Multiple artists have been added to Eastman’s roster of guest performers and speakers, and we are thrilled to invite them to Gibbs Street this month and next! Keep reading for details about upcoming October and November events visit esm.rochester.edu/events for further details. All events are free and open to the public.
OCTOBER
Theresa Bogard, piano
Faculty Artist Series: Brock Tjosvold, piano and Theresa Bogard, guest piano: Thursday, October 10 at 7:30 PM | Hatch Recital Hall
American pianist Theresa Bogard is a dynamic and versatile performer dedicated to expanding the canon of traditional piano repertoire. Her early career focused on performances of music by women composers, and she continues to include works by other lesser known composers in her varied programs. She attracts students from around the world as professor of piano at the University of Wyoming, where she also served as chair of the music department from 2010 to 2016. In 2008, she was chosen as the Wyoming Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation.
Han Lash ’04E, composer
Composition Department Guest Recital: Monday, October 21 at 7:30 PM | Hatch Recital Hall
Hailed by The New York Times for writing music that is “striking and resourceful… handsomely brooding,” Han Lash ’04E is an American composer whose music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lincoln Center, and Chicago Art Institute, among other prestigious venues. They have held teaching positions at the Mannes School of Music and Yale School of Music and is currently an associate professor of music in composition at Indiana University. Lash received a BM in composition from Eastman, artist diplomas from both the Cleveland Institute of Music and Yale and went on to receive a PhD in composition from Harvard. Lash was invited back to Eastman as the Howard Hanson Visiting Professor of Composition in Spring 2023.
Nikki Chooi, violin
Guest Masterclass: Saturday, October 26 at 10:00 AM | Howard Hanson Recital Hall
Praised for his powerful and poetic performances, internationally-acclaimed violinist Nikki Chooi has established himself as an artist of rare versatility. Gramophone stated he performed with “total conviction and assurance.” Nikki is a Laureate of the Queen Elizabeth and Tchaikovsky Competitions, and was awarded 1st Prize Winner at the Montreal Symphony’s ManuLife Competition, the Klein International Strings Competition, and the Michael Hill International Violin Competition. He is currently Concertmaster of the Grammy-award winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Music Director JoAnn Falletta.
NOVEMBER
John Young, composer
EMuSE Concert with John Young, guest composer: Friday, November 1 at 7:30 PM | Hatch Recital Hall
John Young is a composer working in the field of electroacoustic music. His output includes works for multi-channel loudspeaker environments, music for instruments and electroacoustic sounds and electroacoustic documentary conceived for radio. John‘s music explores the use of sound recording as a creative tool, which he uses to bring sounds from natural environments into the studio where he transforms and refashions them with digital audio tools. This involves merging sound-images of the real world with more abstract sonic materials, creating elaborate designs that challenge traditional notions of musical materials and form but also invite the listener to enter imaginative worlds where familiar objects and environments are given new meanings.
Dovas Lietuvninkas ’16E, trumpet
Eastman Wind Ensemble featuring Dovas Lietuvninkas, trumpet: Wednesday, November 6 at 7:30 PM | Kodak Hall
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dovas Lietuvninkas ’16E received degrees in trumpet and music education at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with James Thompson. In 2017 he received a U.S. Fulbright grant to study trumpet and Lithuanian folk instruments in Vilnius, Lithuania, where, in 2018, he joined the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra as principal trumpet. In 2021 he received his master’s degree in trumpet from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Pasi Pirinen and spent a year as a member of the academy of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Dovas returned to the United States in 2023 and is currently principal trumpet of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
Valerie Coleman, flutist and composer
Glen Watkins Lecture Series: Wednesday, November 6 at 4:30 PM | Hatch Recital Hall
Guest Masterclass: Thursday, November 7 at 12:30 PM | Hatch Recital Hall
Valerie Coleman is regarded by many as an iconic artist who continues to pave her own unique path as a composer, GRAMMY®-nominated flutist, and entrepreneur. Highlighted as one of the “Top 35 Women Composers” by The Washington Post, she was named Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the Year, an honor bestowed to an individual who has made a significant contribution to classical music as a performer, composer or educator.
Andrew Chung
Eastman Theory Colloquium: Friday, November 15 at 4:00 PM | ESM 305
Andrew Chung is an assistant professor of music theory at the University of North Texas. His current projects are efforts aimed at developing a musicology of the Anthropocene, the name geologists have given to a new epoch of planetary history defined by human-induced climate change and its existential threats. He asks: how and where do we hear humanity’s entrance into the Anthropocene in the histories and documentary records of sound and music?
Michael Lowenstern, clarinet
Guest Masterclass: Sunday, November 17 at 2:30 PM | Howard Hanson Recital Hall
Michael Lowenstern is widely recognized as one of the most innovative bass clarinetists in the world, and has performed, recorded, and toured as a soloist and with ensembles of every variety. Lowenstern’s performance career has been eclectic; he was clarinetist with the Grammy award-winning Klezmatics, while at the same time Bass Clarinetist with the Grammy award-winning New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He also performed and recorded regularly as a member of the Steve Reich Ensemble, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, John Zorn, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Minneapolis-based Zeitgeist.
Megan Long
Eastman Theory Colloquium: Friday, November 22 at 4:00 PM | ESM 305
Megan Kaes Long (Oberlin College and Conservatory) studies European song traditions of the 16th and 17th centuries and the theoretical discourses that describe them. Her book, Hearing Homophony: Tonal Expectation at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century, was published by Oxford University Press in 2020 and won the Society for Music Theory’s Wallace Berry Award in 2021. Her articles have appeared in Music Theory Spectrum, the Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Online, and Open Access Musicology and her research has been supported by grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Long’s work was honored with Oberlin College & Conservatory’s Excellence in Teaching Award for the 2021-22 academic year.