(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.)
Alarm Will Sound forging connections across stylistic, geographic boundaries with concert at CSU
(Cleveland Plain Dealer 03/24/2015)
Alarm Will Sound doesn’t just talk the talk. No, as its concert here Monday makes clear beyond doubt, it also walks the walk. Sure, it sounds great when Gavin Chuck, managing director of perhaps the most potent force in contemporary music, talks of modern art establishing bonds.
Of all the music it could have programmed, given its high profile and almost limitless potential as a chamber orchestra founded at the Eastman School of Music, AWS chose pieces by Andrew Rindfleisch and Clint Needham, composition professors at Cleveland State and Baldwin Wallace Universities, respectively. (Also reported by Cleveland Scene)
Steve Gadd to appear final night of Jazz Fest
(Rochester Business Journal © 03/24/2015)
Rochester fans might say it is like saving the best for last. Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival producers announced Rochester’s drumming master Steve Gadd and his band will perform as the final headliner for the nine-day event.
The Eastman School of Music graduate also will have a surprise special guest June 26 at the Eastman Theatre at 8 p.m. (Related story reported by Irondequoit Post)
Eastman School of Music Appoints James C. Doser as Director of Institute for Music Leadership
(Penfield Post © 03/25/2015)
James C. Doser, an award-winning educator and administrator, musician, and businessman, has been named Director of the Eastman School of Music’s Institute for Music Leadership. He will be responsible for overseeing all Institute activities and programs, including the Catherine Filene Shouse Arts Leadership Program, the Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research, the Center for Music Innovation and Engagement, and the Orchestra Musician Forum.
Doser has forged a wide-ranging career creating national and local arts and education projects, teaching at Eastman and in the Penfield, N.Y., school district, performing with regional and national jazz artists and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and directing Tritone Music, Inc., which organizes and manages jazz camps for adults in New York and Wisconsin. (Also reported by Jazz Clubs Worldwide )
WXXI TV wins Four Telly Awards
(WXXI 03/27/2015)
WXXI has won four Telly awards – three bronze awards for its national health care series, Second Opinion, and a fourth bronze for its documentary Music for Life: The Story of New Horizons. The Telly Awards Competition recognizes distinction in local, regional, and cable TV programs and commercials, as well as video and film productions.
Music for Life: The Story of New Horizons shares the heartwarming stories of a group of seniors who rekindled, or found for the first time, their passion for music and performing through the formation of the New Horizons band. The documentary was funded in part by Eastman School of Music, New Horizons, and the Waldron Rise Foundation.
Musicians for Michiana plays for La Casa
(South Bend Tribune 03/26/2015)
When Musicians for Michiana performs Sunday at the Music Village for its second concert of the season, the theme will be “Latin Rhythms,” but the focus will be on classical 20th- and 21st-century compositions from South America for the flute and string quartet.
“Musicians for Michiana is not a salsa band,” Musicians for Michiana founder Jennet Ingle says.
Ingle, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music who has served as principal oboist with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra since 2006 and serves as instructor of oboe at both Valparaiso University and Goshen College, “handpicked” the musicians to perform at the “Latin Rhythms” concert.
Thurnauer Holds Master Class with with World-Renowned Classical Guitarist
(Jewish Link of New Jersey 03/26/2015)
Eight guitarists, age 9-16, selected by audition from throughout the tri-state area, had the great opportunity to learn from renowned classical guitarist, Nicholas Goluses, head of the guitar program at the Eastman School of Music, in a master class at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music.
Bristol Riverside Theatre Presents RAGTIME, Now Through 4/12
(Broadway World 03/17/2015)
Bristol Riverside Theatre explores what it means to be an American with its production of Ragtime tonight, March 17-April 12. The Tony Award-winning musical with book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens is directed by Keith Baker and features Leslie Becker, Derrick Cobey, David Edwards, Tamar Greene, Michael Thomas Holmes, Matt Leisy and Ciji Prosser.
Tamar Greene (Booker T. Washington) has performed in the national tours of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and regionally in Rent, The Wiz and Little Shop of Horrors. With a Masters from Eastman School of Music, he has appeared with Oswego Opera Theatre, Eastman Opera Theatre, and Rochester Lyric Opera.
Two Q-C chamber music concerts this weekend
(Dispatch-Argus Quad Cities Online 03/26/2015)
The QCSO Signature Series at Augustana College features the orchestra’s principal cellist, Hannah Holman, with pianist Rene Lecuona, in a program of another “three Bs” — Beethoven, Leon Boellmann, and Frank Bridge. Boellmann (1862-1897) was a French composer best known for organ works. Bridge (1879-1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor.
Ms. Holman — who served on the University of Iowa music faculty from 2002 to 2012 — is also a cellist with the New York City Ballet Orchestra. In 2012, she released her first solo CD, a recording of the complete cello sonatas by Bernhard Romberg with Dr. Lecuona, who is a piano professor at University of Iowa. Ms. Holman began her professional career in England with the English String Orchestra under Yehudi Menuhin. She studied at the Eastman School of Music and Michigan State University, and earned her master’s degree at the New England Conservatory.
