A new funding opportunity for graduate students rewards research into underexplored music.

The Cykler Song Scholars program provides a $6,000 research stipend to two graduate students in the UO’s School of Music and Dance. The award is intended to support students doing original research related to songs by composers from underrepresented backgrounds. Each year, the award will go to one student in the performance department and one student in the academic department.

The stipend is funded in part by Stephen Rodgers, the inaugural Edmund A. Cykler Chair in Music. The Cykler Chair is named for Edmund A. Cykler, former professor and associate dean of the UO School of Music and Dance. The position was created thanks to a gift from UO Foundation trustee Timothy Foo and matching funds from the UO Presidential Fund for Excellence.

During the 2022-23 academic year, Rodgers will mentor selected students as they pursue their research projects. They’ll also present their work publicly at the end of the academic year.

The inaugural awardees are Annie Liu and Camilla Osses.

Liu, a master's student in musicology, will write an article on popular song in Shanghai from the 1920s through the 1940s. She’ll also be creating a web resource for a nonspecialist audience.

Osses, a doctoral student in piano performance, will create a professional recording of art songs by the Chilean composer Carmela Mackenna Subercaseaux, as well as a scholarly performance edition of her songs.

“I’m thrilled to be able to support Annie and Camila, both of whom are doing fascinating and important work,” Rodgers said. “Edmund Cykler had a gift for communicating with a broad community of performers, scholars, teachers and lay listeners. I dreamed up the Cykler Song Scholars program in part to encourage graduate students to share underexplored song repertoire with those outside their home disciplines and outside the walls of the university.”