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.)
(Broadway World Opera 01/12/2017)
American Lyric Theater (ALT) in partnership with MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale), presents The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turingon on January 12, 2017 at 7:30pm in the Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 W 67th Street, New York City. With music by Justine F. Chen and libretto by David Simpatico, this opera is a historical-fantasia inspired by the life of the groundbreaking computer scientist, Alan Turing. Conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya. Featuring Jonathan Michie as Alan Turing, with Keely Futterer, Elise Quagliata, Andrew Bidlack, Javier Abreu, Joseph Beutel and Thomas Shivone, with members of MasterVoices.
Soprano KEELY FUTTERER is a native of Dover, Arkansas who is beginning her Doctoral work at the Eastman School of Music, where she studies with Kathryn Cowdrick. Keely has performed Cunegonde in Candide, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance at Arkansas Tech University, Adina in L’elisir d’amore at Opera in the Ozarks, and Mrs. Fiorentino in Street Scene at Eastman. She won the Trinity UM Collegiate Award, the Encouragement Award at the Arkansas MET auditions, was a two-time finalist at the Tulsa Rotary Crescendo Awards, was a featured soloist with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded the Little Rock Music Coterie Award. In recent years she took second place at the Friends of Eastman Opera Competition and was a finalist for the Jesse Kneisel Lieder Competition at Eastman. She is also an alumna of Opera Saratoga’s Young Artist program, where she most recently sang the role of The Witch Mother in the American premiere of Philip Glass’s The Witches of Venice. (NOTE: Jonathan Michie is an Eastman graduate BM 06 MM 08.)
Eastman Hosts Conference for Current and Future Music School Leaders
(School Band and Orchestra 1/13/2017)
The Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester will present The Eastman Leadership Conference from June 21 to 24 where current and future music school leaders will have the opportunity to learn and discuss policies, programs, and strategies in a collaborative, professional, and musically rich environment.
Iowa City’s Preucil legacy runs deep through Cleveland Orchestra, coming to Hancher
(Cedar Rapids Gazette 01/14/2017)
As with music, where timing is crucial, so it has been with his life. After Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conductor Robert Shaw retired in 1988, Preucil soon moved north to teach at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. There, he returned to his intimate ensemble roots, playing with the Grammy-winning Cleveland Quartet. That celebrated ensemble maintained a rigorous touring schedule until the members decided to disband in 1995, around the time the concertmaster position opened with the Cleveland Orchestra.
Think Big: 6 people with grand plans for Rochester
(Democrat & Chronicle 01/12/2017)
Keith Elder Eastman’s star catcher
Elder, director of Concert Activities at the Eastman School of Music, has had an equally eclectic mix of careers. His jobs have included a tuba player and teacher, a concert promoter and a lawyer. Four years ago, he joined Eastman with a goal “to continue George Eastman’s vision of great music” while positioning Rochester as a leader in the performance world.
Brian Dollinger, new artistic director for KP, and wife will perform
(West Hawaii Today 01/13/2017)
Brian Dollinger, the new artistic director of the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra, and wife, Rei Hotoda, a concert pianist and conductor, will perform at a private residence in Kohala Ranch benefitting the musical group. . . . Hotoda holds degrees in piano performance from the University of Southern California and Eastman School of Music, and studied conducting with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.
Violinist Katherine Winterstein
(Rutland Herald 01/12/2017)
For Katherine Winterstein, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s longtime concertmaster, Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto is perfect for right now. . . . Winterstein went on to earn her bachelor’s degree at Eastman School of music, where she studied with Charles Castleman; and her master’s at Boston University School for the Arts, where she worked with Peter Zazofsky. She has been on the faculty of the Hartt School of Music since 2011, and joined the artist faculty of Brown University in 2015.
Choral group to perform spiritual songs at Cherry Hill Presbyterian in Dearborn
(Dearborn Press & Guide 01/06/2017)
Founded and led by Tom Trenney, Sounding Light includes an ensemble of choral singers from seven states. Trenney, who was formerly minister of music at First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, now serves as minister of music at First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Neb. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music, he teaches at Doane University and serves as regional Music in Worship chair for the American Choral Directors Association.
Virtuoso and Angelic harpists pluck Saranac
(Press-Republican 01/11/2017)
Lilac 94, a contemporary harp duo, dedicated to performing new, rarely performed music
Kathryn Sloat spied her first harp in the hands of fifth-grade girls in the Capitol District. She performs with Christina Brier at a Jan. 22 Hill and Hollow Music concert at the Saranac United Methodist Church.
