Featuring compositions for large ensembles by Professor Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, the program includes the works “ . . . Ex Machina,” “Son del Corazón,” and the world premiere of “Diaries.”

The 26-member ensemble, under conductor Juan Trigos, will be joined by guest artists Cristina Valdes, piano, who has performed on four continents and is known for innovative concerts with repertoire ranging from Bach to Xenakis; marimbist Makoto Nakura, who was profiled on CBS Sunday Morning and whose recitals have been televised in Korea and Japan; and pianist Daniel Pesca (BM ’05), an Eastman graduate who has collaborated with numerous ensembles and will be the soloist on  “Diaries” for its world premiere in Rochester and its New York City premiere on June 4.

The three works are from Diaries, a CD of works by Sanchez-Gutierrez that will be released on the Keos label in August, 2012. Eastman BroadBand will be recording the works May 28 to 30. The new CD is the second release by the ensemble; the group’s first recording, Cantos on Bridge Records, included the work “Comala,” which earned Associate Professor Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon designation as a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

Eastman BroadBand is an initiative by faculty members Sanchez-Gutierrez and Zohn-Muldoon to explore the many facets of contemporary music-making and promote international collaborations that showcase Eastman achievements in contemporary music. Its repertoire includes modern classics, such as Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Birtwistle, and Carter, as well as recent music by living Mexican composers. The ensemble has appeared in New York City and been invited to perform in international festivals in Italy, Germany, and Mexico.

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Calendar Listing:

Thursday, May 31

Eastman BroadBand. Concert of contemporary music featuring world premiere of “Diaries” by Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez.

8 p.m.

Room 415 (Rehearsal Hall) Eastman East Wing, 433 East Main St.

Free

Levi Saelua, left, and Karl Stabnau are winners in this year's DownBeat Student Music Awards.

Two Eastman School of Music students, Levi Saelua and Karl Stabnau, have received DownBeat honors in the magazine’s 35^th annual student music awards.

Saelua, a senior jazz writing major from Sacramento, Calif., was recognized in the Jazz Arrangement/Undergraduate College category for “Allegretto from Symphony No. 7,” his arrangement of the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.  Stabnau, currently a master’s degree student in music education who received his Bachelor of Music degree in jazz performance at Eastman in 2011, was recognized in the Outstanding Performance/Graduate College category.

Saelua’s winning entry is an eight-minute arrangement of Beethoven’s classical piece and is orchestrated for a standard jazz ensemble of five saxophones/woodwinds, four trombones, four trumpets, guitar, piano, bass, and drums. The piece was performed by the Eastman Jazz Ensemble under director Bill Dobbins in Kilbourn Hall on Sept. 19, 2011.

“Levi Saelua has a wonderful musical voice expressed through his compositions and arrangements,” said Jeff Campbell, associate professor and chair of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media.  “He creates music that is both imaginative and engaging to listener and performer.  He is also a very fine saxophonist and improviser.”

Stabnau’s winning submission featured his baritone saxophone work on three songs. Two of the songs, “Stella by Starlight” and “From This Moment On,” were from his 2011 degree recital and were arranged by Saelua for a 13-piece group consisting of a jazz rhythm section, strings, and woodwinds. The third piece, “The Way You Look Tonight,” was from a live broadcast with Stabnau’s quartet on Rochester radio station WGMC Jazz 90.1 in September 2011. Stabnau is from Brighton.

“Karl Stabnau is a highly versatile and valuable musician,” said Campbell. “Not only is he a wonderful low-woodwind doubler, he is also a gifted improviser who is well versed in the tradition and future of the music.  He brings an enthusiastic attitude to each musical situation and is a positive musical force.”

Noted Dobbins, “Levi and Karl both have that rare combination of exceptional talent, great motivation and a love of productive work.  Levi has a rare comprehension of the many common elements that all great music shares, regardless of superficial categories.  I’m sure that this understanding was helpful in making such a convincing jazz ensemble interpretation of the Allegretto from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.  Karl has a keen ear for strong melodies and a fertile imagination for hearing compelling ways to develop melodic ideas.  I’m happy to see both of them receive this well-deserved recognition.”

The Student Music Awards were announced in the June issue of DownBeat, one of the country’s most respected jazz magazines and often called “the bible of jazz.” Entries for the annual Student Music Awards are judged on musicianship, creativity, improvisation, technique, sound quality and balance, excitement, authority, and other criteria. The judges include editors of DownBeat, professional musicians, and educators.

