Here are some select recent clippings 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.)
Eastman School of Music presents Cahill Smith in Review
(New York Concert Review Inc. 03/14/2015)
Eastman School of Music, one of the country’s leading conservatories, under the series title “Eastman in New York” presented one of its fine doctoral graduates, Cahill Smith in a recital of standards and unusual repertoire, all enlivened by Smith’s uncommon musicality.
He is an affable young fellow, with a way of showing facially just where the music is going while he plays, what points it is making, and how his involvement fits with all that, and he does it in a non-obnoxious way, a rare talent. He also at all times gives the impression of creating “on the spot” rather than just parroting something that has been over-learned by rote. This is truly a gift.
Three events in Wichita area: Styx, Jazz Night, the Bretts
(The Wichita Eagle 03/18/2015)
Jazz Night with Clay Jenkins : Trumpet player Clay Jenkins, who teaches at the Eastman School of Music and was a member of the Stan Kenton Orchestra, will be playing the Casado Student Center at Friends University at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Four Friends jazz combos will join Jenkins for a Casado Jazz Night that is free and open to the public, on the lower level of the student center on the campus at 2100 W. University.
Sudden explosions, dueling emotions and thrilling finales at BPO’s Beethoven Festival
(The Buffalo News © 03/17/2015)
Beethoven wrote his songs for the romantic drama Egmont with a 20-year-old actress in mind. The actress, Antonie Adamberger, was a featured artist with the Viennese theater that commissioned the piece, and she would be playing the part of the heroine, Clärchen.
This unusual musical story will come to new life during the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestras upcoming Beethoven Festival. This performance, too, has a kind of significance. Another 20-year-old artist will step into the role created by Toni Adamberger. Matthew Witten is the narrator, and Clärchen is Emily Helenbrook, the promising soprano from Alexander who is currently at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. (Also reported by WBTA, The Batavian )
Jazz at Studio Z: Bags Meets Wes/Dave Hadegorn Meets Zacc Harris on March 21
(Jazz Police 03/18/2015)
Assistant Professor of Music at St. Olaf, Dave Hagedorn teaches percussion, jazz studies and world music. His own education includes a BS in Music Education from the University of Minnesota (where he studied with Marv Dahlgren), an MM in Percussion Performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston (where he studied with Vic Firth), and a DMA from the Eastman School of Music (where he studied with John Beck)
Life begins at 80 for the Long Beach Symphony
(Long Beach Post 03/17/2015)
At the heart of the LBSO’s success is a core of 72 excellent musicians. Many of these players juggle their schedules so they can also play concerts with the Pasadena Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Symphony, and other high-level local ensembles. Their adaptability is coming in handy this year: the LBSO is hosting a series of guest conductors, including William Eddins, who on March 7 led the LBSO through “American Masterworks,” a program saluting American composers Joan Tower, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin.
Eddins, who at age 18 was the youngest-ever graduate of the prestigious Eastman School of Music, is currently the Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. While limbering up backstage before the March 7 concert, he described guest conducting as “the ‘shotgun marriage’ of music. I have to come in, figure out what the orchestra’s all about in three rehearsals, and GO.”
Mormon Tabernacle Choir organist to perform March 22 at Wilson College
(FlipSidePA 0318/2015)
Richard Elliott, principal organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, will conclude the 2014-15 Wilson College Van Looy Organ Series with a performance at 3 p.m. March 22 in Thomson Hall’s Alumnae Chapel. A native of Baltimore, Elliott received his early musical training at the Peabody Conservatory. He has a bachelor’s degree in organ from the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and master’s and doctorate degrees in music from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied under David Craighead, Dale Krider, William Watkins and John Weaver.
Heads up: Margaret Explosion at The Little
(Rochester Democrat & Chronicle © 03/15/2015)
Perhaps Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece was destined to be an opera because ultimately, it’s a meditation on death. In what it’s calling the first Upstate New York presentation of the opera since its 2006 debut in Lake George, the Eastman Opera Theatre presents this opera version Our Town April 9 through 12 in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St. Like the play’s original stage directions, the opera is presented with a minimal set to better allow the mind to accept that this could be your sad town. The opera strays from the play in a number of ways besides that fact that it’s sung. Scenes and characters have been eliminated, but some new elements are added to help tell the story: Joining the narration of the Stage Manager are opera supertitles providing information to fill in the story. Shows are set for 7:30 p.m. April 9, 7:30 p.m. April 10 and 7:30 p.m. April 11, with a 2 p.m. April 12 matinee. Tickets (ranging from $25 to $35) are available at the Eastman Theatre box office in the Eastman East Wing, 433 East Main St., (585) 454-2100, by faxing (585) 454-7885 and at esm.rochester.edu.
Eastman School of Music faculty and students mark Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day —with “A Time To Remember,” a program of works by Jewish composers who died in Nazi concentration camps, and music written in tribute to victims of the Holocaust. The 7:30 p.m. April 12 concert in Kilbourn Hall, 28 Gibbs St., is organized by Eastman Associate Professor of Violin Renée Jolles. Her father, Jerome Jolles, was with a work detail assigned to bury the bodies of those who died during the Nazi occupation of Romania. Surviving the war, he later moved to the United States and studied music and composition at Juilliard. A virtuoso accordion player, piano teacher, and composer, he died in January of 2014.
