Discipline: Music Composition

Jonathan Chenette

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Poughkeepsie, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 1986

Jonathan Chenette’s compositions have received international recognition, including performances on the ISCM World Music Days in Amsterdam, at the World Harp Congress in Vienna, at the Bishop Auckland Early Music Festival in the U.K., and on an NPR national broadcast by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. His music appears in publications and in recordings of many renowned labels. Much of his music has involved collaborations with visual artists, writers, dancers, folk musicians, farmers, environmental advocates, and museums. A graduate of the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in music composition and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Chenette also holds a master’s degree in music composition from Butler University. He became Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Music at Vassar College in 2008, served a semester as Acting President in 2013, and Interim President in 2016-2017. Previously, he held an endowed professorship and appointment as Associate Dean at Grinnell College in Iowa. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from MacDowell, the Iowa Arts Council, the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy.

Studios

Van Zorn (formerly Kirby)

Jonathan Chenette worked in the Van Zorn (formerly Kirby) studio.

Constructed thanks to a bequest from Sarah L. Kirby, Kirby Studio was the last new building to be erected during Mrs. MacDowell’s leadership (1907-1951). The load-bearing masonry walls were laid by local mason Augustus Beaulieu atop a fieldstone foundation. A 1995 renovation preserved the brick fireplace with wooden mantel and…

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