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This year’s commencement ceremonies at the University of Rochester also feature award presentations to Glenn Watkins ʼ53 (PhD) and to Professor of Music Theory Robert W. Wason, who is also an affiliate faculty in the Department of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media. Watkins will receive the Rochester Distinguished Scholar Award and Wason will receive the William H. Riker University Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching during doctoral degree commencement ceremonies at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 19, in Kodak Hall.

Approximately 219 candidates will receive bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at the Eastman School of Music this term.

Walker has achieved many-faceted success as a musician, composer, and educator, with numerous awards, commissions, and major performances.  His compositions have been performed by virtually every major orchestra in the United States and by many abroad. Walker’s “Lyric for Strings,” written in 1946 when he was just 24, is perhaps the most frequently performed orchestra work by a living American composer. His Second Piano Sonata, written for his doctoral thesis at the Eastman School of Music, is now regarded as a masterpiece. His works have been recorded on several record labels and performed under the baton of such conductors as Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Ricardo Muti, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, and others. At almost 90, Walker is still composing: his most recent work, Sinfonia No. 4, was premiered in March this year.

Walker received the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in music for Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra, premiered by the Boston Symphony under conductor Seiji Ozawa. He was awarded Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, and was the first composer to receive the John Hay Whitney Fellowship. Walker is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

Walker’s career as a teacher has included faculty appointments at Dillard University, the Dalcroze School of Music, The New School, Smith College, the Peabody Institute, the University of Delaware, a Visiting Professorship at the University of Colorado, and Rutgers University, where he retired as chair of the Music Department in 1992.

Wason is a noted musician, scholar, and composer across genres. He played jazz piano with Sammy Davis Jr., Bobby Vinton, and the Four Tops, while his work on Viennese harmonic theory in the late 19^th century is still a primary source for research in that area. His compositions include vocal, solo instrumental, and chamber works. He has written journal articles on the history of music theory, 20th-century music, and jazz, on subjects ranging from 12-tone music to the songs of Alec Wilder. Wason was a University Bridging Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures.

Since his dual appointment to the Eastman faculty in 1983, Watson has advised students who now hold positions at institutions in Canada, the Netherlands, Brazil, and the United States.  Besides teaching core doctoral courses in theory, keyboard skills, advanced harmony and composition, he advised on the design of the jazz DMA program, and developed diverse seminars on the music of Bill Evans, Bela Bartok, J.S. Bach, Frederic Chopin, and Anton Webern. Wason has been awarded Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships, Paul Sacher Foundation and German Academic Exchange grants, and two ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers) Deems Taylor writing awards.

One of the most distinguished musicologists of our time, Watkins is the Earl V. Moore Professor Emeritus of Music History and Musicology at the University of Michigan. His scholarly impact ranges from his pioneering studies of Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo to his influential books on musical modernism and its postmodern consequences and music in World War I.

Watkins has published an overview of 20^th century music in Soundings; examined the concept of collage in musical Modernism and in the rise of Postmodernism in Pyramids at the Louvre; and looked at how music reflected concerns of German hegemony in Proof Through the Night: Music and the Great War. Critics praise his books for paving new avenues for understanding music and its relation to other arts of the last hundred years. Watkins has presented at numerous conferences in both late Renaissance and 20^th-century studies, collaborated with performance groups, and worked on projects for such recording labels as Columbia, Nonesuch, Edition de L’Oiseau-Lyre, Harmonia Mundi, and Deutsche Grammophone and for BBC, German, and Italian television. He is an Honorary Member of the American Musicological Society.

More information about Eastman’s commencement ceremonies can be found at http://www.esm.rochester.edu/registrar/commencement/ .

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Sessions on topics of local interest include:

Flour/Flower Power: Rochester’s Music from Jenny Lind to George Eastman.

Gerry Szymanski, reserves and digital services librarian in Eastman School’s Sibley Music Library, will explore the early music history of Rochester from the visit of “Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind in 1851 through the grand opening of the Eastman Theatre with the film Prisoner of Zenda.

The Flowering of the Phonograph in the Flower City. The phonograph came to Rochester on May 20, 1878, a short time after the formation of the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company. Locally based sound historian and author Tim Fabrizio will trace Rochester’s journey through the early history of recorded sound.

Howard Hanson on Record.  For 40 years, Howard Hanson was the director of the Eastman School of Music, and is remembered as one of America’s great 20th century composers. As a conductor Hanson was deeply involved in sound recording, not only as an interpreter but also in its technical aspects. David Lewis will illustrate Hanson’s major recording achievements.

