We are excited to welcome a wide-ranging group of guest artists and lecturers to the Eastman campus as we kick off our spring semester! Keep reading for information about each event and visit esm.rochester.edu/events for further details.
Any Eastman Presents series artist who is offering a free masterclass will be included in this list, but their corresponding concert is ticketed. All other guest masterclasses and recitals are free and open to the public.
Christian Lindberg, trombone and Roland Pöntinen, piano
Eastman Special Series Concert: Monday, January 22 at 7:30 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall [ticketed]
Trombone Masterclass w. Christian Lindberg: Tuesday, January 23 at 11:00 a.m. | Kilbourn Hall
Considered “the greatest brass player in history” by Classic-FM, trombonist Christian Lindberg has collaborated with superstar pianist Roland Pöntinen for more than 40 years — touring the globe and recording over 20 albums together. Their performance at Eastman, part of a very limited U.S. tour, will feature the best of their repertoire.
Mike Cheng-Yu Lee, fortepiano
Visiting Faculty Recital: Tuesday, January 23 at 7:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
Mike Cheng-Yu Lee joins the Eastman School of Music as Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology in Spring 2024. He is one of a new generation of pianists performing on period pianos that span the early-18th to the 20th centuries. His performances have garnered attention for the fresh perspectives they bring to familiar repertoire. For his debut recital in Australia he received a rare five-star review in Limelight Magazine: “I don’t think I have heard a Mozart recital quite like this. I heard things in Mozart’s music I had never thought possible and certainly had never encountered before.”
Dieter Hennings ’05E (MM), ’15E (DMA), guitar
Guest Recital: Sunday, January 28 at 2:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
The musical endeavors of Dieter Hennings Yeomans ’05E (MM), ’15E (DMA), Guitar Professor at the University of Kentucky’s School of Music, span from new music on guitar to early music for lute, baroque guitar, and theorbo. Hennings is an active proponent of new music, particularly that of Latin America, having recently worked with various composers including Eastman faculty members Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. Hennings has received numerous grants to commission and premiere contemporary works for guitar.
Dr. Minnita Daniel-Cox, soprano
Guest Recital: Saturday, February 3 at 7:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
Dr. Minnita Daniel-Cox attended Bowling Green State University, where she received a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance, and the University of Michigan, where she earned both her Master of Music and her Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees. In 2014 Dr. Daniel-Cox established the Dunbar Music Archive and has performed repertoire recitals in venues across the United States and around the world. She has received over 350k in funding for her Dunbar work, including two National Endowment for the Humanities grants and a Mellon Foundation grant for the Dunbar Project. She is currently Associate Professor of Voice and Coordinator of the Voice Area at the University of Dayton, where she teaches applied lessons and music courses, serves as Artistic Director of the yearly musical/opera productions, coordinates the Dayton Opera Apprentice Program, and coordinates the Vocal Performance Institute, a summer program for high school-aged singers.
Carol Rodland, viola
Guest Masterclass: Sunday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m. | Howard Hanson Hall
Acclaimed for her “larger than life, sweetly in tune, infinitely variegated,” and “delicious” playing, Rodland enjoys a multi-faceted international career as a concert and recording artist and teacher. First prize winner of the Washington International Competition and the Universal Editions Prize winner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, she made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a teenager and her Carnegie Hall recital debut as a winner of the Artists International Auditions.
Nathaniel Silberschlag, horn
ECMS Guest Lessons: Tuesday, February 13 at 9:00 a.m. | Miller Center (MC-5)
Nathaniel Silberschlag was appointed principal horn of The Cleveland Orchestra in May 2019, and took up the position in August prior to the start of the 2019-20 season. He previously served as assistant principal horn of the Washington National Opera/Kennedy Center Opera House orchestra, where he was the youngest member ever to win a position with the ensemble, at the age of 19. He completed his bachelor of music degree from New York’s Juilliard School in May 2019, where he was a student of Julie Landsman and recipient of the Kovner Fellowship.
United States Air Force Heritage Winds
Guest Recital: Tuesday, February 20 at 1:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
Guest Masterclass: Tuesday, February 20 at 1:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
The Heritage Winds is a United States Air force regional band woodwind quintet based out of The USAF Heritage of America Band in Langley, Virginia. The Heritage Winds is delighted to present an hour-long program designed out of works from only living female composers. The program includes works from Valerie Coleman, Alyssa Morris, and a brand-new commissioned work by ASCAP 2023 Winner Grace Ann Lee. After the performance, they will hold a Q&A to answer your questions about military bands.
Benjamin Roidl-Ward, bassoon with Daniel Pesca, piano
Guest Recital: Thursday, February 22 at 6:30 p.m. | Howard Hanson Hall
Recently named one of 23 artists who are “changing the sound of classical music” by the Washington Post, Ben Roidl-Ward is the Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He also holds positions as Principal Bassoonist of the Chicago Sinfonietta, Co-Principal Bassoonist of Sinfonia Da Camera, and Second Bassoonist of the Illinois Symphony. A leading performer of contemporary music, Roidl-Ward is Solo Bassoonist of Chicago’s Ensemble Dal Niente and serves as a Contemporary Leader for the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. He has commissioned numerous works featuring the bassoon, and has participated in the premieres of over 125 compositions to date.
Music Cognition Symposium
Quarterly Meeting: Saturday, February 24 at 2:00 p.m. | Ciminelli Formal Lounge
The Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, Cornell University, and SUNY Buffalo Music Cognition Symposium is an informal gathering of people interested in music cognition. The symposium meets four times a year (twice in the fall and twice in the spring) on Saturday afternoons, usually at Eastman. The symposium receives funding from the University of Rochester’s Committee for Interdisciplinary Studies.
Often, the symposium features invited guests—leading researchers in music cognition from around the United States and beyond. Symposia may also feature presentations of ongoing work by members of the community, and discussions of readings and topics in music cognition. Recent topics have included performance expression, probabilistic modeling, melodic expectation, and music-language connections.