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.)
Review: John Adams’s Newest Opera Returns to the Gold Mines
(The New York Times 03/02/2019)
And it’s difficult to imagine anyone else in the role of Dame Shirley, an eloquent observer of Gold Rush life, other than Ms. Bullock (Julia), who sings — deftly somber, ardent, joyous — as if each note were written only for her. She even makes the opera’s long running time bearable with a sublime epilogue: her voice heavenly as she describes “the wonderful and never-enough-to-be-talked-about sky of California,” and Mr. Adams’s music eerily lustrous, like a precious metal worth killing for.
New York’s Mannes School of Music Announces New Quartet-In-Residence
(The Violin Channel 02/25/2019)
The Mannes School of Music, in New York City, has today announced the JACK Quartet as its new Quartet-In-Residence – effective from September of this year. …
The ensemble, formed at the Eastman School of Music in 2005, were earlier this month awarded the University of Washington’s 2019 Creative Fellowship – and were recently crowned Musical America’s 2019 ‘Ensemble of the Year’.
SAD NEWS | Former Eastman School Violin Professor Abram Loft Has Died – Aged 97 [RIP]
(The Violin Channel 03/01/2019)
A Ph.D graduate from Columbia University, he performed as 2nd violinist with the Chicago-based Fine Arts String Quartet from 1954 until 1979 – before going on to serve a teaching Professorship at the Eastman School of Music until his retirement in 1986.
Remembering André Previn in Rochester
(WXXI News 03/01/2019)
His compositions included an opera version of A Streetcar Named Desire – written for Renee Fleming in the starring role. And in 2014, he wrote a piece for the Eastman Wind Ensemble: Music for Wind Orchestra (No strings attached).
When he visited for the premiere, Previn was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Rochester, and worked with students at the Eastman School of Music.
Rochester Music HOF continues ‘Books Backstage’ with percussionist John Beck
(foxrochester.com 02/28/2019)
The Rochester Music Hall of Fame will continue its “Books Backstage” series with a reading and discussion featuring John Beck, a composer and Professor Emeritus of Percussion at Eastman School of Music. …
MODERN CLASSICAL | Musica Nova with George Lewis
(City Newspaper 02/27/2019)
On Monday, Musica Nova welcomes George Lewis as guest composer for a program centered on his eclectic and cathartic works. The Eastman School of Music‘s contemporary classical chamber ensemble, conducted in this program by Edo Frenkel, is well-suited to Lewis’s ecstatically noisy aesthetic. Don’t be fooled, though: There’s plenty of control to the chaos, with clever lyricism subtly embedded in the phrases. Musica Nova will perform the stormy, orchestral dreamscape that is “The Will to Adorn” and the explosive, spoken-word experiment “Anthem,” among other pieces. The music may be avant-garde, but that doesn’t make it any less engaging.
Music greats will headline a ‘Weekend of Jazz Festival’
(dayton.com 02/25/2019)
The Eastman New Jazz Ensemble will headline Saturday night. Based at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York, the ensemble has recorded six albums, and won the “Best College Big Band Award” from downbeat Student Music.
(City Newspaper 03/04/2019)
Start with the distinctive instrumentation: Gary Versace on accordion; John Ellis, bass clarinet and saxophones; Hank Roberts, cello; and Joe Martin on bass. The unusual combination of timbres somehow conjures up the feel of country life throughout the album. Versace – an Eastman School of Music professor – is especially strong, moving effortlessly from elegiac to lilting in his solos. Royston not only plays subtly; he showcases his formidable skills as a composer with beautiful tunes like “Soul Train,” “boy…MAN,” and “I Guess It’s Time to Go.”
Crabapple to deliver ‘Humanities to the Rescue’ keynote address
(University at Buffalo Reporter 03/05/2019)
The month following Crabapple’s keynote, the HI will present the concluding segment of this year’s “Humanities to the Rescue” program with its Weill symposium, “Sounds.”
The intersection between aesthetic experimentation, critical theory and political upheaval that has historically been associated with the first decades of the 20th century has undeniable echoes in today’s world.
Three featured speakers will discuss that intersection of aesthetic experimentation and critical theory in connection to music in general and Weill in particular: Kim Kowalke, professor of musicology at the Eastman School of Music, and professor of music and chair of the College Department of Music at the University of Rochester; …
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