My Black Mama: The Influence and Significance of Son House Records.  Daniel Beaumont, associate professor in the University of Rochester’s Department of Religion and Classics and author of a book on bluesman Son House, will explore two phases of Son House’s career, from the influence of the blues on the pre-WWII African American community to his “rediscovery” in the 1960s, and the relation of the blues to the youth culture, including rock musicians such as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Jack White.

Phonographs and Music Machines in Silent and Early Sound Films.  Motion pictures and sound recording developed together, with phonographs and records often having dramatic functions in “silent” films, as each technology was capable of doing something the other could not. Philip Carli will illustrate this premise with images from films made in the 1910s to 1920s, showing how sound recording influenced American life, and also the ingenuity filmmakers’ conceptions of what sound recording could and would eventually do. Carli received his master’s and doctoral degrees at the Eastman School, has developed and taught a course on recorded sound, and is known internationally as a silent film accompanist.

An Historical Survey of the Eastman Audio Archive.  In the early 1930s, the Eastman School of Music began to capture its performances on instantaneous disc; today the Eastman Audio Archive (EAA) holds recordings of more than 35,000 performances, including the long-running American Composers Concerts and Festivals of American Music. David Peter Coppen, special collections librarian and archivist in the Sibley Music Library, will provide an overview of the EAA, which offers much research potential to historians of American music.

All events will take place at the Radisson Hotel Rochester Riverside in the downtown Rochester. The conference is open to the general public. The full conference program as well as abstracts for each session and a registration form may be found at: http://www.arsc-audio.org/conference/. 

ARSC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings, in all genres of music and speech, from all periods. The annual conference brings together a unique mix of over 200 experts from the United States and abroad.

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The Eastman School of Music’s Theatre Renovation and Expansion Project has received the prestigious Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of New York State. The statewide awards program honors notable achievements in retaining, promoting, and reusing New York State’s irreplaceable architectural heritage.

“This historic theatre has been beautifully transformed into a 2,250 seat orchestral hall which now complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and boasts other amenities through the addition of a new East Wing,” said Jay DiLorenzo, president of the Preservation League. “The architects and the University of Rochester took great pains to deliver greater utility while respecting the facility’s historic, architectural and cultural significance. We are pleased that this effort will receive statewide recognition.”

The $46.9 million project — which included renovations to the School’s Eastman Theatre performance hall, now named Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, as well as the addition of the Eastman East Wing for teaching, rehearsal, and performance space — received support from across the community to preserve and enhance a centerpiece of Rochester’s cultural history. The multi-year project was completed and celebrated with the opening of the Eastman East Wing in December 2010.

In its news release announcing the award, the Preservation League recognized primary contributors to the success of the project: Chaintreuil Jensen Stark Architects, LLP; The Eastman School of Music / University of Rochester; the Pike Company, and A’Kustics. Primary financial supporters included the State of New York through the efforts of Assemblymen Joseph Morelle and David Gantt, the Eastman Kodak Company, the Wolk Foundation, Wegmans, and many generous individual donors.

“The newly renovated Eastman Theatre and new addition enhance Eastman’s role as one of the nation’s premier music schools,” said Jamal Rossi, Executive Associate Dean of the Eastman School of Music. “For the city of Rochester, this project reinforces the University of Rochester’s commitment to the words that are engraved on the Theatre’s façade:  ‘For the Enrichment of Community Life.’ ”

In addition to Eastman’s Renovation and Expansion Project, the Preservation League selected another project in Monroe County, the Annex Mills at High Falls, for its Excellence in Historic Preservation Award.  Eight projects across the state were honored for project excellence; the League also gave an outstanding publication, organizational excellence, and special citation as part of the Excellence in Historic Preservation awards program.  The awards will be presented at the League’s Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony in New York City on Wednesday, May 16,  at the historic New York Yacht Club.

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“We were old friends,” said Itzhak Perlman. “Zvi was a wonderful musician, a terrific fiddle player, and was also a very thinking kind of musician.  His thought processes went not just in music, but in other areas. He was an extremely dedicated teacher, which is part of what makes somebody a complete musician.”

