‘House of Cards’ Composer on Plans for Season 4, Live Symphonic Suite
(The Hollywood Reporter 05/30/2015)
Fans of House of Cards won’t know if President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) can win the White House or win back his wife until season four debuts next spring, but the series’ composer Jeff Beal hopes to bring music from the Emmy-nominated Netflix series to symphony houses before then.
Beal has written a 55-minute House of Cards symphony, synchronized to screen images from the show, that he plans to conduct with symphonies around the globe. “I workshopped it at the Eastman School a few months ago, and we are in the early stages of getting the rights worked out, so we can take this out to orchestras all over the world,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter exclusively at the Krakow Film Music Festival. Beal is in Krakow to conduct a suite of music from House of Cards, as well as The Dovekeepers and an HBO overture of themes from the cable outlet’s shows at the International TV series concert held at that 10,000-seat Tauron Arena here. (Also reported by Billboard) Note: Jeff Beal is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music BM ‘ 85
(SunLive New Zealand 05/30/2015)
Dominic Lee is having a farewell party this weekend to say goodbye to his hometown of Tauranga. But it won’t be your typical gig.
The classical cello player is performing at Tauranga Art Gallery to serenade his townsfolk, family and friends and to fundraise for a big life-changing move to the US.
Dominic’s been awarded a Howard Hanson Scholarship to attend America’s top music school – the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York.
Spicciati chosen new school superintendent
(Auburn Reporter [Kent., Wash.] 05/27/2015)
The Auburn School District Board of Directors on Tuesday unanimously selected Dr. Alan Spicciati as the new superintendent to replace Kip Herren, who is retiring June 30.
Spicciati is chief accountability officer at Highline Public Schools. He is a graduate of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, with a double major in music education and performance. He earned his master’s degree from the University of Washington’s Danforth Educational Leadership Program, and his superintendent certification and doctor of education at Seattle Pacific University.
Bringing art music to the masses
(Fort Worth Weekly 05/27/2015)
Violist Mark Landson has spent the better part of his 25-year career pondering the question that’s commonly on the minds of classical musicians: How the heck do you get average music lovers as excited about art music as they are about rock ’n’ roll, hip-hop, and country?
His solution is to present classical music like popular music, by amplifying the instruments, involving the audience, and sprinkling in new compositions to keep it fresh.
Twice a month at The Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge on the Near Southside, once a week at Buzzbrews Kitchen in Dallas, and once a month at Dodie’s Live in Frisco, his project Open Classical hosts open-mic sessions where amateur and professional musicians alike can sign up and perform any piece that falls somewhere in the classical music idiom.
Open Classical bears the fruits of the wayward creative journey of its founder. Even while studying at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, Landson wasn’t content to toe the traditional classical music line. He took a break senior year and started a rock band with his brother John Landefeld, who was studying cello at the same conservatory. Landson sang and played keys while his brother took up the guitar. After the short-lived Apathetics broke up, Landson returned to Eastman, finished his undergraduate degree, auditioned, and was accepted into La Orquesta de Granada in Spain in 1989.
Wilmette brothers bring band back to area
(The Wilmette Beacon 05/28/2015)
Brothers Miichael and John Faturm, native of Wilmette, are returning to the North Shore for a show.
Their band, the Rad Trads, will be performing at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 31 at SPACE in Evanston as [part of a two-week tour.
The brothers graduated from New Trier in 2008. After attending New York University and the Eastman School of Music respectively, they have spent the last three years leading bands in New York City, touring across the country and throughout the world.
Sound Check: High school trumpet player giving back to bands with recital
(The Bozeman Daily Chronicle 05/29/2015)
“Stephanie (Anderson) is an extraordinary young women – creative, virtuosic and overcoming,” Smith wrote.
Anderson, currently a senior at BHS, is an All-State, All-Northwest and All-National band and orchestra trumpet player. This fall, she is bound for the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
“To the best of my memory, no Bozeman High School student has ever been accepted to Eastman,” Smith wrote. “This is an honor on par with being accepted to Oxford or Cambridge on a Fulbright Scholarship.”
Heights High musicians set their perfect pitch on prestigious colleges
(Cleveland.com 05/29/2015)
Some graduating seniors in the Heights High Instrumental Music Department plan to attend college this fall at schools recognized as among the nation’s best in music, while others are pursuing science, engineering and careers in medicine.
Majoring in music performance or composition are Maya Fields at Eastman School of Music, Eli Kauffman at University of Pittsburgh, Mason Spencer at Indiana University Bloomington, Celia van den Bogert at University of Michigan, and Ann Zicari at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Ian Bartz and Arsean Cox will minor in music.
Steve Gadd’s school days at Eastman
(Rochester Democrat & Chronicle © 05/22/2015)
Steve Gadd’s rare talent as a drummer has taken him far and wide in the music industry. Remember “The Hustle” from those disco days of 1975? The pounding beat on that smash hit—that’s Gadd. Ditto for the drum solo on Steely Dan’s “Aja,” from the group’s first platinum-selling album of the same name. The precise rat-a-tat-tat on Paul Simon’s “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” is Gadd, too. The Irondequoit native, who is coming home to play the 2015 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, has appeared on hundreds of albums and worked with music’s biggest stars, from Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton to The Bee Gees, Bette Midler and James Taylor (Gadd is actually touring with him now). But back in 1968, he was simply one of the Eastman School of Music’s first percussion majors. Here, he and fellow student Ruth Cahn get a lesson from professor John Beck.
The Montclair Times Editorial: George Walker is nominated for the New Jersey Hall of Fame – Opinion: Editorials – NorthJersey.com
(Montclair Times © 05/19/2015)
The Hall of Fame now has its 2015 round of nominees.
They include George Walker of Montclair, who is among our nation’s esteemed modern classical composers.
Walker was the first black student to enroll in the doctoral program in the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, N.Y. One could make an empirical link between “Lilacs” and his studies in the Eastman School. Rochester hosts an annual Lilac Festival at its Highland Park.
Harp players love instrument’s beauty
(TribLive 05/23/2015)
For the two harpists onstage last weekend with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, it was a sweet family moment. Heidi Van Hoesen Gorton, principal harpist for the Toronto Symphony, has followed in the footsteps of her mother, Gretchen Van Hoesen, principal harpist for the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Many of Van Hoesen’s former students have gone on to important professional positions, including Sarah Stern, who grew up in Shadyside. She is associate principal harp of the Teatro Colon, the big-league opera house in Buenos Aires.
Stern earned her undergraduate degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., and had started work on a master’s in baroque harp in Basel, Switzerland, when she heard about an orchestra job in Santiago, Chile, and won the position. A year later, she took the position at the Teatro Colon. Now, she’s the only tenured North American member of the opera orchestra. In addition to her work at the opera house, she’s given concerts in the north and south of the country, and has performed in hospitals. Stern says she’s really enjoying collaborations with local tango musicians.
(WYTV 05/25/2015)
Lauren Eisenreich and Chris Rudzinskas, graduates of the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University, have collaborated on the production of a CD, named Aspire, which includes original compositions and instrumental music.
Eisenreich, who graduated on May 16 with a degree in music performance-jazz, said, “We decided to embark on this project because it was an excellent way to culminate our degrees. It gave us the ability to record original music that we composed with many of the best players at the Dana School of Music. This CD is also a great tool for YSU because it showcases student talent as well as the possibilities that will be available to potential students.”
Eisenreich has been accepted to the Eastman School of Music as a graduate student to continue studies in classical performance.