Here are some select recent clippings showing the variety of hits/mentions identifying musicians and scholars as Eastman School of Music alumni, faculty or students. (Note: Some links may have expired.)
And Now for Something Completely Different
(Opera News © 07/22/2014)
The Lotte Lenya Competition asks singers to do the impossible. And why not? Musical theater, whether on an operatic or a Broadway stage, is an impossible construct, a teetering musical mass levitated by artistry, energy and alchemy. While other vocal competitions just ask singers to sing, the Lenya Competition asks its contestants to create their own one-person musical narrative out of found materials and make us believe that it is all true.
On Saturday, April 12, from eleven o’clock in the morning until well after ten at night, the finals of the Lenya Competition, 2014 edition, ground through fourteen capaciously gifted young performers in the wood-paneled precincts of the Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall up in Rochester, New York.
Musician catches the organ bug early
(The Dominion Post Wellington New Zealand 07/16/2014)
Nine years later, Gaynor has completed his masters in organ performance at Eastman School of Music, part of the University of Rochester, New York.
Accepted into Julliard, Yale and Eastman two years ago, Gaynor chose Eastman because of its extensive organ programme.
The school boasts resources unimaginable in New Zealand, including a practice wing with 14 small pipe organs. “It’s a really peculiar sound when you walk down that hallway and everyone is practising.”
Local authors in the spotlight
(Rochester Democrat & Chronicle © 07/20/2014)
Now’s the Time – Ned Corman
Corman’s memoir begins with his childhood on a farm in central Pennsylvania and moves through his coming of age at the Eastman School of Music, life on the road in the waning years of the Big Band Era, and teaching music in public schools. Corman’s abiding belief in the power of music led him to form the Penfield Music Commission Project and its national successor, The Commission Project. The impact of these projects led to his involvement with the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Rochester Independent Music Festival; and Greentopia.
Rochester Chamber Orchestra Names New Leader
(WXXI PBS News © 07/20/2014)
The Rochester Chamber Orchestra has named a successor to longtime music director David Fetler. Orchestra president Ray Grosswirth says that Gerard Floriano will become artistic director for the 2014-15 season, and he will become the orchestra’s music director in August of 2015.
Floriano’s background includes having conducted in many of America’s premier concert halls, including Carnegie hall and Alice Tully Hall. Floriano is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and SUNY Geneseo and he has also been a guest conductor with the RPO and the Buffalo Philharmonic.
(Stouffville Sun-Tribune 07.24.2014)
He’s a violin virtuoso without equal – certainly without equal in Whitchurch-Stouffville.
The stringed excellence achieved by 20-year-old Matthew Eeuwes has not only thrilled audiences locally but captured the attention of prominent musicians and educators south of the border where he was recently authorized for individual scholarships at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. He has accepted an invitation from the latter and is registered in a four-year degree course beginning this fall.
Local musician to perform with National Youth Orchestra
(Blowing Rocket © 07/23/2014)
Music lovers in the High Country have watched violinist Willa Finck grow up. Now, Willa Finck is one of 120 teens participating in the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, as part of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute.
Finck is enrolled to be a freshman this fall at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.