In February, Professor Zeitlin gave a full recital on the eve of his 90^th birthday (February 21), a feat which few violinists have attempted beyond their seventies. He was joined by fellow faculty member Barry Snyder, his longstanding collaborator, for Schubert’s Duo Sonata in A Major, Op. 162, and Fantasie in C Major, D. 934, Op. post. 159. He also performed the Rondo in A Major for Violin and String Quartet with a quartet of Eastman students. It was his final recital as a full-time faculty member; Professor Zeitlin was going to retire at the end of the academic year after 45 years of teaching at the Eastman School.

“Zvi Zeitlin was one of those rare artists whose honesty and depth were direct reflections of his profoundly authentic humanity,” said Douglas Lowry, the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean at the Eastman School of Music.  “His knowledge, not just of music but life, was a marvel to behold, drawn out of deep roots in values, family, and artistic purpose. He was a legacy at the Eastman School; indeed, the world of music. We mourn his passing, but celebrate the wisdom and poetry that he passes on.”

Considered one of the important violinists of the 20^th century, Professor Zeitlin’s career spanned almost eight decades.  At age 11, he became the youngest scholarship student in the history of the Juilliard School.  After receiving a diploma and postgraduate diploma from Juilliard on the eve of World War II, Professor Zeitlin returned to Palestine, began concertizing, and attended the Hebrew University in Judaic Studies. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1943, performing for British, American, and Soviet troops throughout the Middle East.

After the war, Professor Zeitlin returned to Juilliard in the fall of 1947 and continued his studies with Sascha Jacobsen, Louis Persinger, and Ivan Galamian. He gave his professional New York debut recital in 1951. In the ensuing years, he performed with most of the great orchestras of the world under such conductors as Leonard Bern­stein, Zubin Mehta, Christoph von Doh­nanyi, James Levine, Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Rafael Kubelik, Jascha Horenstein, Antal Dorati, and many others. He frequently toured Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Latin America.

Among the world premieres Professor Zeitlin gave were the concerti of Gunther Schuller, Paul Ben Haim, and Carlos Surinach – all of which were commissioned for him, by the Eastman School, Israel Philharmonic, and Music Academy of the West, respectively. His discography includes all of Stravinsky’s violin and piano works, the Schoenberg Concerto, and American composers such as Samuel Adler, Aaron Copland, Jacob Druckman, Lukas Foss, Verne Reynolds, and George Rochberg.  

Professor Zeitlin’s pedagogical activities reached across borders as well. He taught hundreds of students, many of whom hold leading positions in orchestras, chamber groups, and universities around the globe. Professor Zeitlin joined the faculty of Eastman in 1967 and was named the School’s first Kilbourn Professor in 1974 and Distinguished Professor of Violin in 1998. In 2004, he received the University of Rochester’s Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

In addition, Professor Zeitlin was on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West since 1973. He held annual master classes in Great Britain at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Yehudi Menuhin School. He taught in Japan, Korea, China, Israel Germany, Norway, and throughout the United States and Canada.

“Zvi Zeitlin was a living testament to the power and nobility of music and life lived in its service,” said Scott Reed, President of the Music Academy of the West.  “An iconic presence in the great concert halls and teaching studios of the world, Zvi was a man of uncommon vision and generosity of spirit, and we are profoundly grateful for his many lasting contributions to the Music Academy of the West over nearly four decades. An entire generation of accomplished, self-assured violinists will serve as an enduring tribute to his extraordinary gifts as a teacher and mentor.”

Said Jamal Rossi, Executive Associate Dean of the Eastman School of Music, “Distinguished Professor of Violin Zvi Zeitlin has been regarded as one of the major violin artists and pedagogues of the last century. His recording of Arnold Schoenberg’s violin concerto is still considered the definitive recording of this major work.  Zvi is truly the last of an era of great violin pedagogues that included Dorothy Delay at Juilliard and Josef Gingold of Indiana University.  He lived an incredibly rich life, both musically and personally, and he will be deeply missed.”

The walls of Professor Zeitlin’s studio at the Eastman School reflect his career and life. Posters from performances around the world hang alongside pictures and greetings from his students and numerous luminaries of the music world. Photos show Professor Zeitlin with Igor Stravinsky, Serge and Olga Koussevitzky, Pablo Casals, Leonard Bernstein, Gunther Schuller, and other  international artists, and earlier this year, Professor Zeitlin fondly pointed out family snapshots which Itzhak Perlman sent him annually.

