{"id":170861,"date":"2021-04-07T07:15:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T11:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=170861&preview=true&preview_id=170861"},"modified":"2021-04-06T12:20:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T16:20:12","slug":"uconn-school-of-fine-arts-conference-celebrates-50-years-of-joni-mitchells-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2021\/04\/uconn-school-of-fine-arts-conference-celebrates-50-years-of-joni-mitchells-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn School of Fine Arts Conference Celebrates 50 Years of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

When he began planning a scholarly conference marking the 50th anniversary of the release of Joni Mitchell\u2019s landmark recording \u201cBlue,\u201d Peter Kaminsky knew he also wanted to recognize Mitchell\u2019s legacy as an artist.

\u201cI wanted the conference to not only be about the single album, but to celebrate her as an artist, because her career is so unusual, spanning such a long period and so many different phases at such a high artistic level,\u201d says Kaminsky, a professor of music theory in the School of Fine Arts. \u201cI think about how much appeal her music has to a wide ranging audience. There are musicologists and music theorists who have been discovering her music since the early 2000s.\u201d

\u201cJoni Mitchell\u2019s Blue at 50: A Celebration of Her Life and Music<\/a>\u201d will be a virtual, day-long conference on Friday, April 9 and will feature internationally renowned authors, scholars, music critics, and performances of Mitchell\u2019s music by students. It is open to the public.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"\u201cBlue\u201d is the fourth studio album recorded by Mitchell, who is considered one of popular music\u2019s most influential singers, songwriters, musicians, poets, and producers. \u201cBlue\u201d is recognized as a work unprecedented in its emotional and psychological depth, craft, and sheer beauty. Last year, Rolling Stone Magazine listed the 10-track recording at No. 3 on its updated listing of the Top 50 Albums of All Time, and \u201cBlue\u201d is the No. 1 recording on the list of the Top 50 Canadian Albums of All Time.

In 1997, Mitchell was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Rock Hall describes her as \u201ca brilliant musician and creative nomad, letting her muse take her where it will. Joni Mitchell is, first and foremost, an artist. Whether she is singing about televangelists or a love gone wrong, she treats each subject with equal finesse, elevating it with poetic lyrics and a celestial voice.\u201d The Songwriters Hall says, \u201cJoni Mitchell’s songs, frequently confessional, sometimes obscure, always literate and musically adventurous, form one of the most striking bodies of work in the popular music of the last three decades.\u201d

In Rolling Stone\u2019s annual \u201cWomen Shaping the Future\u201d issue published earlier this year, the three sisters from California who together make music as the band Haim noted Mitchell\u2019s influence continues to resonate in their own music after growing up listening to her recordings.

\u201cEvery year her songs take on new meanings,\u201d Alana Haim told the magazine. \u201cI think that\u2019s the beauty of Joni \u2013 discovering new things in her music. I could listen to a song like \u2018A Case of You\u2019 when I was in my early twenties, and that song has taken on a whole new meaning now that I\u2019m almost 30.\u201d

Kaminsky describes \u201cBlue\u201d as Mitchell\u2019s \u201cmost confessional album,\u201d which came at a considerable personal cost to her as she faced an emotional crisis, which was also evident in her next studio recording, \u201cFor the Roses.\u201d

\u201cThe nakedness and depth of the emotion on \u2018Blue\u2019 surfaces on \u2018For the Roses\u2019 as well,\u201d he says. \u201cWith Joni Mitchell, one of the things I find so fascinating about her career is that so many of the artistic changes that she goes through are intimately connected to her personal life.\u201d

Presentations on Mitchell\u2019s music during the conference will address her poetry, piano voicings, use of alternate guitar tunings and the recent five-disc collection of previously unreleased recordings, \u201cJoni Mitchell Archives Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967).\u201d There also will be student performances of \u201cBlue\u201d by vocalist Emma Graebner and pianist Sofia DiNatale and \u201cA Case of You\u201d by the UConn Chamber Singers. UConn President Thomas Katsouleas will also confer an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts on Mitchell.\u00a0

Kaminsky and doctoral candidate Megan Lyons will discuss \u201cArchives Vol. 1\u201d during the conference, which traces Mitchell\u2019s early development in performances on radio and television, concert stages and private venues.

\u201cWhat we see is her artistic journey throughout the archives,\u201d says Lyons. \u201cWe see her first playing her songs on radio stations, at local clubs. She’s doing covers of folk tunes, traditional songs. Then you see her gradually incorporating her own original songs. There are a lot of unreleased songs. We call those the non-keepers; songs that she decided not to ever publish. There are some early versions of her songs — multiple versions of \u2018I Had a King,\u2019 \u2018Song to a Seagull.\u2019 There’s a lot of these iconic Joni songs that appeared very early on and she held on to them for a while before officially releasing them.\u201d

In addition to UConn\u2019s presenters, the international list of speakers include scholars from the American Music Research Center, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Cambridge, University of Houston, University of Maryland and McGill University.

A highlight of the morning session is a panel discussion, \u201cBack to the Garden: Reflections on Joni Mitchell\u2019s Life and Art\u201d moderated by National Public Radio music critic Ann Powers. The panel includes author Malka Marom, whose book “In Her Own Words: Conversations with Joni Mitchell,” covers decades of interviews with Mitchell, and Daniel Levitin, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities – Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute and author of “This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession.”

The conference is sponsored by the School of Fine Arts and Department of Music. For registration information and more details about the conference, go to the conference website<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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