She has served on the faculties of the Worcester College (UK), Michigan State University Community School, and Virginia Union University. Dr. Lecuona earned her doctor of musical arts degree in piano performance and was awarded a performer’s certificate at Eastman, and received undergraduate and master’s degrees at the Indiana University School of Music. Her major teachers have included Menahem Pressler of the Beaux Arts Trio.
THE WORLD is coming to Chillicothe this Sunday
(Chillicothe Constitution Tribune © 03/25/2015)
One of the best ragtime/boogie-woogie pianists in THE WORLD is coming to Chillicothe to perform at the Gary Dickinson Performing Arts Center at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 29. Bob Milne will bring his superlative keyboard skills to Chillicothe, courtesy of the Chillicothe Area Arts Council.
He is considered a Musical Ambassador for the United States Department of State. He has performed throughout the world, including a special performance for members of the Swiss Parliament at the U.S. Embassy in Berne. In Missouri, he has also performed at the Blind Boone Ragtime Festival in Columbia. Milne is also the founder of the Frankenmuth Ragtime Festival, which will be celebrating its 21st year in Michigan this spring. Other well-known festivals he has participated in include the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Eau Claire Ragtime Festival, the Sacramento Ragtime Festival and many more. Milne was actually a French horn player in high school. At the age of 17 he attended the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Shortly thereafter he began performing in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
Rogue Valley musicians shine in OLLI’s spring class schedule
(Ashland Daily Tidings 03/11/2015)
Imagine a live music series where each week one of the area’s top experts presents a rare, insider’s look at current music topics for your enjoyment. That’s the idea behind “Spotlight on the SOU Music Faculty,” a unique, seven-week class offered through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Southern Oregon University. Classes begin at 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 3, and continue once a week through May 22. Registration closes Friday, March 13, but there a late registration period for unfilled classes opens March 30.
“I felt that the public had no idea how talented the music faculty is,” says Peggy Evans, creator and mastermind of the series.
A graduate of the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Evans was a music faculty member at Southern Oregon University from 1981 through 2007.
Music For All
(Webster Post © 03/26/2015)
March is National Music In Our Schools Month and St. Rita School in Webster celebrated by hosting four music ensembles from the Eastman School of Music. This experience was sponsored by a program titled “Music For All” which places chamber groups from the Eastman School of Music in local area elementary schools.
Members from the Mozart Quartet, Shostakovich Trio, Prokofiev Sextet and Beethoven Trio performed and answered questions in forty-five minute sets for students ranging from First through Fifth Grades. Music teacher Sarah Wilke said, “not only were the presentations fantastic and intimate musical experiences for our students but, were also cultural encounters.”
ALBUM REVIEW: “From The Garage”
(Rochester City Newspaper © 03/18/2015)
In the history of jazz there are many notable pairings of pianists with saxophonists (Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Stan Getz) but most, including the above mentioned, involve a rhythm section and are not strictly duets. Still, they are meetings of distinct musical personalities designed to draw out creative interplay as the musicians react to each other. “Crossing Paths,” the title of the new album by saxophonist Alexa Tarantino and pianist Dariusz Terefenko, alludes to the potential in such a pairing. The album, consisting entirely of duets, fulfills that promise beautifully.
Tarantino got to know Terefenko while studying at the Eastman School of music where he teaches. Terefenko is well known for his Art Tatum-like brilliance at the keyboard, and over the years in the school’s jazz ensembles, Tarantino’s reputation for bold solos grew exponentially. (At last year’s Jazz Festival, she blew the crowd away soloing with Earth, Wind Fire.) On this CD, they interact wonderfully on standards like “In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning” and “Dolphin Dance.” Both display a talent for composition, notably on Tarantino’s gorgeous “Final Breaths” and Terefenko’s playfully complex “It’s You and Me.” They also venture into the sort of classical-jazz hybrid one might expect from Eastman musicians with two wonderful arrangements of works by composer Alban Berg.
BPO’s Beethoven Festival presents ‘Emperor ‘ and ‘Egmont’
(Buffalo News 03/24/2015)
Beethoven’s romantic drama “Egmont” has a rich history with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1935, the magnificent overture was the first piece on the orchestra’s first season, according to BPO archives. The incidental music was performed in its entirety in 1980, with Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink on “Hogan’s Heroes”) acting as narrator. This weekend, Road Less Traveled Productions is teaming with the BPO for a dramatized performance of the incidental music. Matthew Witten is the narrator, and the soprano soloist is Emily Helenbrook, the promising soprano from Alexander who is currently at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.
The concert, Part 2 of the BPO’s two-week Beethoven Festival, also includes Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, the “Emperor.”
I Scene It: Third Coast Percussion at Kilbourn Hall
(Rochester City Newspaper © 03/25/2015)
Five blocks of wood, four thick dowels, and a mallet. If that sounds like the ingredients for a woodworking project from your 8th-grade shop class, you were not at Kilbourn Hall Tuesday night with Third Coast Percussion.
The four members of the group — David Skidmore, Peter Martin, Robert Dillon, and Sean Conners — were joined by Eastman Professor Michael Burritt for the most minimal of several minimalist pieces sprinkled throughout the concert. Burritt had mentored all of the group’s members when he was teaching at Northwestern University and they were clearly delighted to be sharing the stage with him.