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.)
Conducting from the keyboard, Rei Hotoda set to make Utah Symphony debut
(Salt Lake Tribune 07/04/2015)
Eighty-eight keys aren’t enough for Rei Hotoda. Leading 88 musicians is more to her liking.
“Conducting is the ultimate musical growth experience,” said Hotoda, the Utah Symphony’s new associate conductor, who pivoted to the podium after earning degrees in piano performance at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California. “I’m creating music in a way that uses every part of my background as a musician.”
COLOSSUS taking over main stage at Iowa City Jazz Festival
(Iowa City Press-Citizen © 07/01/2015)
Is kind of been a dream of mine for a while to have a spot on the main stage, said Mike Conrad, the founder of the group and band director at Waterloo West High School. I was really excited and honored.
Conrad started the band with a couple friends from Eastman School of Music at Rochester University. They created the band to feature their original compositions and to use as a creative outlet outside of what we were doing in the school ensembles, Conrad said.
Classical musicians sing employment blues
(USA Today © 06/30/2015)
However, these are not the best of times, especially in the classical music corner of the universe.
Now the music education world is increasingly talking in business terms with its students, with more courses and offerings aimed at helping students better master the commerce side of musical life.
“There’s never been a time in history when musicians graduated from music schools and there are just jobs ‘o plenty waiting for them,” said Jamal Rossi, dean of the Eastman School of Music. “Music is a competitive profession. It’s always been a competitive profession.”
When silence isn’t golden: Orchestra, composer participate in bringing fresh sounds to classic films
(Columbia Daily Tribune 07/05/2015)
Silent films are not actually all that silent. When brought to life on the screen, they typically are accompanied by solo musicians or ensembles. And while the images, those that survived to today, remain preserved for us in their original form, the music changes each time a film is presented live.
The Missouri Symphony Orchestra will present the 1924 film version of “Peter Pan” tonight at the Missouri Theatre, with a score composed by Philip Carli, staff film accompanist at George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., since 1989. Carli also has taught courses and worked as accompanist at the Eastman School of Music since pursuing his advanced degrees there.
‘West Side Story’ Begins July 7
(Enterprise Capenews.net 07/02/2015)
The College Light Opera Company (CLOC) is presenting “West Side Story” as the second production of its 2015 season.
Stage director Jacob Allen and music director Jonathan Edward Brennand lead this production, which will be followed this season by “The Boys from Syracuse,” opening July 14. Mr. Allen, originally from Oxford, Maine, received his degrees from Lawrence University and the Eastman School of Music.
Break Into the Future: It’s a new day for chamber music, as the Austin Chamber Music Festival shows
(Austin Chronicle © 07/02/2015)
When a small group of classical musicians can reach those kinds of numbers on that kind of platform playing that kind of material, well, friends of chamber music, we’re not in the 19th century anymore. Or the 20th, for that matter. Gone are the days of just the same-old, same-old instrumental groupings (piano, violin, cello; two violins, viola, cello; etc.) with their by-the-book monikers (Such-and-Such Piano Trio, Blah-Di-Blah String Quartet) dishing up the usual powdered-wigged suspects (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, et al.) in tasteful salons for well-heeled patrons of a certain age and income bracket. Now, we’re talking groups that may be three cellos and a percussionist (!) going by a name like Break of Reality (!!) and mixing its Bach with a little Metallica or Tool (!!!). And you’re as likely to find such a group rocking millennial hipsters at the Lancaster Roots & Blues Festival or South by Southwest as pleasing AARP elites in some society swell’s swanky parlor. That’s the story with our GoT cover band, which has been able to build its multigenerational, multigenre following with the aid of such of-the-moment platforms as iTunes, Pandora, Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, YouTube. Break of Reality is no less rooted in the classical tradition or training than its forebears in the chamber music field – it was founded by a bunch of students at the Eastman School of Music – but it reflects a movement toward ensembles shaped as much by popular music as classical and unwilling to give up either when it comes to what they play.
Local trumpet player to play with the Eagles band
(iBerkshires.com 07/01/2015)
North Adams native and Drury High School graduate Steven Felix will join the Eagles Band as a featured soloist for performances in early July. With Felix, the Eagles Band will play Carl Hahne’s “Slavonic Fantasy” at Windsor Lake on Wednesday, July 1, and at the Veterans Home Park in Bennington, Vt., on Wednesday, July 8.
He received his master’s degree in trumpet performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., where he is currently a first-year doctoral student.
Hong Kong Musicians in Kodak Hall
(13WHAM-TV © 06/30/2015)
Musicians and singers from Hong Kong will perform classical works from China and some well-known classical music Tuesday night at the Eastman Theatre.
The 100 performers of the Ying Wa College Ensembles are all from a historic Hong Kong school. One of the conductors of the group is Eastman School of Music graduate Gary Ngan. The performance is free and is part of the groups’ upcoming tour. Their North American tour will include concerts in Toronto and in Fredonia, N.Y.
That’s Entertainment: Spotlighting events in and around the area
(Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette 07/01/2015)
The harp duo Lilac 94 will perform contemporary music at 8 tonight at [co][lab], 206 W. Main St., U. Christina Brier and Kathryn Sloat of Lilac 94 say they aren’t your grandmother’s harpists. The two hit their sound boards, pound their harps with mallets, slap their strings and, in general, make a ruckus, according to a critic for The Star News of Wilmington, N.C.
Brier and Sloat have played together since they began graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music four years ago. Since forming Lilac 94 in 2013 they have performed throughout the United States, including at the American Harp Society’s national conference in Utah this summer.
Music Mountain to Welcome Avalon String Quartet & Swingtime Big Band, 7/25-26
(Broadway World 07/01/2015)
Music Mountain, America’s oldest continuing summer chamber music festival, continues its 86th season with Swingtime Big|Brave Band on Saturday, July 25th (6:30pm) playing the best music of the Swing Era! Plus pre-concert dinner at Falls Village Inn (5pm). The weekend continues on Sunday, July 26th (3pm) with the Avalon String Quartet performing Faure, Debussy, and Ravel with guest artists Jan Opalach, Bass-Baritone and Jonathan Yates, Piano and Music Mountain’s new Musical Director.
The American bass-baritone, Jan Opalach, is one of the most versatile vocalists on the operatic stage. He is highly regarded for his superb understanding of a broad range of musical styles and eras. Mr. Opalach had been a regular guest of the New York City Opera since 1980. Among the many roles he has performed during his long association there, are Papageno in Die Zauberflöte;Figaro, the title role in Le nozze di Figaro,: Leporello in Don Giovanni, and Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia. As a featured soloist, Mr. Opalach has sung with the acclaimed orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles, among many others and has achieved international recognition with appearances in Mexico City, The Netherlands, and Sweden. Mr. Opalach is an Associate Professor of Voice of the prestigious Eastman School of Music.