Professor Zeitlin is survived by his wife of 61 years, Marianne; children, Hillel (Karen) Zeitlin, Leora (Dr. Stuart) Kelter-Zeitlin; grandchildren, Gavriel (Ellisheva), Ariella (Chezky), Pnina, Shlomo; Jacob & Amalia; great-grandchildren, Dovid Nachshon & Eliora Sara Toba; and sister, Anba Kantor.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 4, at Temple Beth El in Rochester, N.Y. The University flags across the University of Rochester campus will also be lowered that day in his honor.  Donations in Professor Zeitlin’s memory may be directed to:  Zvi Zeitlin Scholarship Fund at the Eastman School of Music, Office of Advancement, 26 Gibbs St., Rochester, NY 14604; or Zvi Zeitlin Scholarship Fund at the Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108.

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“If Music Be the Food…” was created and launched in 2009 by Eastman School of Music Associate Professor of Viola, Carol Rodland.  Rodland, a passionate and long-time supporter of food banks, joined the Eastman faculty in 2008 at the height of the economic downturn.  Reports in the news of increased need for food aid in the community inspired her to create the series.

The mission of “If Music Be the Food…” is to increase awareness and support for the hungry in our community through chamber music performances of the highest caliber.  Members of the Eastman faculty, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, other local professional musicians, distinguished international guests, and Eastman students join together and donate their services for these concerts.  No money exchanges hands; all participants in every aspect of this endeavor volunteer their services and pay their own costs, so that all proceeds can go to the hungry via Foodlink.  No tickets are sold for the concerts, rather, audience members are asked to bring non-perishable food items or cash donations for Foodlink as the price of admission. For the first two seasons, Rochester’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, with the tireless assistance of its Director of Music Robert Poovey, hosted the concerts.  The first concert of Season 3 was hosted by Third Presbyterian Church of Rochester and the remainder of the concerts will take place at St. Paul’s.  These two churches generously host these concerts free of charge. The success of “If Music Be the Food…” is inspiring other prominent musical institutions in the United States to implement initiatives based on this concept in their own communities.  There are now similar series underway in Boston, New Haven, and Tampa.

This final concert of Season Three will include a performance of selections for multiple violas by the Eastman School of Music Viola Choir, a group formed especially for the 40^th International Viola Congress, which is coming to Rochester at the end of May; ESM Assistant Professor of Voice, Jan Opalach and Dr. Robert Poovey, organist, will perform works of Max Reger and Franz Lachner for bass-baritone and organ, featuring the historic and recently renovated St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Skinner Organ; and the Ying Quartet, joined by Carol Rodland, viola, and Keiko Ying, cello, will perform the stunning String Sextet in B-flat Major of Johannes Brahms.

Rather than pay an admission price, attendees are asked to bring canned goods and non-perishable food items to help stock the Foodlink shelves.  Cash donations will also be accepted.

Foodlink is a non-profit regional food bank that distributes food to soup kitchens, shelters and emergency food pantries, and to non-emergency programs such as group homes, and senior centers. Founded in 1978, Foodlink serves a 10-county area in the Genesee Valley and Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York. Foodlink’s mission is to empower at-risk communities by providing food, nutrition, education and resources in Central and Western New York. Today, the food bank serves nearly 90,000 meals each week or a total of 4.5 million meals annually.

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At Eastman, Professor Maloy served as chair of Eastman’s voice department from 1977 to 2002 and received the School’s Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003. He retired in 2005 and was named Professor Emeritus of Voice that same year. His students include Renée Fleming, Anthony Dean Griffey, Nicole Cabell, James Courtney, and many other distinguished singers.

“John Maloy led the Voice Department with grace, dignity, and an honorable professionalism that inspired the best in all of us, solving problems and meeting challenges, all while teaching a full load,” said Professor of Voice Carol Webber.  “He was proud of every one of his students. His legacy lives on in each of them.”

Highlights of the “Celebration of John Maloy’s Life” will include:

• A recording of John Maloy singing a Brahms song
• Performances by one of Maloy’s first students – James Courtney, a bass-baritone who has sung nearly 2,000 performances at the Metropolitan Opera – and his last student, Bernard Holcomb, now with the Chicago Lyric Opera program
• Prize-winning baritone Randall Scarlatta will perform Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach with the Ying Quartet.
• Current faculty members Robert Swensen, tenor, and Russell Miller, pianist, will perform a group of Schumann songs.
• Current Eastman students will sing two favorite operatic excerpts:  the trio from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and the duet from Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.  Performing are sopranos Elizabeth Smith and Adelaide Boedecker, mezzo-soprano Melissa Fajardo, baritone Thomas Lehman, who won the 2011 Friends of Eastman Opera Competition, and tenor Matthew Grills, a winner in the 2012 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions who also took first prize in the 2012 Lotte Lenya Competition.
• In addition, tributes from opera luminaries Renée Fleming and Marilyn Horne will be read, and further reminiscences will be shared during the program and at the reception.

