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Photo by, Prensa Latina/Associated Press

Butler School of Music Ethnomusicology Professor Robin D. Moore wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal detailing the role of music in Cuba's political history,  and the protest song, "Patria y Vida," that has become the soundtrack of this summer's demonstrations. “We represent the dignity of an entire people who have been crushed at gunpoint and by meaningless words,” the lyrics read. 

One hundred years ago in a small home in Laredo, Texas, a woman named Maria Antonia Decker lived with her husband and eight children. Decker loved music, especially opera, and listened to Un bel di vedremo, an aria from Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, over and over again. She dreamed of one day visiting the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio to see a show, but the constraints of motherhood, housework and little extra money for travel kept Decker from realizing her dream.  

During her journey through the Butler School of Music, recent alumna Sydney Pérez has kept that story of her great-great-grandmother close to heart.

After playing a song he had written six years ago over and over in his head, Vernon Rust finally got his chance to record it recently at the Mosaic Sound Collective in Austin’s far eastside. He played guitar and sang vocals and was accompanied by recent Butler School of Music alumnus Matthew Gustafson who played cello. It was made possible with funding from the Graduate Music Award from the Presser Foundation, which was awarded to Butler School doctor of musical arts candidate Abbey Young last spring.

The Butler School of Music completed its 31st annual wind conducting workshop Thursday in one of the school’s first in-person events since the pandemic began.

The Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin has named Cliff Croomes as the new associate director of bands and the director of the Longhorn Band. He will step into this new role June 1. Croomes is a 2001 graduate of the Butler School of Music and an alumnus of the Longhorn Band. He most recently served as the assistant director of bands at Louisiana State University and as the music director and principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Baton Rouge.

The Risus Quartet, comprised of Butler School Students Haeni Lee, Jieun Yoo, Mary Eunkyung Chang and Bobae Lee resident in Seoul, South Korea during the pandemic, won a gold medal in the Senior Strings Division and the Grand Prize at the 48th Annual Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in Notre Dame, Indiana. The quartet was trained remotely over the past year by Butler School Violin Professors Sandy Yamamoto and Daniel Ching.

The Butler School of Music is pleased to announce two new faculty members, Dr. LaToya Webb and Dr. Justin West, who will both begin teaching next fall.Webb is joining the Butler School as Assistant Director of the Longhorn Band and Assistant Professor of Practice in Conducting. She comes from positions at Auburn and Grambling State Universities where she is an instructor of wind conducting.  

The new COVID Transformational Online Instruction Contributions Awards announced by UT's Provost's Office for non-tenure-track instructional faculty recognize innovation and excellence in the creation of systems, programs or resources for online instruction in response to the pandemic.

As he prepares for the next chapter, Butler School of Music senior Nicholas Ryland has mixed feelings about moving on. Set to graduate with a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance, Ryland said he’ll miss the community and support he’s received as a Butler School student, but is curious to explore performance opportunities in a “new normal” of in-person shows.