OU alumna awarded Rasmuson Foundation Artist Fellowship for music composition

OU alumna awarded Rasmuson Foundation Artist Fellowship for music composition
Dolores Catherino, recipient of Rasmuson Foundation Fellowship
Oakland University alumna Dolores Catherino (BM ’86) was recently awarded an $18,000 music composition fellowship from the Anchorage, Alaska-based Rasmuson Foundation.

Oakland University alumna Dolores Catherino (BM ’86) was recently awarded an $18,000 music composition fellowship from the Anchorage, Alaska-based Rasmuson Foundation.

 

The fellowships are awarded to mid-career and mature artists to allow them to focus their energy and attention on developing their creative work over a 12-month period.

 

Catherino is one of only 10 individuals to receive a Rasmuson Foundation fellowship this year and plans to use the funding to create and document a major musical work that integrates acoustic and electronic instruments within what she has termed “polychromatic musical language,” a system she developed which uses “pitch-colors” to unify and simplify the use of all micro-pitch scales.

 

“In an era of musician-less electronic dance music and hip-hop, I hope to be able to inspire the next generation of musicians to explore far beyond the chromatic conventions of the 20th century by encouraging them to see the rapid development of complex technology as an opportunity expand our musical languages, rather than the current trend of using it to replace human musicians, songwriters and composers,” Catherino said.

 

With the funding provided by the fellowship, she plans to upgrade her equipment, pursue training and attend an international conference.

 

“I was thrilled to hear about Dolores receiving the Rasmuson Foundation Artist Fellowship,” said Professor Emeritus David Daniels, a mentor of Catherino’s who taught music for 28 years at Oakland University, including three years as chair of the former Department of Music and three years as chair of the then newly-formed Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. “I have no doubt that Dolores will make the most of it in developing some of her very innovative ideas.”

 

According to Catherino, Daniels played an important role in encouraging her to pursue her passion for music composition.

 

“As a multi-instrumentalist, I was always seeking new challenges and his flexibility allowed me to study video and audio recording, music arrangement and orchestration, as well as performance within commercial music, jazz and theatrical productions,” she said. “In this regard, he was far ahead of his time in allowing me to cross established music major course requirement boundaries.”

 

To learn more about Catherino’s work, visit www.dolorescatherino.com.