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.)
Ayden Adler appointed new DePauw School of Music Dean
(Banner Graphic 04/29/2016)
Ayden Adler, formerly senior vice president and dean of the New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy (NWS), has been appointed the new dean of the DePauw University School of Music. Adler will assume leadership of the nation’s sixth-oldest private institution for post-secondary music instruction (founded in 1884) and the longest-running in Indiana on July 1, DePauw President-elect D. Mark McCoy announced.
As an artist, Adler performed as a tenured member of the horn section of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for 10 years and taught horn, natural horn, and music history at the Eastman School of Music. Adler holds degrees from Princeton University (A.B.), the Juilliard School (M.M.), and the Eastman School of Music (M.A., D.M.A., Ph.D.). (Also reported by Inside Indiana Business)
Niagara Falls teacher shares her love of music with students and the community
(The Buffalo News 05/01/2016)
Singer/songwriter Christina Custode isn’t a household name – yet. But she is already a star to her biggest fans, her elementary students in the Niagara Falls School District.
Christina has both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastman in piano performance and music education. (Also reported by Niagarafallsreporter.com)
Athayde, RPO Pops to premiere Tyzik jazz concerto
(Democrat and Chronicle 04/30/2016)
And Tyzik has put together a killer rhythm section for the performance: drummer and Eastman graduate student Eric Metzger, guitarist Bob Sneider, pianist John Nyerges and RPO bass player Jeff Campbell. …
“Then I just had an epiphany,” he says. “Sam Adler, my composition teacher from Eastman, always said to me, ‘If you’re going to add something to the repertoire, add something that doesn’t exist. Or write for an instrument that doesn’t have a lot of material written for it.’ Well, violin probably has the most repertoire ever, so what could I add to that?”
“I was really intimidated many times as a young performer. Especially when I came to this school,” he said, sweeping his arm to embrace the environs of the Eastman School of Music, where he earned two degrees. “There was one particular teacher who I worked with for many years after I left the school: Chuck Mangione. Chuck was very intimidating. (Also reported by MPNnow.com)
Magic Valley Symphony to Perform Tribute to Vincent Family
(MagicValley.com 04/29/2016)
Their daughter Laura Vizzutti will take part in a musical medley composed by her husband, Allen Vizzutti, a well-known trumpet player.
The Vizzuttis met while studying at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. They have toured the world performing recitals together and as …
Mercury to Conclude 15th Anniversary Season with Beethoven’s Ninth
(Broadway World 04/29/2016)
Mercury presents this joyful and triumphant masterpiece on period instruments, as audiences would have heard at its premiere in 1824, alongside vocalists Mary Wilson (soprano), Sarah Mesko (alto), Zachary Wilder (tenor) and Tyler Duncan (baritone).
Mr. Wilder graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a Bachelor’s degree before completing a Master’s degree at the Moores School of Music, …
Cross-community concert series will begin Friday night
(Observer Today 04/28/2016)
Friday and Saturday, graduate students from Rochester’s famed Eastman School of Music will perform locally for school-aged children and the public in a two-concert series entitled “Embracing the Classics: An opera outreach and musical theater presentation.”
Internationally renowned organist to play Christ Church
(The Andover Townsman 04/28/2016)
Educated at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, New York, Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., Brisson holds degrees in organ performance and sacred music
Fuerst retires to focus on composing
(The Collegian 4/28/2016)
Associate Professor of Music Matthew Fuerst first visited Hillsdale College as a composer.
Fuerst studied composition at the Eastman School of Music and did his master’s and Ph.D. at the Juilliard School, and after moving to New York, he began writing for pianist and former fellow student at Eastman, David Riley, after he met Riley in a pizza place in New York. Riley was working with violinist Jasper Wood, and the two brought on Fuerst to compose some pieces for them.
Michael Lasser, Cindy Miller and Alan Jones to Celebrate Lyrics of Sheldon Harnick at NY Society …
(Broadway World 04/28/2016)
Cindy Miller received her Master’s degree from the
Singer, pianist, songwriter, and educator Alan Jones is best known as a cabaret performer whose style has been compared to Billy Eckstine. Holding a Master’s from the Eastman School of Music, …
MACE to Perform at The New School’s Ernst C. Stiefel Concert Hall, 5/11
(Broadway World 04/28/2016)
Conducted by Alan Pierson, the program will feature selections by Steve Reich, Thomas Weaver, and Caleb Burhans.
Pierson received bachelor degrees in physics and music from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in conducting from the Eastman School of Music.
Columbus Composer Adam Roberts Receives Prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship
(WOSU Public Media 04/27/2016)
As a Guggenheim Fellow, Roberts, a Columbus native and a graduate of the Columbus Academy, the Eastman School of Music and Harvard University, joins the elite ranks of past fellows, including composers Samuel Barber, George Antheil, Dominick Argento, and William Bolcom, Chris Theofanidis and Mason Bates among others. The 2016 class of music composition Guggenheim Fellows is no less select.
Neon rhythm: A spontaneous symphony among historic signs
(Las Vegas Weekly (blog) 04/27/2016)
Composer Jennifer Bellor is commanding a small audience under the sun in the Neon Museum’s north gallery, where she’s the artist-in-residence working among the giant and famously historic signs. With a Ph.D. in music composition from Eastman School of Music and a master’s in composition from Syracuse University, she’s reverting to the basics—rhythm and voice—to engage the group in creating music on the spot.
Renee Fleming takes on Georgia O’Keeffe role
(Democrat & Chronicle © 04/26/2016)
Centuries of classical vocal pieces have not been kind to women, where “the heroes are typically 16 years old and victims of something,” says Renée Fleming.
Fleming helps to bring that dusty stereotype into the 21st century when she joins the Eastman School of Music’s Eastman Philharmonia in November for two performances of a new work based on letters written by the artist Georgia O’Keeffe. The composition, written for Fleming and the Philharmonia by Kevin Puts, who like Fleming is an Eastman alumnus, gets its world premiere Nov. 12 at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre.
Two days later, they’ll bring the new work to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Art’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City.
“What particularly excites me is the Eastman School of Music was conceived to be the American school of music,” said the school’s director, Jamal Rossi, adding that this work written by an American composer about an American artist was written especially for “the most American voice,” Fleming. (Also reported by 13WHAM-TV, WXXI, Time Warner Cable News, Daily Journal, The Charlotte Observer, Topix, Wopular, GeoNews, Watertown Daily Times, Daily Reporter, Albany Times Union)
Jazz bassist and vocalist Katie Ernst rises like the tide
(Chicago Reader 04/26/2016)
In summer 2011, having just earned a degree in jazz studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Ernst began an internship at the Jazz Institute of Chicago, the venerable organization that programs the annual Chicago Jazz Festival—and further promotes the music by organizing free concerts year-round and running a wide variety of educational programs.
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