Collective Listening Project
Find your soundtrack!
Listen to our collection of streamable playlists with accompanying commentary, curated by members across the Princeton University Concerts community—including musicians, scholars, staff, and audience members.
Playlists
Playlist No. 61: 2021-22 Season Highlights
In this week’s Collective Listening Project, get a taste of what Princeton University Concerts' new season will hold.
Playlist No. 60: Class of 2021 Selects
What are the "kids" listening to these days? In this Collective Listening Project, we celebrate the Department of Music's incredible senior class of majors and certificate students and share in the music that they have most often turned to during their four years on campus.
Playlist No. 59: Musician Rhiannon Giddens Spotlight
Rhiannon Giddens' latest album, "They're Calling Me Home," was recorded during lockdown over the course of six days on an isolated working farm just outside of Dublin, Ireland. The twelve tracks explore the core of our shared experience of this past year—our relationships to our sense of home and our grappling with death on a previously unfathomable scale.
Playlist No. 58: Opera Director Yuval Sharon Selects
Yuval Sharon, founder and Artistic Director of The Industry in Los Angeles and the newly appointed Artistic Director of Detroit’s Michigan Opera Theatre, was able to apply his novel approach to immersive, site-specific productions to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic—creating innovative, drive-through operatic experiences. He shares tracks that resonated for him the past year.
Playlist No. 57: Arts Thinkers Maya Chung, Jason Farago, & Anne Midgette Select
New York Review of Books associate editor Maya Chung, New York Times critic Jason Farago, and music journalist Anne Midgette positioned the pandemic's impact on the arts within the context of an already prevalent "arts crisis." This playlist features some of the tracks that have formed their pandemic listening.
Playlist No. 56: Pianist Wu Han Selects
According to Wu Han, "Schubert is the most perfect pandemic listening." She shares a few more beloved tracks that have served as a bedrock throughout a long and celebrated career as the Co-Artistic Director of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Playlist No. 55: Celebrating the 2021 Creative Reactions Contest Winners
Since 2015, Princeton University Concerts has offered all Princeton University students a way to harness their creative talents in engaging with music through the Creative Reactions Contest. The 2020-2021 contest asked participants to respond to the prompt: "What has music meant to you during the COVID-19 pandemic?" Listen to the music inspiring their writing and read their winning entries.
Playlist No. 54: Conductor Joseph Pucciatti Selects
Maestro Joseph Pucciatti directs the Trenton Central High School Orchestra. Mr. Pucciatti is a big opera fan, and his playlist incorporates many of his favorite operatic moments.
Playlist No. 53: Professor Donnacha Dennehy Selects
This Collective Listening Project celebrates Princeton University Department of Music Professor Donnacha Dennehy, who has been awarded a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. Professor Dennehy curated this playlist, taking us from 15th-century Belgium to present-day Ireland.
Playlist No. 52: Musicologist Lucy Caplan Selects
One of the wonderful aspects of our Collective Listening Project has been the opportunity to bring new voices to the many members of PUC's extended family, such as our beloved program-note writer Lucy Caplan. Lucy has curated a playlist rooted in “Snapshots of Memory," drawing together a diverse bouquet of 20th and 21st century works.