Lucy McCaffrey was her first harp teacher, and Sloat pursued studies at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music followed by graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music. “That’s where I met Christina, and that’s when we started the harp duo,” she said. A class requirement at Eastman paired the two in their first semester. “We had to have a chamber-music credit for our degrees,” Sloat said.
The Dessoff Choirs Performs All-French Program 2/26
(Broadworld.com 01/11/2017)
“Like the French impressionist visual art, music of the same period is rich with texture and color,” says Malcolm J. Merriweather, Dessoff’s ninth Music Director. “I am excited to hear the choir resonate in the splendor of St. Jean Baptiste as we explore a diverse survey of choral repertoire by the most celebrated French composers of the 20th century.”
Malcolm J. Merriweather, recently appointed as the ninth Music Director and conductor of The Dessoff Choirs, is presenting his first season with The Dessoff Choirs beginning in September 2016. Conductor, baritone, and educator, he is also the current Director of Choirs at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York, Artist in Residence at Union Theological Seminary, and the Music Director of the “Voices of Haiti,” a 60-member children’s choir in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, funded by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. . . . A protégé of Kent Tritle, Merriweather holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the Manhattan School of Music, and Master of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music, as well as his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Syracuse University. His professional affiliations include membership in Pi Kappa Lambda, the American Choral Directors Association, the Association for Anglican Musicians, and Chorus America.
Folk Landscapes presented by Lakes Area Music Festival
(Wadeena Pioneer-Journal 01/06/2017)
On Sunday, Jan. 8 the Lakes Area Music Festival will kick off the new year with a concert titled “Folk Landscapes.” The concert is the second of a four concert Winter Series of the organization and will feature past LAMF musicians: violinist Francesca Anderegg, cellist Scott Lykins, and pianist Tanya Gabrielian.
The Lakes Area Music Festival brings over 130 musicians from around the country for three weeks of classical music performance in the Brainerd Lakes Area, including chamber music, symphonic orchestra, opera, and ballet. The collaborative roster includes talent from ensembles and conservatories such as the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Metropolitan Opera, Minnesota Opera, Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Curtis Institute, and more. With thousands in attendance each season, LAMF has become one of the most significant summertime destinations for classical music in the Midwest. For more information about the Lakes Area Music Festival, visit lakesareamusic.org. (NOTE: Scott Lykins is an Eastman School of Music graduate BM 09 MM 11 and a founder of the Lakes Area Music Festival.)
Former GCC music professor Jeff Resnick re-releasing album 40 years later
(Daily News 01/12/2017)
So just how does one emulate the artistic side of glass? Think about the blazing furnace used to melt glass. That was translated into piano, the soft sizzle of cymbals and woodwind. He and Eastman School of Music faculty members Jeff Tyzik, woodwind specialist Ramon Ricker, drummer Dave Mancini and bassist Aleck Brinkman, plus pianist Sonny Kompanek and Tom Rizzo, an acclaimed Rochester guitarist, improvised their way through it all.
Cellist in concert at St. John’s Jan. 25
(YourGV.com 01/11/2017)
St. John’s Church in Halifax will host a free mid-winter concert at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 25, when Peter Seidenburg, acclaimed and talented cellist, visits Southside Virginia with his accompanist Hui Mei Lin at St. John’s. Seidenberg began his studies at the age of 6, with Nell Novak of the Music Center of the North Shore in Winnetka, Illinois. He later received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, graduating from both schools with the highest honors.
WXXI announces January programming
(Fairport-East Rochester Post 01/12/2017)
“Backstage Pass” will air at 1 p.m. Jan. 21 on Classical 91.5. Julia Figueras will welcome Eastman School of Music professor Larry Zalkind and the Eastman Trombone Choir. Zalkind will talk about reshaping the Eastman Trombone Studio.
Eastman Opera Theatre to stage works of survival, loss
(Webster Post 01/10/2017)
Eastman Opera Theatre will present two works of loss and survival by American composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer starting Feb. 2 in the Eastman School of Music Annex, Swan Street, Rochester. Heggie and Scheer will convey the scope of the Holocaust through the stories of survivors Krystyna Zywulska and Gad Beck in “Out of the Darkness” at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2, 4 and 9 and at 2 p.m. Feb. 12. “Into the Fire” will explore themes of human connection and isolation, including a song cycle based on the life of sculptor Camille Claudel, at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 and 11 and at 2 p.m. Feb. 5.