UTSA student awarded prestigious musicological society fellowship
(Jan. 15, 2003)--University of Texas at San Antonio music student Charles Flores recently received a prestigious enrichment fellowship from the American Musicological Society (AMS) Committee on Cultural Diversity. The first UTSA recipient of the award, Flores has a kaleidoscope of interests including history, music and philosophy.
With the fellowship, Flores attended the AMS meeting in Columbus where he met individuals from UCLA, Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, Bowling Green State University, UNT and UT-Austin. In addition, he participated in student meetings that focused on career-related issues and immersed himself in the academic landscape of the field.
When Flores came to the UTSA as a choral music education student he heard the term "musicologist" for the first time while taking his first music history course taught by Deborah Schwartz-Kates. Schwartz-Kates approached Flores with the idea of competing for the fellowship.
"I was amazed at the idea of historical or even philosophical aspects of music as a subject unto itself," said Flores. "The experiences in my music history classes encouraged me to be a more informed musician as I attempted to combine my three loves -- history, philosophy and music."
Flores believes that history is a thread that connects our humanity. His goals include teaching at the university level after completing graduate studies, discovering or writing a new translation of a musical treatise, conducting an early music ensemble and researching medieval subjects.
"Discovering what people have done in the past can significantly contribute to the creative possibilities of tomorrow's performers, conductors and music educators," said Flores.
After writing a paper on St. Hildegard von Bingen, his interests in medieval music took him to the University of Notre Dame Medieval Institute last summer. His interest in early music led him to assist in creating a Collegium Musicum ensemble which will perform publicly for the first time this spring.
The American Musicological Society established its Minority Travel Fund to expose exceptional undergraduates and terminal master's degree candidates to various aspects of the field at its annual meeting. Students will have the opportunity to speak to representatives of graduate programs in musicology from across the country, meet future colleagues and mentors, learn more about papers covering a broad spectrum of musicological interests, receive exposure to the many interest groups within the Society and attend a variety of concerts.
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2003