiwanese folk music.

Rosey Lee, associate professor of ear training, was awarded the grant for her proposal "Research and Study of Nan-Guang: A Musical Culture in Danger of Being Lost." She will study and preserve the ancient and near-extinct musical art form known as Nan-Guang, which was brought from China to Taiwan several generations ago. Lee, a native of Taiwan who resides in Boston, is an alumna of Berklee and also holds a D.M.A. from Boston University. She was a guest composer at the third annual Double Reed Festival at the University of Memphis and supervised the recording of her string quartet, the Elements, under a Berklee Faculty Recording Grant. Lee was commissioned by the Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus, and composed "Prayer for the Universe" for mixed chorus and piano. She also composed two celebration suites, which were premiered by the Boston Wind Ensemble in 1994 and 1998. Lee also recently received the Japan Foundation Uchida 2008-2009 Fellowship award. Centaur Records released recordings of her Sonata in Three Movements and 24 Solar Terms in 2008.

Wendy Rolfe, a professor of flute, won the grant with her proposal "Immersion in 'Choro' Interpretation Rhythm and Harmony Leading to Development of My Stylistic Improvisation Skills." The grant will allow her to attend the Festival de Musica de Ourinhos in Brazil to further study the musical art form known as choro. Rolfe, a resident of Marion, Massachusetts, is one of the country's leading performers on historical and modern flutes. She has toured the U.S. with a Solo Recitalist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, presenting her unique program, "The Flute Through the Ages." In 2006, Rolfe releasedImages of Brazil with Brazilian pianist Maria Jose Carrasqueira. The CD was the culmination of her Berklee Faculty Fellowship project that also included working with the Flautistas da Pro Arte music education program in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rolfe tours Brazil annually, giving recitals and master classes. She has also presented master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory and the Universities of Michigan, Wisconsin, Kent State, and Ohio State. Rolfe performs, records, and tours with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, New York's Concert Royal, and others. She can be heard on the soundtrack of the Disney film Casanova and in the Ken Burns documentary Thomas Jefferson. Rolfe has taught at Amherst and Mt. Holyoke colleges. She earned a D.M.A. and M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, and a B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory.