Architecture of Life Lectures | Soundscapes: Nicholas Mathew on Messiaen: Des Canyons aux Etoiles at Cal Performances, in dialogue with Shannon Jackson

Nicholas Mathew has been awarded degrees from Oxford University and Cornell University. Before joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, he returned to Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow in Music at Jesus College. His published work has focused on four issues: relationships between music and politics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the place of music in political institutions, the role of music in public life, and the ways in which music constructs collective identity. Other topics of his research include political appropriation, subversion, musical trashiness, and political kitsch. Mathew will be discussing Olivier Messiaen’s “Des canyons aux étoiles…” (From the canyons to the stars…), a large twelve-movement orchestral work notable for its use of modern instrument techniques.

Shannon Jackson is the new Associate Vice Chancellor for the Arts and Design and a Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Her work focuses on relationships amongst performance, visual art, new media, and social change. Her publications include The Builders Association: Performance and Media in Contemporary Theater (2015); Valuing Labor in the Arts (a special issue of Art Practical); Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics (2011); Professing Performance (2004); and Lines of Activity (2000). Jackson serves on several boards — including BAMPFA, Cal Performances, and OMCA — and speaks and writes frequently for a variety of museums, theaters, biennials, festivals, and universities.