Here are some select clippings from the past week 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.)
For Young Ensembles, an Entrepreneur and an Audience (The New York Times © 11/25/2013) Mivos Quartet, another New York group, brought out an appropriately hallucinatory chill in Robert Honstein’s shivering “Arctic.” And Eastman BroadBand, based at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, expertly handled the aural illusions of Carlos Iturralde’s enigmatic “Fata Morgana,” in which a ghostly wind trio in a balcony faintly haunted the knocks, moans and judders of an onstage string trio. Bowdoin music festival chooses new leaders (Portland Press Herald 12/1/2013)
Geva, Garth Fagan Dance among groups earning Farash grants (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle 11/27/2013) Rochester Oratorio Society’s Interactive Classical Visions Project. Created by Sound ExChange, this is an experimental music lab and performance group rooted in the Eastman School of Music. Eight concerts will merge classical music with digital technology that encourages audience participation through mobile devices and social networking. The Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Rochester Institute of Technology faculty, Microsoft Studios and area schools also will participate.
OSSIA [mediatracking.com] (Rochester City Newspaper © 11/27/2013) OSSIA has been a student-run ensemble at the Eastman School of Music since the mid-1970’s. Chances are, even if you’ve heard of it or gone to one of its concerts, you haven’t been behind the scenes to learn that it is more than just an ensemble — it’s an incubator in arts management. With our eye on the state of the classical music economy, we met up with Matt Evans, this year’s president of OSSIA, to ask him how to sustain a successful classical music organization in the most challenging of classical genres: new music.
Eastman ensemble showcases little-heard compositions (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle 12/1/2013) Members of the Eastman School of Music community have always given listeners the opportunity to hear mainstays of the classical music repertoire. Student-run new-music ensemble Ossia, now in its 17th year, tries to pick the future mainstays in the world of composition, encompassing everything from seminal avant-garde works of the 20th century to freshly inked premieres written by Eastman students.
Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe Reprise Roles in THE LAST FIVE YEARS at Huntington This Weekend[mediatracking.com] (Broadway World © 11/23/2013) The Huntington Theatre Company presents a concert version of Jason Robert Brown’s powerful contemporary musical The Last Five Years for three performances only this weekend, November 23 and 24. Jason studied composition with Samuel Adler, Christopher Rouse, and Joseph Schwantner at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.
RPO sets program, travel packages for Carnegie Hall concert[mediatracking.com] (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle © 11/23/2013) Returning to Carnegie Hall for the first time in 29 years, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is filling the nation’s most-prestigious concert venue with sex, kidnapping, arson, murder and cult fanaticism. The RPO is one of six orchestras selected to play the week-long Spring For Music Festival in New York City. The event calls for imaginative programming that is also representative of its community, and the orchestra responded by offering a performance of legendary Eastman School of Music Director Howard Hanson’s 1933 opera Merry Mount.
Helenbrook to be featured soloist Sunday[mediatracking.com] (Batavia Daily News © 11/23/2013) Soprano Emily Helenbrook of Alexander will be a featured soloist with the Ars Nova Musicians at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, 1 Symphony Circle, Buffalo. Helenbrook is a sophomore at the Eastman School of Music and studies voice with Carol Webber. This is Helenbrook’s sixth year singing at the Viva Vivaldi Festival, under the direction of Maestra Mary Louise Nanna.
Natalie Cole heads a list of holiday concerts[mediatracking.com] (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle © 11/24/2013) XRIJF Inc., the company behind the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, has teamed with Eastman School of Music to bring “An Afternoon with Natalie Cole” to Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St., at 4 p.m. Dec. 15. Tickets are $45 to $95. The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra will present two concerts with very different musical styles this holiday season. Bach’s Magnificat, on Dec. 12 and 14, will feature the Eastman Chorale at Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St.
‘Highly accomplished’ trumpeter Brian Shaw to appear with college ensembles
(Oswego Daily News © 11/22/2013)
Shaw, a member of Louisiana State University’s music faculty, will perform with the colleges Big Band in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5, in Tyler Halls Waterman Theatre. That show will feature works by Duke Ellington, Kenny Wheeler, Pat Metheny and arrangements made famous by Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band. An alumnus of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, Shaw plays Baroque as well as prize-winning modern trumpet, and has performed throughout North America, including Trinity Church on Wall Street, Music City Baroque in Nashville and Boston Early Music Festival.