Eastman School of Music Announces New Faculty Members

Eastman School of Music is proud to announce several new full-time and visiting faculty appointments for the 2019-2020 academic year:

• Lisa Caravan, Assistant Professor of Music Education
• Lisa Crawford, Professor of Harpsichord
• Andrew Harley, Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano
• John Kapusta, Assistant Professor of Musicology
• Nathan Laube, Associate Professor of Organ
• Joseph Rackers, Visiting Professor of Piano
• Michael Wayne, Associate Professor of Clarinet
• Itamar Zorman, Associate Professor of Violin

“I am thrilled by the extraordinary roster of renowned artist/teachers who will be joining the faculty this fall,” says Jamal Rossi, the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean at Eastman. “Each of them has astonishing backgrounds of professional accomplishments, coupled with a passionate commitment to exceptional teaching that is a hallmark of the Eastman experience.”   

Eastman graduate Dr. Lisa R. Caravan ‘07E (MM), ‘12E (DMA), a string pedagogue, cellist, and conductor, most recently served as assistant professor of music at Bucknell University. At Eastman she was the first recipient of the Donald Shetler Music Education Prize, and also received a Teaching Assistant Prize for Excellence in Teaching. As a sought-after clinician, Dr. Caravan has worked with orchestral ensembles regionally, nationally, and internationally and has presented her research at conferences including the American String Teachers Association, College Music Society, Suzuki Association of Americas Conference, National Association for Music Education Eastern Division Conference, and New York State School Music Association. Her research interests include music teacher preparation, cello pedagogy, and 21^st century practice pedagogy.Dr. Caravan served until 2019 as principal cellist of the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, was assistant principal cellist of the Binghamton Philharmonic, and has performed with the Charleston Symphony, Columbus Symphony (GA), and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras. She has also performed in Paris and London with the Weis Trio.

“I feel fortunate for this opportunity to return home and honored to join Eastman’s vibrant community of artists and scholars,” shares Dr. Caravan. “I look forward to engaging with the extraordinary Eastman students and collaborating with my amazing colleagues.”

One of the most respected harpsichord teachers in the United States, Lisa Goode Crawford is Emerita Professor of Harpsichord at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she was a central figure in that institution’s early music program from 1973-2005.  She was a member of the renowned Oberlin Baroque Ensemble and continues as a faculty member at the summer Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute.  She holds the A.B. and M.A. degrees in music from Harvard University.  She has recorded works of Royer and Rameau and Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and has participated in many ensemble recordings. Two of her solo recordings, one of Bach and one of Francois Couperin, were performed on the 1624 Ioannes Ruckers harpsichord at the Musée d’Unterlinden in Colmar, France. Together with Mitzi Meyerson, Ms. Crawford has recorded two-harpsichord arrangements of the music of Gaspard Le Roux for Harmonia Mundi France, using two eighteenth-century French harpsichords in the Russell Collection at the University of Edinburgh. Ms. Crawford edited the harpsichord music of Pancrace Royer as well as two of his operas, for which she produced the modern premieres at Oberlin and at the Chateau de Versailles, as well as publishing critical editions with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

“I am thrilled to be coming to Eastman in the fall,” says Crawford. “I look forward to working with Eastman’s talented students, to joining and collaborating with the stellar faculty in the organ department, and to working with the equally stellar early music faculty.”

English pianist Andrew Harley enjoys an internationally recognized performing and teaching career. Specializing in instrumental chamber music and song literature, Dr. Harley’s previous appointments include The Juilliard School, The Aspen Music Festival and School, University of Southern California, Music Academy of the West, Vancouver International Song Institute, and Villa Musica in Germany.  He has given masterclasses at The New England Conservatory, Indiana University Bloomington, and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, where he served as Visiting Guest Faculty. Dr. Harley concertizes at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, SchumannSaal, Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court of the United States, collaborating with such distinguished recital partners as J’Nai Bridges, Denyce Graves, Lynn Harrell, Susanna Phillips, Eric Owens, and members of The Cleveland Quartet, The Juilliard Quartet, Talich Quartet, as well as concertmasters and principal players of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra (WDR) Cologne, Radio Symphony Orchestra (NDR) Hamburg, Teatro La Fenice, and Teatro alla Scala. 

“The Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music Degree Program at Eastman is one of the most nationally distinguished programs at one of the most historically distinguished schools of music in the world,” states Harley. “I am both humbled and honored to serve as its new Director.”

Current faculty members John Kapusta and Nathan Laube were recently promoted to tenure-track positions.

