Madame Gandhi is the first recipient of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s Dean’s Medal of Distinction. A musician, activist and feminist thinker, she has recorded five studio albums and holds degrees from Stanford, Harvard and Georgetown. Her career has been defined by curiosity, creativity and a commitment to making the world more connected and compassionate. Her music has reached Spotify’s Viral Top 50 and has been featured by Netflix, FIFA and others.

Madame Gandhi was the first commencement speaker of Dean Michael Beckerman’s tenure, and she recently sat down with him to record an episode of his upcoming podcast, UCLA Music Now. Stay tuned for that conversation.
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Michael Beckerman established the Dean`s Medal of Distinction in 2026 to celebrate faculty and guests who have achieved distinction in their fields. The award is commemorated by a special medal and honors individuals whose talents, dedication, leadership and curiosity and creative achievements have made a lasting impact on our community. ...

The best part of the fortepiano recital? The Beethoven. And then the after party. ...

FALL WELCOME! Great to see our students back and together for a meet-and-greet, academic program breakouts, lunch in Dickson Court and a town hall to kick things off. Basically, a full day of talking about music and thinking about music. Eventually, we will make some music.

Here’s to a great 2026–27, filled with music, creativity, critical scholarship and hopefully a reasonable amount of sleep. Go Bruins! ...

SUMMER DISPATCH | Yixuan Jiang (Ethnomusicology PhD `30) writes: This summer in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I had the joy of participating in the 2026 ICTMD Study Group Joint Symposium with the Reviving the Sound of Silk project from Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Over the past three years, our project has explored Jiangnan sizhu through both research and historically informed performance (HIP) practice, including the restoration and revival of historical silk-and-bamboo instruments. At the symposium, members of the Yueyue Ensemble and I performed da-dui-zi, an improvised form of Jiangnan sizhu in which two instruments respond to one another through variations on a shared melody. We were also grateful to welcome Asst. Prof. Dr. Nachaya Natchanawakul, Chair of the Thai and Oriental Music Department at the College of Music, Mahidol University, and Assoc. Prof. Tharanat Hin-on from Khon Kaen University, who kindly visited us during our rehearsal. It was a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas and share our work with colleagues and musicians in Thailand. And special thanks to Tingting Tang for capturing these beautiful moments for us! 🧡 ...

SUMMER DISPATCH | Paloma Majumder (Ethnomusicology PhD ‘30) writes: I spent the summer between Kolkata and Shantiniketan, meeting scholars, performers, friends, watching performances, and sharing conversations that extended beyond the page. It was a summer of listening, learning, reading, and unexpected encounters. All of it held together by the joy of returning to familiar places and finding new ways of seeing them. ...

SUMMER DISPATCH | Kaia Estabrook (Musicology BA ‘28) writes: I spent my summer on an internship abroad in Hamburg, Germany as a crew member at the Weserlieder Open Air Music Festival! I got to work directly with the festival organizers to learn all of the aspects of putting on a large scale music festival and research so many of the local music scenes around Germany. It was incredible exploring the thriving punk, jazz, folk and electronic music communities (among many many more). They also put a picture of me and some of my crewmates in the German newspaper! ...

SUMMER FACULTY DISPATCH | Janice Mautner Markham @janiviolin (Director, Klezmer Music Ensemble) writes: I have had great fun playing with my ensemble, The JAC Trio (Jennifer Wu, viola & Circe Diaz Gamero, cello) as we prepare for High Holidays and a concert in November with Orange County Philharmonic Society. I wrapped year 14 with my wonderful faculty and students at Vox Box Arts Collective’s Caja de Arte camp. It was an honor to play on the stage of the Goldrich Center with my band, Mostly Kosher, at the grand reopening of The Holocaust Museum LA. Another highlight: Participating in the annual convention as a member of the Guild of Temple Musicians in Cleveland. It was a true gift to perform at the historic Maltz Performing Arts Center on the campus of Case Western/Cleveland Institute of Music with my colleagues. Our offsite trip was to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which included 3 fab exhibits: 50 years of music on Saturday Night Live, Revolutionary Women in Music and a Paul McCartney retrospective. And, a bunch of us were in the Hall`s “jam room” for hours! OK, all set for UCLA fall 2026! ...

SUMMER DISPATCH | Hannah Cole (Voice Performance MM `28) writes: This shaped up to be a busy and exciting summer! I traveled to British Columbia, Canada, to serve as Alto Section Lead for the National Youth Choir of Canada. Choristers from across Canada met for a week long residency followed by a tour throughout BC. Then, I headed back to my home province, Ontario, to participate in the Scholars program at the Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School. Five Canadian scholars and five UK scholars met for intensive study and performance of one-per-part Renaissance music, followed by acting as mentors to the participants of the main course. Next up, I performed two roles, Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell, in the Canadian opera, “Earnest, The Importance of Being” in Toronto. These two very different roles each presented exciting challenges, and switching between the roles within rehearsals expanded my skills in endurance and adaptability. To wrap up the summer, I performed a concert of arias, art songs, and musical theatre selections at a restaurant/gallery/arts hub in my hometown, Windsor ON. I could not be more excited to join the music community at UCLA! ...