Gems of the AMRC collections: The George Lynn Memorial Award and the Alex Craig and Christina Lynn-Craig Living Music Award continue with generous bequest
Christina Lynn-Craig and her father George Lynn, 1984.
Christina Lynn-Craig (DMA ’94, voice + vocal pedagogy), a board member of the college’s American Music Research Center (AMRC), has had deep ties to CU Boulder her whole life.
“Both my mother and father were on faculty here in the early 1950s,” she says. “They met in 1950, so they were still dating when they were teaching here. Then I met my husband in 1990 when I was a DMA candidate in voice. We were musical partners before we became life partners.”
Her father and her late husband both have collections in the AMRC archives. Along with being a composer, Lynn was a nationally celebrated choral conductor and organist, and an assistant professor of music at the College of Music from 1950-52. Craig was a pianist, composer and staff accompanist at our college from 1976-2011.
AMRC Director Michael Uy notes, “our archives are full of many compositional treasures written by CU Boulder faculty—it really is an incredible resource for student performers, researchers and teachers.”
Each of their collections, which contain a complete catalogue of their compositional scores, also has a biannual award that encourages students to research or perform a selection of the music and write about their experiences. The two awards—the George Lynn Memorial Award and the Alex Craig and Christina Lynn-Craig Living Music Award—are given to College of Music students on a rotating basis. This spring, the George Lynn award was granted to Glenda Luck and Grace Stringfellow.
Christina Lynn-Craig and her husband Alex Craig, 1991.
Now, Lynn-Craig is making a generous donation in the form of a bequest, to ensure the continuation of the two awards. “We are beyond grateful for Christina’s gift which provides a permanent monetary incentive for our students to engage with the AMRC’s collections,” says Uy.
“When one talks about philanthropy as using your resources to make the world a better place, my resources are music, teaching and money,” says Lynn-Craig. “I have always felt that it was a special gift when I could share my husband's music or my father's music with friends, colleagues and students.”
Lynn-Craig has seen dozens of these projects come to life over the years and the new perspectives on her family’s music continues to amaze her. “Some of my favorites—Izzy Fincher took some pieces that were for piano and bassoon, and arranged them for guitar and flute. She also wrote that she thought of my dad as a minimalist composer, which I never had. I’m really happy to have those recordings,” she recounts.
“Another one that was with my dad's music was Brian Stone [who] found three different choral pieces that had to do with the night and made them into a set. I was able to hear that performance and his choir did such a good job with them.”
Lynn-Craig offers to meet with students to answer their questions about George Lynn, Alex Craig or their collections, and attends concerts the students present. By funding these awards long term, she hopes to continue to encourage joy and creativity in students.Ěý
“This is my legacy. This is what I can do. I want to support students, and to have them get acquainted with my father and my husband in some way.”