Lakes Area Looks Forward to ‘A Night in Paris’
(Pineandlakes Echo Journal 03/12/2015)
Be transported to the Parisian cabarets of the 1940s as the Brainerd Lakes Area becomes home to “A Night in Paris” Saturday, April 4. Renowned soprano Maria Jette will take with stage with styling à la Edith Piaf for a special Lakes Area Music Festival winter event. Jette’s performance of standards from the French cabaret will be paired with works from the classical repertoire. Scott Lykins, Lakes Area Music Festival artistic director, will perform cello sonatas by French composers Claude Debussy and Francis Poulenc in collaboration with Philadelphia based pianist Gregory DeTurck.
Scott Lykins serves as the artistic and executive director of the Lakes Area Music Festival; having received Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Eastman School of Music he now performs chamber music and with orchestras around the Midwest. Festival associate artistic director.
John Taylor Ward attended the Eastman School of Music and Yale University and is currently touring the world as a fellow with French baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants. Violinist Kayla Moffett is in her first year with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra after serving as a fellow with the New World Symphony in Miami and completing studies at Yale and the University of Southern California.
Pianist Gregory DeTurck is a frequent collaborator and soloist with the Lakes Area Music Festival. He attended the Eastman School of Music and Juilliard School and is an alumnus of the Academy, a program of Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, and the Weill Music Institute. He has performed and given master classes around the world and is on faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.
Amstel Saxophone Quartet due in for chamber series
(Springfield News Sun © 03/18/2015)
The Chamber Music in Yellow Springs 2014-15 season wraps up at 7:30 p.m. April 26 with the 30th Annual Competition for Emerging Professional Ensembles. This year’s finalists include East End Quartet (Eastman School of Music) and the North Coast Winds (Cleveland Institute of Music).
Theater Review: RBTL presents ‘Annie’
(City Newspaper 03/12/2015)
Based on Harold Gray’s popular comic strip, “Little Orphan Annie,” the show opened on Broadway on April 21, 1977, and ran for 2,377 performances, garnering seven Tony Awards in the process. At the helm of the creative team was Rochester-educated Charles Strouse, who enrolled at Eastman School of Music at the age of 15 and earned his bachelor of music degree in 1947.
Strouse wrote the music for “Annie,” with lyrics by Martin Charnin (who also directs the current touring production) and book by Thomas Meehan. To-date, the show has been running somewhere around the world for the last 38 years and has been performed in 28 languages.
JAZZ | Harold Danko
(Rochester City Newspaper © 03/18/2015)
The title of Harold Danko’s upcoming concert, “Solo Piano Improvisations and Contrafacts” may cause a bit of head scratching. It’s well known that Eastman professor Danko is a keyboard master who has played with Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, and Chet Baker, so the solo piano part needs no explanation. But some may wonder, what’s a contrafact? It’s the name for a new tune built on the chord structure of an existing tune. So in a concert featuring nothing but Danko compositions, we may find out just where those originals originated.
CLASSICAL | Publick Musick
(Rochester City Newspaper © 03/18/2015)
Period-instrument ensemble Publick Musick will be joined by Boston-based soprano Shari Alise Wilsonand organist Edoardo Bellotti for two performances as part of the Memorial Art Gallery’s Third Thursday Concert series with Eastman’s Italian Baroque Organ. The program of works from the early Italian Baroque period features beautiful and expressive solo motets by Alessandro Grandi, and inventive instrumental canzonas and motets by Tarquinio Merula. Wilson and Bellotti will be joined by violinist Boel Gidholm, cellist Christopher Haritatos, Deborah Fox, theorbo, and Naomi Gregory, organ.
Percussion Rochester Festival planned
(Irondequoit Post © 03/18/2015)
The Percussion Rochester Festival will be May 1-2, and will open with a concert featuring Environmental Sustainability A Musical Perspective and other pieces at 8 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, 26 Gibbs St., Rochester. On Drummers Heritage Day, May 2, ceremonial performances will be held at notable grave sites throughout the day, followed by a muster at High Falls Terrace at 6 p.m. featuring music from the American Revolution performed by local fifers and drummers along with the U.S. Army’s Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. Admission is free to all events. For more information, visit percussionrochester.com.
Music Week Declared in the City of Brownwood Honoring Texas Federation of Music Clubs’ 100th Anniversary
(Big Country Home Page 03/18/2015)
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Texas Federation of Music Clubs, a few of the current members, teachers and officers with the Texas Federation of Music Clubs gathered for a photo at Victory Life Academy in Brownwood. Councilman Jerry DeHay read a proclamation declaring this week as “Music Week” in Brownwood in honor of the anniversary and upcoming convention.
One portion of the event will be held Friday, March 20 at the First United Methodist Church when Olga Krayterman, a Bela-Russian born American pianist will perform. Krayterman is a past winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist award. Making her orchestral debut with the South Carolina Philharmonic at 17, Krayterman has earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.