Eastman News Highlights January 20, 2014

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.)

Music Institute of Chicago presents 10th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. concert
(Chicago Now © 01/15/2014)

The William Warfield Memorial Scholarship Fund annually offers need-based financial assistance for minority students at the Music Institute of Chicago. Famed operatic baritone William Warfield was a longstanding member of the Music Institute’s board of trustees. He was a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and, in 1975, accepted an appointment as professor of music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He later became chairman of the Voice Department. In 1994, he moved to Northwestern University’s School of Music, where he stayed until his death.

Break of Reality: Ten years of breakthroughs
(Rochester City Newspaper © 01/15/2014)

From Java’s to Kilbourn Hall to Kodak Hall in just 10 years. Cello-rock band Break of Reality emerged from Eastman School of Music as a student start-up and has grown into a modern instrumental ensemble with a list of accomplishments practically the length of Gibbs Street. That’s particularly impressive when you consider that this young group has succeeded at a time when established orchestras have filed for bankruptcy, and the ones that have persevered still struggle to fill seats. (Also reported by Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Meet Caleb Harris, the Utah Opera’s new chorus master
(The Salt Lake Tribune © 01/10/2014)

Harris, 33, was the second of seven children growing up in a musical household in Borger, Texas. When his father, a pilot and rancher who played trombone on the side, decided to take up piano, Caleb and his older brother followed suit. There were also some country singers in the family tree, and Caleb Harris added voice to his musical studies as a teenager.

He earned degrees in piano performance from Oklahoma Baptist University and the Eastman School of Music, with secondary study in voice and conducting. He held the Nat King Cole Fellowship at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center for two summers, studying piano, art song, opera — “we did it all,” he said. “That led to lots of opportunities.”

Driver indicted on charges in deadly wrong way crash in Gates
(WHEC TV NBC 10 Rochester © 01/16/2014)

Investigators say Rome was drunk when he crashed into an SUV with Tatiana Tchekina inside. She was the passenger in the SUV and died at the scene. Tchekina was an assistant professor of piano at the Eastman School of Music. Her husband, Oleh Krysa, was also in the SUV and survived. (Also reported by WHAM 1180, Time Warner Cable News)

January concert to Features Lakes Area music festival musicians

(Brainerd Dispatch 01/01/2014)

John Taylor Ward, baritone, and Scott Lykins, pianist, will present the lonely story of young love lost, though Franz Schubert’s monumental song cycle “Winterreise.”

Lykins’ career blends artistic performance as a cellist and pianist with administrative creativity as founding artistic and executive director of the Lakes Area Music Festival. Born in Brainerd, Lykins began playing piano at a young age and began studying cello at the age of 13 through the Brainerd Public School program. He received bachelors and masters degrees in cello performance from the Eastman School of Music. Lykins also is a graduate of the Catherine Filene Shouse Arts Leadership Program at Eastman; this certificate program is designed to inspire students with a personal vision, to equip them with the professional skills and experience that will allow them to take charge of their musical prospects, and to encourage them to provide leadership in the musical culture and marketplace.

Pianist, baritone to perform at Sala Sudasiri Sobha

(Bangkok Post 01/13/2014)

The Gift of Life Foundation will hold a concert by pianist Parvati Mani and baritone Nicholas Provenzale at Sala Sudasiri Sobha on Jan 26 at 4pm. Mani was raised in Vienna. She received a bachelor’s degree of music from the Eastman School of Music in New York and a master’s degree of music from the San Francisco Conservatory. She has performed in in the US, Thailand and Japan, and currently serves on the piano faculty at Mahidol University’s College of Music.

Canton pianist performs and teaches music in South America

(The Canton Rep 01/12/2014)

(Sam) Farley performs regularly before large recital audiences at the university in Colombia where he is a professor. And long before many are given the opportunity to make such a contribution to music, he directs the jazz program for the music department of that school — the respected EAFIT at Medellin — where his restored Steinway soon will be shipped.

Married to his Colombian-born wife, Natalia Montes, Farley has settled into a South American lifestyle.

Farley continued his education through high school and college, earning a doctorate of musical arts from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in western New York. It was there that Farley met a classical pianist from Colombia, who returned to his country after a year. The musician later called Farley to ask him if he knew anybody at Eastman with an interest in taking over the jazz program in EAFIT’s school of music.

