A student plays piccolo trumpet in the Eastman Chamber Orchestra.
Craighead-Saunders Organ, named after Eastman organ professors David Craighead and Russell Saunders, was inaugurated in 2007.
String players in the Eastman Chamber Orchestra practice a new technique for performing baroque music.
Eastman professor Paul O’Dette, one of the world’s great lutenists, is also an accomplished conductor.
Professor of Viola Carol Rodland in her studio
Brad Lubman rehearsing Musica Nova in Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians
The Eastman Jazz Ensemble rehearsing for the Prism concert The Gift of Music
A student violinist performs during A Day of Collaborative Music, January 2011
Three student cellists perform during A Day of Collaborative Music, January 2011
Neil Varon, Eastman’s director of orchestral activities, shown here in rehearsal with the Eastman Philharmonia
Eastman Jazz Ensemble, 2011
Eastman Jazz Ensemble, 2011
Music for All brings student chamber music performances throughout the Rochester community each spring.
Canadian jazz pianist Lorraine Desmarais was the composer-in-residence for the 2012 Women in Music Festival.
Outstanding Eastman Community Music School students make up the Honors Jazz Ensemble, which performs each year at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival.
Eastman Chorale in rehearsal for Eastman Weekend 2012
A student lutenist performs in Eastman’s Collegium Musicum, devoted to historically informed performance of Renaissance and Baroque music.
In October 2012, Eastman presented The Prismatic Debussy, a festival commemorating the French composer’s 150th anniversary, with many school ensembles and faculty members taking part.
Rehearsal for a joint performance by the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra and the Eastman Philharmonia
A master class in chamber music performance with pianist Joseph Kalichstein
A student chamber group is coached by members of the Ying Quartet, Eastman’s quartet-in-residence
The JACK Quartet was formed by Eastman students and is now one of the leading contemporary music ensembles. They returned to perform at Eastman in April 2013.
A unique interpretation of the opera Pelléas et Mélisande during the 2012 Debussy Festival: no singers and a jazz-ensemble musical accompaniment to projections from a Pélleas comic book by P. Craig Russell.
William Weinert, director of choral activities, leading the Eastman Rochester Chorus, Eastman Philharmonia, and student soloists in Schumann’s Transfiguration of Faust, November 2011.
Eastman New Jazz Ensemble led by David Rivello
A timpanist in the Eastman Philharmonia, during the opening concert of Prismatic Debussy, October 2013
Mark Davis Scatterday is music director of the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
The bassoon quartet Breaking Winds, formed by Eastman students, returned to the school in February 2014 to perform with the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
Eastman Opera Theatre: Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, April 2013
The historic Eastman Theatre anchors the Eastman School campus. Since its opening in 1922, the Theatre has been Rochester’s preeminent performance space. All Eastman students have the opportunity to perform in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, which has hosted some of the world’s greatest musicians: jazz artists Dave Brubeck and Bob Brookmeyer, opera stars Renée Fleming and Paul Robeson, violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and composers Igor Stravinsky and John Williams, to name a few.
Lutenist and conductor Paul O’Dette, of the Eastman School faculty, is one of the great names in Renaissance and Baroque performance practice. He’s shown here leading the Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra in a rehearsal of music by Handel, Telemann, and Rameau.
Resources available to Eastman’s composition students include a Computer Music Studio. A student is shown here with the Studio’s director, Allan Schindler.
New music has been a vital part of the Eastman School’s mission from the beginning. Brad Lubman, Associate Professor of Conducting and Ensembles and an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music, directs Eastman Musica Nova in a rehearsal of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Instruments.
Eastman Opera Theatre presents students in a wide variety of repertoire, presented with professional production values. Shown here is a scene from Mozart’s Così fan tutte, part of an “Opera Gala” presented in Kodak Hall in spring 2010.
Eastman’s new Hatch Recital Hall, opened in December 2010, is a beautiful modern space and an acoustical gem – an ideal setting for chamber music performance.
Eastman students are encouraged to go out and help in the Rochester community – and not just by playing music! Incoming freshmen in August 2010 take part in one of many George Eastman Day activities, clearing brush in a local park.
Internet2 technology allows for conferences and master classes between Eastman and other conservatories around the world. Shown here is a December 2010 Internet2 master class in Hatch Recital Hall, with horn students and faculty members from Eastman and from the Oslo Conservatory in Norway.
Eastman students enjoy close interaction and coaching in new music performance with Eastman faculty and student composers. A student cellist is shown here with Professor of Composition Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon.
Eastman’s jazz students and ensembles have won awards and acclaim since the 1970s. Shown here is the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble under Dave Rivello, winners of a 2009 Down Beat award for “Best Student Ensemble Performance.”
Chamber music performance is a vital part of an Eastman education – students in all instruments form chamber ensembles which perform frequently.
The great jazz bassist Ron Carter (BM ’60) , one of Eastman’s most famous graduates, visited his alma mater in October 2010, performing and leading a master class for jazz students.
The Eastman Philharmonia, founded in 1962 by Howard Hanson, is made up of upperclassmen and graduate student instrumentalists. Eastman’s other orchestras include Eastman School Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra; all are led by Neil Varon.
In addition to performance degrees, Eastman offers academic degrees in music education, theory, and musicology. Award-winning musicologist Roger Freitas is shown here with one of his music history classes.
The Craighead-Saunders Organ at Christ Church, one block from the Eastman School. The Eastman-Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) has placed new and restored instruments in Rochester churches for the use of students and enjoyment of the community; this one, named for two beloved Eastman organ professors, was installed and dedicated in fall 2008.
Java’s, a coffeehouse near the Eastman School’s main building on Gibbs Street, is popular hangout for students after classes and rehearsals.
The Eastman Wind Ensemble, founded in 1952, revolutionized the world of wind band music. The EWE is shown here with its current conductor, Mark Davis Scatterday, on the stage of Kodak Hall.