John Kapusta is a historical musicologist whose research focuses on voice and opera studies and musical life in the twentieth-century United States. His essays and reviews have been published or are forthcoming in the Journal of the Society for American Music and American Music. He is currently writing a new musical history of the U.S. counterculture. John received his PhD in music history and literature from the University of California, Berkeley and his AB from Harvard College. Before completing his PhD, he studied voice at the New England Conservatory, was a National Semi-Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and performed solo roles with the Houston Grand Opera, the Washington National Opera, and other companies.

“In many ways, I feel I have come full circle,” says Kapusta. “I heard Mahler for the first time in Sibley Library while attending the Eastman Music Horizons high school summer program. I later performed in Kodak Hall with the New York All-State Orchestra under Neil Varon. These transformational Eastman experiences put me on the path to a life in music and musicology. I have been floored by the talent of the students and the warmth of the community since coming to Eastman two years ago, and I look forward to serving the school in the years ahead.”

In addition to serving on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music, and as International Consultant in Organ Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK, Nathan Laube’s extensive recital career includes major venues spanning four continents.  He appears often in the world’s major concert halls in Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Seoul, Geneva, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, and Montreal, among others.  Recent highlights have included Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.  He had the honor of performing the first inaugural recital of the restored organ of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. In 2017, he was appointed the first “Organist in Residence” on the celebrated 1738 Christiaan Müller organ in St. Bavo in Haarlem, the Netherlands.  Most recently, he performed J.S. Bach’s complete third part of the Clavierübung at London’s Royal Festival Hall.  Mr. Laube is regularly invited to important international organ festivals in Europe as a performer, lecturer, and pedagogue.  Mr. Laube’s recording of the Stephen Paulus Grand Concerto on the Naxos label recorded with the Nashville Symphony and Giancarlo Guerrero, received a Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium.

“I am so excited and grateful for this next chapter here at Eastman in my new role,” shares Laube.  “Working here with the talented students and cherished colleagues for these last six years has been an extraordinary experience, and with Eastman’s unrivaled resources in organ study, I am look forward to more meaningful music-making here in Rochester.”

Eastman alumnus Joseph Rackers ‘01E (MM), ‘05 E (DMA) will be a Visiting Professor of Piano this academic year, with an appointment to full Professor already slated for July 2020.“It is an honor to join the piano faculty at the Eastman School of Music, a group of artists that I have admired for many years,” he says.  “Eastman is at the forefront of training the next generation of musicians and I look forward to being a part of this wonderful community of students and colleagues.”  Hailed as an “American Virtuoso” (Audiophile Audition), Rackers has performed for enthusiastic audiences across the US and internationally including the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Kiev International Music Festival, and Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival.  Also active as a chamber musician, Rackers has performed widely as a member of the Lomazov/Rackers Piano Duo. Rackers is Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Piano Department at the University of South Carolina School of Music and serves as Co-Director of the Southeastern Piano Festival. Rackers is a Steinway artist.

Clarinetist Michael Wayne shares, “I am thrilled and honored to be joining the faculty of the Eastman School of Music and look forward to working with the students and faculty at this illustrious institution.” Wayne has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops clarinet section since 2008. Prior to joining the BSO, he was Principal Clarinet of the Kansas City Symphony and a member of the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra. He was previously on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music and Tanglewood Music Center and has been a visiting professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Wayne can be seen in numerous PBS Great Performances specials with the Boston Symphony and Pops, recorded at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood. He made his Carnegie Hall solo debut with the world premiere of Michael Daugherty’s clarinet concerto, Brooklyn Bridge. Other recording projects include the multi Grammy Award-winning Shostakovich Symphony cycle with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Wayne holds degrees from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Michigan, where his principal teachers were Richard Hawkins and Fred Ormand.

Awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award for 2014, violinist Itamar Zorman is the winner of the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition. “I am excited and honored to be joining the faculty at Eastman. One of my most significant mentors, Sylvia Rosenberg, taught at Eastman, so for me there is also a feeling of closing a circle. I am looking forward to collaborating with other members of the faculty, and hope that our work with the students will help them grow as musicians and broaden their horizons as artists and human beings.”

Mr. Zorman studied at the Jerusalem Academy, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and the Kronberg Academy, working with Sylvia Rosenberg and Christian Tetzlaff. He has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Mariinsky Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, KBS Symphony Seoul, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and American Symphony, and with many conductors including Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, James DePreist, and Michael Tilson-Thomas. As a recitalist, he has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Distinctive Debut series, People’s Symphony Concerts, the Louvre Museum, Suntory Hall and Frankfurt Radio. He is a member of the Israeli Chamber project, and a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, which won the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition. He plays a 1734 Guarneri Del Gesù violin from the collection of Yehuda Zisapel.

 

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About Eastman School of Music: 

The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training. The current dean is Jamal Rossi, appointed in 2014.

More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Guggenheim Fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community.