Local Musician and the Story of His Damaged Lute Go Viral
(WXXI © 01/15/2014)

Eastman School of Music graduate Chris Wilke says his $10,000 lute was damaged when he took it out of its carrying case after arriving at the Rochester airport January 11 following a flight from Detroit. He had used a special valet service to check in the lute before boarding the Rochester bound flight. Wilke said it looked as though someone had knelt or stood on the instrument.

A colossal jazz orchestra plays the Redstone
(Quad Cities Dispatch Argus Leader © 01/15/2014)

Along with award-winning composers Dave Chisholm and Levi Saelua, Mr. Conrad co-founded this band made up of current and former students of the famed Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. — from which he earned a master’s degree in jazz and contemporary media.

Scholastic Arts Spotlight -Philip Glick
(WROC TV CBS 8 Rochester © 01/14/2014)

In a studio at the Eastman School of Music, Philip Glick practices for his upcoming college auditions. Glick is the lead trombonist for the Eastman Youth Jazz Choir. He’s also the principal trombone for the prestigious Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Philip is a senior at Victor High School and loves to play in school musicals. He also plays in a host of local pit orchestras, and is a member of the ROC Trombone Choir. “We rehearse once a month, and it’s really nice because it’s all these retired band directors playing trombone, and then there’s me,” he says. “And it’s really fun to sit around with all these guys that have been to college, had careers with trombone, or are amateur players. It’s a lot of fun.”

Jazz | Trio East
(Rochester City Newspaper © 01/15/2014)

Trumpeter Clay Jenkins joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra fresh out of college. Since then he’s played with Peter Erskine, Ray Brown, and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Drummer Rich Thompson has lent his talents to Dizzy Gillespie, the Count Basie Orchestra, and Bobby McFerrin. Bassist Jeff Campbell has performed with Gene Bertoncini and Marian McPartland. When these three Eastman School of Music professors put all of their diverse musical experiences together, they become the dynamic Trio East.

Charles Cramer: Harmony of Light — 01/11/14 at Sun To Moon Gallery
(Pegasus News © 01/11/2014)

Harmony and Charles Cramer go together, by either definition of the word. A master photographer and printer, Charles is also a classically trained pianist, attending the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. In this regard, Cramer has something in common with the great Ansel Adams, also an accomplished pianist. Like Ansel Adams’s prints, only when you see Charles Cramer’s prints in person, and experience their brilliance and sharpness, do you fully appreciate them. Cramer is widely recognized as one of the top photographers in the world today and is featured in the book Landscape: The World’s Top Photographers.

Heart, Fall Out Boy among the acts coming to town
(Rochester Democrat & Chronicle © 01/14/2014)

Trio East has a 7 p.m. Sunday gig at Lovin’ Cup Bistro and Brews, 300 Park Point Drive, Henrietta, near the Rochester Institute of Technology campus. The Trio is three Eastman School of Music teachers who have been playing together for a while: drummer Rich Thompson, trumpeter Clay Jenkins and bassist Jeff Campbell. Admission is $8 at the door.

Deeply committed to chamber music, Huang has attended the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, The Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival and the Caramoor Festival; he frequently participates in Musicians From Marlboro tours. He was selected by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be a member of the prestigious Chamber Music II program. Huang was previously first violinist of the Grammy® award-winning Ying Quartet and on faculty at the Eastman School of Music.

Mr. LaRusso’s passion for music extends to his family. He met his wife, Candace, when they were both music students at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He played clarinet, she played flute. After playing beautiful music together, they married right after college graduation, and have been together for 37 years.

The Music at Grace Series at Grace Episcopal Church in Elmira will feature four organists, each a student at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, during a recital later this month.

26 GHS Musicians Chosen for Festival>

(The Altamont Enterprise 01/04/2014)

Twenty-seven Guilderland High School musicians were chosen from among 300 at 13 Suburban Council schools to participate in the Suburban Scholastic Council Music Festival at Columbia High School on Saturday, Jan. 25. Performing in the Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Rachel Lauber of the Eastman School of Music will be: Allegra Wu, flute; Angelo Amore, clarinet; Andrew Dame and Sam Diedrich, trumpet; Matthew Darby, violin; Rafi Nizam, viola; and Nalia Brown, cello.

Most of us think of harps as ethereal instruments, played by angels or ladies in long gowns at wedding receptions. Christina Brier and Kathryn Sloat plan to change all that.

Brier and Sloat make up the harp duo Lilac 94, which formed back in 2011 when both were earning their master’s degrees at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

The second half of Cantata! A Bach Cantata Series, led by Eastman School of Music conducting graduate students, kicks off at 3 p.m. next Sunday with Lee Wright and Mark Helms conducting.