A benefit recital for Eastman School of Music’s Renée Fleming Endowed Scholarship Fund will feature the school’s alumni and current students and a guest artist, who will join the retired director of the University of Rochester’s Wilmot Cancer Center in a New York City performance that also marks the active octogenarian’s birthday. George Abraham, whose…
As part of a year-long celebration of the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York State, the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music and Susan B. Anthony Center are collaborating on “Women’s Voices,” a special concert featuring the premieres of composers Lori Laitman’s and Jennifer Mitchell’s new works, commissioned especially for the occasion. The…
The Eastman School of Music’s Eastman Wind Ensemble has released a new CD that features works by Puerto Rico’s best-known composer, five-time Grammy nominee Roberto Sierra. Titled Sierra Live: Music by Roberto Sierra, the recording has earned praise from Fanfare magazine for performance of the works “at the highest possible artistic level,” noting that the…
Soprano Laura Sanders won the Friends of Eastman Opera’s annual competition for Eastman School of Music voice and opera students, held February 10 in the School’s Kilbourn Hall. She received the Lynne Clarke Vocal Prize in the amount of $1,500, donated by John Clarke in honor of his late wife, a founding member of the…
In the 19th century, Franz Liszt was a “rock star.” Composer, arranger, transcriber, promoter, author, pianist who drove female audience members into a frenzy—“Lisztomania,” it was called by German poet Heinrich Heine—the artist revolutionized performance with his virtuosity. Generally considered the greatest pianist who ever lived, Liszt is the subject of a three-day event at…
Conductor David Zinman, who was named Distinguished Visiting Artist at the Eastman School of Music in Fall 2016, will be in residence at the school on Feb. 20 and 21. During his visit, Zinman will give a public presentation, conduct rehearsals with Eastman School orchestras, hold a masterclass, and meet with conducting students. Jamal Rossi,…
Updated February 23, 2017 Three Eastman School of Music alumni, Sean D. Connors, Geoff Saunders, and Shane Shanahan, were winners in the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc.’s 59th GRAMMY Awards Sunday, Feb. 12. I Connors (BM 04) is a member of the ensemble Third Coast Percussion, which won the Best Chamber Music…
Opera was a source of national identity and pride in 19th-century Italy. Church organists were even encouraged to bring the sounds of the opera into the sanctuary, where it could be available to all, including those who couldn’t afford an opera ticket. Organists of the period incorporated the musical style and gestures of operas into…
Jazz pianist and Eastman School of Music professor Bill Dobbins was surprised no one had ever talked to legendary composer/arranger Bill Holman about his life and music. So Dobbins traveled to the California home of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, where he recorded Holman’s reflections on his career and his thoughts on…