Eastman News Highlights July 27, 2015

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.)

Chicago Sinfonietta founder Maestro Paul Freeman dies
(Chicago WLS (ABC) 7 © 07/22/2015)

Chicago Sinfonietta founder Maestro Paul Freeman died in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, at the age of 79 from health problems, a Sinfonetta spokesperson says.

Freeman was born in Richmond, Va., and established himself as one of the country’s leading conductors. He led more than 100 orchestras in over 30 countries and received his Ph.D. from Eastman School of Music and studied in Berlin on a U.S. Fulbright grant.

Jon Vickers told it on the mountain at his final public performance

(Montreal Gazette 07/16/2015)

To wait for the 500th anniversary of Girolamo Frescobaldi’s birth in 2083 would not really be practical. So the McGill Summer Organ Academy, which starts next week and runs to Thursday, July 30, will observe instead the 400th anniversary of the publication of this Italian composer’s first book of mystical and freewheeling toccatas.

Frescobaldi had no PR problems in 17th-century Rome. When the 25-year-old Ferrara-born virtuoso was appointed organist of St. Peter’s Basilica, a crowd of 30,000 turned up for the inaugural recital, according to a director of the Sistine Chapel writing well after the fact. I am sure the MSOA would be delighted to attract half that number to Redpath Hall.

In point of fact, Frescobaldi appears only here and there in the programming, and on the harpsichord as well as the organ. Edoardo Bellotti, a professor from the Eastman School of Music, will join William Porter in a French-Italian battle of national styles on Wednesday, July 22.

Falls Village: Music Mountain seasonal series continues July 25-26
(Torrington Register Citizen © 07/22/2015)

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.

Plectrums, Pizzicato, And Plucks
(IndianaPublicMedia.org © 07/22/2015)

We’re devoting this edition of Harmonia to instruments of the plucked variety. Lutes, guitars, harps and harpsichords will pick and pizz us through the hour. Plus, a special tribute from Paul O’Dette for friend and fellow lute player Pat O’Brien who passed away in 2014, and a feature release from Armonia Celeste called Lover’s Beware.

We invited Paul O’Dette to remember Pat in a tribute, which he recorded at the studios of Eastman School of Music where he teaches in Rochester, New York.

Making noise: MU composers fest offers inspired–and inspiring–sounds

(Columbia [Missouri] Daily Tribune 07/19/2015)

Summers are a bit quieter on some artistic fronts, with film and music festivals and most theater and dance performances happening throughout the darker months. But this week the city will be noisier with the arrival of musicians and composers from around the world to participate in the Mizzou International Composers Festival

This year, Lackey said, 231 composers from all over the world — locations as diverse as Italy, France, South Korea and Israel — competed for the eight resident composer spots.

Applicants submitted recordings of previous compositions, which were reviewed by three two-person teams — including John Orfe, Alan Pierson and Freund, all members of chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound, the latter also a professor at the University of Missouri — and then narrowed to a pool of about 60, from which the final eight were selected.

These coveted positions were awarded to Thomas Dougherty, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Shepherd School of Music at Rice University; Emily Koh, an oft-recognized composer, originally from Singapore and based in Boston; Andrew McManus, a graduate of Eastman, Yale and the University of Chicago; Justin Pounds, a graduate of MU; Alessandro Ratoci, who teaches in Switzerland and his native Italy; Christopher Stark, whose compositions have been performed worldwide, and who teaches at Washington University in St. Louis; Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Anthony Vine, executive director of CNX: Columbus // NYC New Music Exchange, whose career is marked by collaborations, including with Brooklyn dance collective Logan Company; and Conrad Winslow, raised in Homer, Alaska, and holding degrees from Juilliard and New York University.

(Note: The ensemble Alarm Will Sound was formed at Eastman.)

People & Places
(Fairfax County Times © 07/24/2015)

Evelyn Mo of Oak Hill received a $1,000 cash award as a finalist in last Saturday’s Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music in New York. She played Chopin’s Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11, Allegro Maestoso, performing the final round with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, under Eastman School of Music conductor Neil Varon.

Virginia Choral Society names new artistic director, schedules auditions

(The Daily Press 07/19/2015)

Sarah Frook has been named the new artistic director of the Virginia Choral Society. She takes over for James Powers, who retired at the end of the last concert season. Frook, an adjunct professor of voice at the University of Richmond, also conducts the Christopher Newport University Men’s Chorus and the College of William and Mary Women’s Chorus. She sings with the Virginia Chorale professional ensemble and is a collaborative pianist at various institutions.

Frook received a bachelor’s degree in music from the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree in conducting from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.

It has certainly been a long time coming for the national convention for the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. (NANM) to make its glorious return to the Nation’s Capital. Having its early beginnings in Washington, D. C. in 1919, the efforts of NANM continue to be those that promote, elevate and support musicians of color who aspire to careers in the concert arena and moreover make great strides in the preservation and performance of music by African-American composers.

Later in the evening, Eastman School of Music graduate student Leonard Hayes (Eastern Region) was awarded first prize in the organization’s piano competition.

Theres something prophetic about Bumper Jackson co-founder Chris Ousley hailing from Laurel, Maryland, a midpoint between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.

Somehow Mr. Ousleys love of old-time Appalachian music and Miss Myhres love of New Orleans jazz and funk she was based in New Orleans, where she honed her art and developed her major vocal chops melded into a signature sound in an act that grew from a duo to a six-piece band.

Creating new Bumper Jacksons music is done in a not intentionally closed shop. Although the bandmates are proud of the bands membership in the local and regional music scenes, Mr. Ousley, Miss Myhre and the groups bass player, Alex Lacquement who was professionally trained at the Eastman School of Music are the main musical decision-makers in concert with the groups studio engineer, friends and bandmates.

You may know Mark Kellogg as principal trombonist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra but he also has extensive jazz experience, having shared the stage with Clark Terry, Wynton Marsalis, and many others. Fellow Eastman School of Music professor Tony Caramia, a pianist specializing in the Great American Songbook, has been featured on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. When they form a duo at Hatch Recital Hall, they’ll be exploring the music of Frank Loesser, composer of “Guys and Dolls,” “Most Happy Fella,” and other great shows.

Imagine yourself in front of a microphone with a spotlight on you…and a whole audience of people in the dark before you waiting to hear you speak. If that gives you the chills, you’re not alone. Author (and Eastman School of Music graduate) Sara Solovitch has written a new book, “Playing Scared,” about all the different flavors of stage fright – and her own personal experience learning how to overcome her terror of playing the piano in public.