At the UCLA PEER Lab, we study the creative processes involved in everyday, traditional, and emerging practices. We pay attention to how oppressed groups and individuals survive, pursue knowledge, and express joy through music and sound. And, acknowledging storytelling as the root of cultural appropriation, we take an active part in which stories are told, and who gets to tell them.
We are made to believe that the ear is for music, the eye is for art, the mouth is for taste. Through multisensory practice, the Lab pushes against academia’s categorization of the senses.
We provide time, dedicated physical space, campus partners, and research support to artists and thinkers who have been subject to structural inequalities.
We address past and present-day injustices by focusing on experiential practices which have been historically excluded from western epistemology.
We bring artists and thinkers into unexpected connections. We protect intimate, non-goal oriented dialogue that may lead to the incubation of new thoughts, ideas, and concepts.
Iphigénie en Tauride follows the cursed House of Atreus in ancient Greece. With dramatic visual logic, mood, and atmosphere, we see Iphigénie’s journey as high priestess to the goddess Diana on the island of Tauride, where she is tormented by memory, duty, and the arrival of a peculiar prisoner.
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Ready to see it in action? Come catch a show, May 14 and 16 at 8:00 pm in Schoenberg Hall.
Iphigénie en Tauride follows the cursed House of Atreus in ancient Greece. With dramatic visual logic, mood, and atmosphere, we see Iphigénie’s journey as high priestess to the goddess Diana on the island of Tauride, where she is tormented by memory, duty, and the arrival of a peculiar prisoner.
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Ready to see it in action? Come catch a show, May 14 and 16 at 8:00 pm in Schoenberg Hall.
Noah Meites, composer and continuing lecturer in music theory, has just released his new album “Counting” with New Focus Records. A number of school of music faculty were also involved in the album’s production: Hitomi Oba, Jan Berry Baker, Dan Rosenboom, and Nick DePinna.
Noah Meites, composer and continuing lecturer in music theory, has just released his new album “Counting” with New Focus Records. A number of school of music faculty were also involved in the album’s production: Hitomi Oba, Jan Berry Baker, Dan Rosenboom, and Nick DePinna.
Is our Dean cool? Only one way to find out 👀
Come by our weekly “Drop in with the Dean” in his office, where you can talk about academics, express any concerns, or just have a casual chat. Check your email for more details!
(Spoiler: he is very cool.)
Is our Dean cool? Only one way to find out 👀
Come by our weekly “Drop in with the Dean” in his office, where you can talk about academics, express any concerns, or just have a casual chat. Check your email for more details!
(Spoiler: he is very cool.)
A few snapshots from the Hear Now Music Festival! The UCLA Philharmonia premiered 4 pieces (including a double concerto by Professor Ian Krouse) and had Professor Movses Pogossian join us on stage. Bravi tutti!
A few snapshots from the Hear Now Music Festival! The UCLA Philharmonia premiered 4 pieces (including a double concerto by Professor Ian Krouse) and had Professor Movses Pogossian join us on stage. Bravi tutti!
ALBUM DROP: Stanzas in August
Available now from New Focus Recordings
Link in bio.
“I have been consistently swept off my feet by this magnificent set.”
-Dominic Hartley, Fanfare Magazine
Movses Pogossian and his colleagues in the Armenian Music Project continue their tireless advocacy for the music of Armenia with this ambitious 4 CD collection, Stanzas in August. At the heart of the release are two sub-collections devoted entirely to the music of Ashot Zohrabyan and Koharik Gazarossian, two consequential composers who shaped Armenian music far beyond their own oeuvres. The other discs include lesser known works by Aram Khachaturian, Tigran Mansurian, and Ghazaros Saryan, as well as premieres of piano miniatures by Artur Avanesov, and premieres by Vahram Sargsyan and Aram Hovhannisyan.
“One big voyage of discovery... a dream of a set, superbly produced and recorded.”
-Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine
ALBUM DROP: Stanzas in August
Available now from New Focus Recordings
Link in bio.
“I have been consistently swept off my feet by this magnificent set.”
-Dominic Hartley, Fanfare Magazine
Movses Pogossian and his colleagues in the Armenian Music Project continue their tireless advocacy for the music of Armenia with this ambitious 4 CD collection, Stanzas in August. At the heart of the release are two sub-collections devoted entirely to the music of Ashot Zohrabyan and Koharik Gazarossian, two consequential composers who shaped Armenian music far beyond their own oeuvres. The other discs include lesser known works by Aram Khachaturian, Tigran Mansurian, and Ghazaros Saryan, as well as premieres of piano miniatures by Artur Avanesov, and premieres by Vahram Sargsyan and Aram Hovhannisyan.
“One big voyage of discovery... a dream of a set, superbly produced and recorded.”
-Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine
On May 8, beginning at 2 PM, join us at UCLA for an afternoon of interactive exhibits and music created by artists impacted by the Los Angeles Fires of 2025. The gallery will feature a custom Fender Stratocaster crafted for San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity from trees that were damaged around the Eaton Fire alongside listening and viewing stations for works from local artists, including the LA Field Recording Club.
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Our roundtable guests include Chris Douridas (KCRW), Jessica Schwartz (UCLA Musicology), Liz Koslov (UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability), and Kim Yu (Altadena Town Council, Caltech).
