Jazz star Esperanza Spalding, flutist Claire Chase join Harvard faculty
Jazz virtuoso Esperanza Spalding and renowned flutist Claire Chase have been appointed professors of practice in the Music Department. Beginning in the 2017–18 academic year, the two artists will teach courses that cross musical styles and genres. Chase will start to teach in fall, Spalding in the spring. “The appointments of Claire Chase and Esperanza Spalding have great symbolic importance to our department,” said department chair Suzannah Clark. “They signal a commitment to the creative performing arts as a core feature of liberal arts education in the 21st century, and position the department for the musical landscape of the future, while providing Harvard students — and all of us — with bold models for how to live as artists in the world.” Spalding, a bassist, singer, and songwriter, has won four Grammy Awards. She has five solo albums and is known for her unique blend of jazz, rock, funk, soul, and R&B, along...