One of the legendary teachers and performers in Eastman’s history, the great American mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani, was born on this day in 1933. When she came to Eastman in 1975, DeGaetani was highly regarded as an interpreter of contemporary music, including masterworks by Schoenberg, Varese, Carter, and Crumb. By the time of her death…
We wish a rousing 100th anniversary to Frederick Fennell (1914-2004), the founder of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, who was born 100 years ago today. A birthday so close to July 4 is very appropriate for a conductor who performed great services for American music and American composers through his concerts and recordings, which range…
Today is the 132nd birthday of one of the greatest 20th-century composers, Igor Stravinsky. Besides being one of the greatest composers, he was one of the most-traveled, living in pre-Soviet Russia, in Paris, and in the United States and traveling just about everywhere else in the world as a guest composer, pianist, and conductor. In…
Large-scale, rediscovered works by two composers with ties to Eastman were performed in Carnegie Hall’s recent (and unfortunately its last) “Spring for Music” Festival, dedicated to innovative concerts by North American orchestras. Last Tuesday night, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Eastman Rochester Chorus, Bach Children’s Chorus of Nazareth College, and many soloists – about 250 performers…
The vengeful Puritans of Howard Hanson’s opera Merry Mount — as embodied by the Eastman-Rochester Chorus — take the stage of Carnegie Hall tonight, along with soloists,the Nazareth Bach Children’s Chorus, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, all led by Michael Christie. (They shown here in last month’s performance in Kodak Hall.) Merry Mount is…
Celebrate International Jazz Day on Wednesday, April 30, with a great concert that will bring Eastman faculty members and students to perform music you’ve never heard before – and neither have they, since every note will be improvised, created on the spot. Spontaneous Duos is presented by the Eastman Community Music School and the Institute…
After the Eastman Wind Ensemble’s concert tomorrow night, the group, under its director Mark Davis Scatterday, will record the major part of the program: three works by alumnus Jeff Tyzik, with soloists Mark Kellogg and Michael Burritt.. This continues more than 60 years of commitment by the EWE to American music and composers, starting with…
Jeff Tyzik, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Pops Conductor, is also an Eastman grad (BM ’73, MM ’77). A prolific composer, Jeff pays tribute to a number of “Eastman Legends” in his recent work Trilogy on Themes by Howard Hanson, which will be performed by the Eastman Wind Ensemble next Wednesday night, April 30,at…
Eastman joins in the worldwide observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) on Sunday, April 27, with A Time to Remember …, a concert of chamber music by, or inspired by, composers who were interned in concentration camps during World War II. Conceived by Associate Professor of Violin Renee Jolles, who also performs in the…
Howard Hanson’s Merry Mount is a challenging opera to bring off, but the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra did just that last week (April 10 and 12) in its concert version, with help from Eastman forces including the Eastman Rochester Chorus, Eastman Chorale, and several soloists chosen from recent graduates and current students. Conductor Michael Christie of…