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.)
Segal Awards Go to JACK QUARTET and Melissa Aldana
(New York Times 04/10/2014)
A quartet and a saxophonist won this year’s Martin E. Segal Awards, given to emerging artists who are associated with Lincoln Center. The winners are the JACK Quartet, a string ensemble founded at the Eastman School of Music that focuses on contemporary music, and Melissa Aldana, a tenor saxophonist from Santiago, Chile, who last year became the first female instrumentalist to take first prize in the Thelonious Monk Competition.
LSU names Todd Queen new dean of music and dramatic arts
(Times-Picayune 04/14/2014)
Queen has a master’s and doctor of musical arts degrees from the Eastman School of Music after completing his undergraduate degree at BYU. He has held faculty positions at Alfred University, Houghton College, Syracuse University, North Dakota State University, and Operafestival di Roma.
(Pacific Standard 04/15/2014)
Mehr didn’t set out to be an academic. He plays the clarinet, the flute, the saxophone, the bassoon, and the oboe, and was wrapping up his bachelor’s degree at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music when he needed one last elective to graduate. He signed up for a cognitive development course taught by Richard Aslin, a well-known infant researcher. “As a totally naïve undergrad, I had no idea who he was,” Mehr says. “The class was wonderful.”
Ben Endquist, Arlo Hill and Natalie Ballenger Named Winners of 2014 LOTTE LENYA COMPETITION
(Broadway World 04/15/2014)
Ben Edquist, of Houston, won the $15,000 First Prize in the finals of the 2014 Lotte Lenya Competition, sponsored by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and held on April 12, 2014, in Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. Arlo Hill, of New York, won the Second Prize of $10,000, and the Third Prize of $7,500 was awarded to Natalie Ballenger, also of New York.
Elinor Freer, David Ying to be featured in Creative Conversations April 25
(CNYLINK Syracuse Eagle Newspapers © 04/16/2014)
Award-wining musicians Elinor Freer and David Ying, currently serving their last year as co-artistic directors of the Skaneateles Festival, will be featured speakers in the next Creative Conversations, presented by the Skaneateles Area Arts Council (SKARTS).
Ying, cellist in the Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet, has also won recognition as an individual artist, including prizes in the Naumburg Cello Competition and the Washington International Competition. With the quartet, he has performed worldwide at such diverse venues as the White House, Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House. He earned degrees from the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, where he is on the cello and chamber music faculty.
Freer, a pianist, has built a versatile career as a soloist and chamber musician, performing across the United States and Europe. She was one of two American pianists selected to perform throughout China in tours designed to promote cultural relations. For her efforts to bring classical music to new audiences, she has received multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. She, too, is on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music.
Elizabeth Blades Skinner and Margie Patterson in final Peak-To-Peak Series concert April 19
(Estes Park Trail Gazette 04/17/2014)
Skinner received her masters and doctoral degrees from the illustrious Eastman School of Music (Rochester, N.Y.), consistently ranked as the number 1 music conservatory in the United States.
Local violin student awarded scholarship
(WHEC TV 10 04/13/2014)
Carmen Johnson-Pájaro is a sophomore at the Eastman School of Music – and now the recipient of this year’s Link’s Incorporated Scholarship. On Sunday, she performed as part of a concert to recognize her accomplishments