Business Commons^™

The James Merrill Digital Archive: Channeling The Collaborative Spirit(S), Shannon Davis, Joel Minor

Central Plains Network for Digital Asset Management

The James Merrill Papers, housed in Washington University Libraries Special Collections, contains manuscripts, drafts, and other materials from the renowned poet. In 2013, work began to digitize and deliver a selection of the Merrill Papers towards his epic poem, The Book of Ephraim. Because the Libraries’ already used Omeka digital exhibit software for a number of projects, the materials were delivered in an Omeka exhibit, The James Merrill Digital Archive. The process of transforming an archival collection into a digital exhibit required the expertise and input of many collaborators including library staff in Special Collections and Scholarly Publishing, and students …

The Wishing Well: A Children's Ballet (A Composer's Perspective), Lydia Dempsey

Honors Projects

As a composer, I am passionate about introducing audiences to contemporary classical music. I chose to compose a twenty-five-minute children's ballet titled The Wishing Well based on the fairytale Diamonds and Toads. It premiered on April 2, 2016 at the Bowling Green Performing Arts Center in collaboration with choreographer Sophia Schmitz and conductor Robert Ragoonanan. Other elements of the project included set design, costuming, lighting, audio and video recording, and marketing. The mission was to provide the local community with a free arts event, introduce young audiences to music and ballet, enrich people’s lives through music and dance, provide …

The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective: An Ongoing Experiment In Musical Self-Governance, Julian D. Bryson

Theses and Dissertations--Music

C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective and Triad: Boston’s Choral Collective are the first choirs to explore collectivity as a method of ensemble organization. While more traditional ensembles have a single artistic director, C4 and Triad share and rotate leadership responsibilities among the full membership. Artistic and logistical decisions develop through conversation, consensus, and/or voting.

This monograph draws primarily on interviews with thirteen current and former members of the two ensembles as well as the author’s personal experiences with Triad’s inaugural concert cycle to present a narrative description of member characteristics, governance, and operational processes. Interview responses are compared to relevant …