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The closing concert will feature works made in response to the 2025 fires from UCLA students and faculty as well as community members, including the Herbie Hancock Institute Band, field recordist Ian Wellman, visual artist Kate Lain, and Caltech student Maya Yie. The evening will culminate with the Los Angeles premiere of Will Rand’s “Firebirth” with violinist Grace Alexander.
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2:00 PM
LANI HALL
Link in bio.
On May 8, beginning at 2 PM, join us at UCLA for an afternoon of interactive exhibits and music created by artists impacted by the Los Angeles Fires of 2025. The gallery will feature a custom Fender Stratocaster crafted for San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity from trees that were damaged around the Eaton Fire alongside listening and viewing stations for works from local artists, including the LA Field Recording Club.
.
Our roundtable guests include Chris Douridas (KCRW), Jessica Schwartz (UCLA Musicology), Liz Koslov (UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability), and Kim Yu (Altadena Town Council, Caltech).
.
The closing concert will feature works made in response to the 2025 fires from UCLA students and faculty as well as community members, including the Herbie Hancock Institute Band, field recordist Ian Wellman, visual artist Kate Lain, and Caltech student Maya Yie. The evening will culminate with the Los Angeles premiere of Will Rand’s “Firebirth” with violinist Grace Alexander.
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2:00 PM
LANI HALL
Link in bio.
CONGRATULATIONS, TRANSFER CLASS OF 2028!
Welcome to your new academic and music home. We are thrilled to have you, and we hope you join us! Remember to submit your statement of intent to register by June 1.
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Curious about our program or have more questions? We will be hosting an online Open House via Zoom on Friday, May 15th, from 1-2:30 pm. Registration via MyUCLA Application portal is required.
CONGRATULATIONS, TRANSFER CLASS OF 2028!
Welcome to your new academic and music home. We are thrilled to have you, and we hope you join us! Remember to submit your statement of intent to register by June 1.
-
Curious about our program or have more questions? We will be hosting an online Open House via Zoom on Friday, May 15th, from 1-2:30 pm. Registration via MyUCLA Application portal is required.
BACKSTAGE PASS with Thomas Hodgson, professor of musicology at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, who takes us backstage at the Royal Albert Hall in London with @stornowayband (Professor Hodgson on trumpet). Swipe to see a video of his POV on stage!
BACKSTAGE PASS with Thomas Hodgson, professor of musicology at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, who takes us backstage at the Royal Albert Hall in London with @stornowayband (Professor Hodgson on trumpet). Swipe to see a video of his POV on stage!
“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” is a classic example of how we reduce a rich and multifaceted event to one medium and one sensorium: sound and ear. What if we liberate both the mind and the sensorium? How does the weight of “Purple Rain” feel in your hands? Where in the universe are you transported with the morning’s first sip of coffee? What temperature is the sun on your skin when you recall the most important voice from your childhood?
What is sound? Sound is energy transduced through a material entity. In a vacuum, sound cannot exist. Each sound takes its character through a unique instance of material transduction. Energy + material = singular sound. The note A# by itself is only half of the equation. You can only know A# through its material transduction. Imagine a beloved song. Imagine a friend singing it as you rest your head on their chest. Imagine listening to the same song as it echoes through a valley. In the shower. Inside a crowded closet. Inside a cathedral or the womb.
In the daily practice of cooking an egg, an object is transformed through the material entities of air, oil, and heat. Omelet. Souffle. Huevos rotos. Tamagoyaki. We have distinct names for these transformations, but what if we only had one? Would eggs benedict be as gooey if hardboiled was our only descriptor? Would hardboiled constrain the imagination so that lacey tendrils would never float to the surface of egg drop soup? How can the expansive lightness of souffle be contained by a hardboiled egg’s density? Much like an egg, sound takes on many forms and flavors. Yet how many words do you have to describe the note A#?
A woman always cut the corner off the beef before she fried it. She had never given it a second thought, until one evening a dinner guest was puzzled. “My mom always did it this way, let me call her and ask why.” The mom didn’t have an answer. The question travelled up the family tree to the woman’s grandmother: it turned out the old family skillet had been so small that a piece always had to be cut off the meat and fried separately. Without even knowing it, the woman’s hands held the wisdom of the family’s first skillet. Where did your hands learn their first lessons? Your gut? Your eyes? Your feet?
The PEER Lab is shaped by its community. Join us!
You can participate by joining one of our test kitchen multisensory experiments, sitting down with us for a family meal where a practitioner invites us into their process, or by applying to become an affiliate researcher. Sign up to stay connected.
Our events, built on the metaphor of the kitchen, are tactile and collaborative–much like the act of cooking. In the test kitchen, we carry out experiments that give us new ways to sense the world.
This research group maps the way music has been shaped by dominant metaphors, such as linear time, text, and proscenium space. These metaphors impact not only the vocabulary we use to describe and analyze music, but also determine musical imaginary, performance practice, and sensory access to music.
Practice-based-research as a methodology is a relatively new endeavor. This research group traces the convergent developments across fields and continents and builds a public database of practice-based-research and its origins.
Participants document their multisensory lived experiences. What are the daily actions we carry out to feel a sense of home? This project seeks not only to archive practices and epistemologies often overlooked by academia but to change the stories that are told about individuals and communities. Join this project.
