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.)
Contemporary composer: August Read Thomas
(Gramophone 03/20/2017)
. . . This leads on to the criticism – disguised as observation – that her music is academic or staid as to its intrinsic qualities. Such an epithet has often been applied to composers whose careers have been spent in teaching (thereby supposing that writing for films or commercial concerns were guarantees of artistic freedom or integrity), and while Thomas has long been committed to education (having taught at the Eastman School of Music and Northwestern University and more recently having been appointed University Professor of Composition at the University of Chicago), this hardly equates with her freedom of musical thinking with its avoidance, or at least its radical reassessment, of traditional formal models and its embracing of elements derived from jazz and improvisation.
Stamford Symphony announces music director finalists and 2017-2018 season
(Norwalkplus.com 03/20/2017)
Stamford Symphony CEO and President, Barbara Soroca, announces Our Next Maestro, the 2017-2018 Audition Season. This transformative time offers many unique opportunities. Six gifted Music Director finalists were chosen among a pool of nearly 200 worldwide applicants.
Rei Hotoda: Associate Conductor of the Utah Symphony. She also enjoys guest conducting with Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Jacksonville, Utah and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, among others. Ms. Hotoda studied conducting with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a DMA in piano performance from the University of Southern California, and BMus in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music.
Pianist Zhang Zhou welcomes towering challenge in Costa Mesa
(The Orange County Register 03/22/2017)
Pianist Zhang Zuo, who will perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 later this week with Pacific Symphony under guest conductor Darrell Ang, has enjoyed a flamboyant life and career that justifies the nickname she goes by: Zee Zee. . . . Zuo continued to study music in the U.S., where she earned a bachelor’s degree at the Eastman School of Music and a master’s degree at The Juilliard School. In 2014, she was selected for BBC’s New Generation Artist program in the U.K. for two seasons.
Pipesounds hosts concert March 26
(Huntington Herald Dispatch 03/22/2017)
PipeSounds will host Nathan Laube in concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 26, on the Harrah Symphonic Organ at Forrest Burdette Memorial United Methodist Church, 2848 Putnam Ave., Hurricane, West Virginia. Laube currently serves as assistant professor of organ at The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. As a church musician, Laube served from 2011-2013 as artist-in-residence at the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France.
New cantor finds family at Temple Beth El in Tacoma
(The News Tribune 03/17/2017)
Why would a professional Jewish cantor decide to leave the East Coast for Tacoma, Washington? For love. Not the romantic kind, although that’s there for Geoffrey Fine, who’s just been hired as the new cantor at Tacoma’s Temple Beth El. But the community kind, where people are patient with one another in long bank lines and make you feel part of the family at worship services. . . . A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Tanglewood Music Festival, Fine had worked in opera and theater for years in the Boston area before deciding to be trained and ordained as a cantor.
Sherrie Maricle and the Diva Jazz Orchestra holds workshop, performs at Kutztown High
(Berks & Beyond 03/23/2017)
Alexa Tarantino first embraced the alto sax when she heard a schoolmate play the instrument when they were fifth-graders in Connecticut. A high school music teacher inspired her to attend the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York. She is scheduled to perform with jazz great Wynton Marsalis in an upcoming concert in New York.
Lee’s Percussion Ensemble To Present Spring Concert
(The Chattanoogan 03/22/2017)
Lee University’s Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Andy Harnsberger, will perform in concert on Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Conn Center. . . . Dr. Harnsberger earned a doctorate of musical arts in performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he also received the prestigious Performer’s Certificate.
LAMF’s ‘Spanish Nights’ to be presented in Pequot Lakes
(Brainerd Dispatch 03/23/2017)
This is the third of a four concert winter series of the organization and will feature past LAMF musicians: Violinist Jonathan Magness, Soprano Bergen Baker, Flutist Claire Gunsbury and Pianist Scott Lykins. . . . Lykins’ career blends artistic performance as a cellist and pianist with administrative creativity as founding artistic and executive director of the music festival. As a cellist, he enjoys a busy schedule performing throughout the Midwest and as a member of the South Dakota Symphony. As a pianist he recently made his Paris debut with collaborative partner, baritone John Taylor Ward at the Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris. He has bachelors and masters degrees in cello performance from the Eastman School of Music. (Also reported by The Pilot-Independent)
(El Paso Inc. 03/19/2017)
We wait all year for the centerpiece of El Paso Opera’s season, and finally, it is here. The opera presents “Cinderella” or “La Cenerentola” by Gioachino Rossini on Thursday, March 23 and Saturday, March 25. . . . The snooty stepsisters will be played by our very own Cherry Duke and Adelaide Boedecker, a young singer who showed a delightful sense of humor and fun at the Evening with the Stars performances. With a master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and experience with opera and musical theater, Adelaide has also received rave reviews.
Piano genius Bob Milne Entertains for Milford Historical Society benefit
(Daily Tribune 03/21/2017)
Milne has played piano professionally in Detroit since 1964, but he started out on the French horn in high school and was already in the Pontiac Symphony by the time he was in 10th grade at Rochester High School. He went on to the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York, and from there to the first-chair horn in the Rochester and Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestras before the politics of the symphony got to be too much. Milne quit to become a pool player. (Also reported by The Oakland Press)
Charles Tompkins To Give Organ Concert This Sunday
(The Transylvania Times 03/20/2017)
Dr. Charles Tompkins, organist, will present a concert at Brevard-Davidson River Presbyterian Church on Sunday, March 26, at 3:30 p.m. . . . A graduate of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music (B.M. and D.M.A.) and the University of Michigan (M.M), Tompkins performs each year at universities and major churches throughout the United States.
Mentalist to appear at food bank fundraiser
(Corpus Christi Caller Times 03/17/2017)
Mentalist Sidney Friedman will appear at the 13th biennial Harvest of Hope to benefit the Food Bank of Corpus Christi on April 6. . . . The former Eastman School of Music student is most known for his Music Mind Reading, in which he senses songs on people’s minds and then plays them on the piano.
‘Cendrillon’ to portray Cinderella’s emotional journey
(Greece Post 03/21/2017)
Eastman Opera Theatre will present Jules Massenet’s rendition of the Cinderella fairy tale, “Cendrillon,” at 7:30 p.m. April 6-8 and 2 p.m. April 9 in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 26 Gibbs St., Rochester. . . . “In Massenet’s ‘Cendrillon,’ we see the Cinderella story reimagined through a daughter’s grief,” said director Steven Daigle, an opera professor at Eastman School of Music.
Loudspeakers to create surround sound concert
(Penfield Post 03/20/2017)
University of Rochester students and faculty from the Eastman School of Music will present an orchestra of loudspeakers with “Eastman Mobile Acousmonium” at 6 and 8 p.m. March 30 at Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Ave., Rochester.
Eastman School of Music Launches Colloquium Series
(Fairport-East Rochester Post 03/20/2017)
Edward Deci, psychology professor and Gowen professor in the social sciences at University of Rochester, will present the Richard F. Grunow Colloquium for Music Teaching, Learning,and Performance at 4:30 p.m. April 10 in Hatch Recital Hall, 433 E. Main St., Rochester. . . . “Richard Grunow is a terrific colleague who has built relationships within the department, across the school and at local, regional, national and international levels,” Azzara said. “His insights regarding music teaching and learning are important and his contributions to the Eastman School of Music have been invaluable.”