Before joining the Eastman faculty in 1966, Professor Maloy sang more than 1,000 performances with opera companies throughout Germany and Switzerland. He also gave recitals over North German and Austrian radio, did concert appearances in Spain, and made recordings in London.  Over the course of his career, Professor Maloy amassed a repertoire of 35 operatic and 10 oratorio roles. He continued to perform while teaching, appearing as a soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and in the popular summer series “Opera Under the Stars,” held in Rochester’s Highland Park. He gave recitals and sang as a guest soloist with Eastman School ensembles.

“John Maloy’s presence continues to be felt in the voice and opera department,” according to Steven Daigle, department chair. “His leadership and influence on all the students he nurtured and taught during his long tenure at the Eastman School of Music will have a lasting impact on vocal music throughout the world. Those who had the good fortune to work with John will remember his sincere generosity, positive spirit, and selflessness.”

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“A Celebration of John Maloy’s Life.”

Music and memories of the late singer who taught at Eastman from 1966 to 2005.

7:30 p.m.

Kilbourn Hall

26 Gibbs St.

Free

Percussion Rochester was founded and is produced by Associate Professor of Percussion Bill Cahn, Professor of Percussion Michael Burritt, and Kathleen Holt, a music and arts supporter who has commissioned new works and premieres for, among others, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Antara Winds, and Madrigalia.

Among the works receiving their first performance during the festival is “Night Wind” by Naomi Skeya.  The composer is the recipient of Percussion Rochester’s first John Beck Composition Prize, named for Eastman Professor Emeritus of Percussion and former principal percussionist and timpanist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra John Beck. Brad Lubman will conduct Eastman’s Musica Nova for the work’s premiere on May 4, in Kilbourn Hall. That concert also features special guest artists Peter Erskine, Tony Padilla, and Anders Astrand appearing with the New Eastman Jazz Ensemble under director Dave Rivello.

The internationally acclaimed percussion ensemble NEXUS, whose members include Cahn, Bob Becker, Russell Hartenberger, and Garry Kvistad, will join the Eastman Philharmonia and conductor Neil Varon on May 5 in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre to perform the Rochester premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s “Rituals.”  Also performing is the Eastman Wind Ensemble under director Mark Scatterday, giving the first presentation of a new percussion concerto by Burritt.

The fourth premiere is a commissioned piece for the Eastman Community Music School’s Drum Joy ensemble, directed by Ruth Cahn.  Titled “Five Scenes from the Chinese Martial Arts Novels,” the 15-minute work was written by Weijun Chen, a junior composition student at Eastman, and can be heard for the first time on May 5.

Other guest artists during Percussion Rochester include Juliana Athayde, concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, who will appear with the Eastman Percussion Ensemble on May 5; RPO Principal Percussionist Jim Tiller, who will be joined on his May 5 concert by other instrumentalists, including Eastman Professor of Saxophone Ramon Ricker; and marimbist Gordon Stout, who will hold a master class on May 5. Other ensembles performing in the festival include the University of Rochester West African Drumming Ensemble; the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Marimba Band, percussion ensembles from Calkins Road Middle School and Victor High School, the C.A. Palmer Fife and Drum Corps., the Steel Alchemy Community Steel Band, and Rich Thompson and Friends.

For more detailed schedule and ticket information, visit the Percussion Rochester website at www.PercussionRochester.com .

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The judges for the final round of the competition, which was held in Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall, were three-time Tony Award nominee Rebecca Luker, Broadway and Encores! music director Rob  Berman, and Theodore S. Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and chairman of the board of the American Theater Wing. 

Grills, 25, a tenor, sang four selections during the final round: “She Loves Me” from She Loves Me (Bock/Harnick); “Where is the One Who Will Mourn Me When I’m Gone?”, from Down in the Valley (Weill/Sundgaard); “If I Didn’t Believe in You,” from The Last Five Years (Brown); and, from  Donizetti’s opera La Fille du regiment, the aria “Ah, mes Amis,” which he performed in the Metropolitan Opera competition and which, with nine high Cs, has been called “the Mount Everest for tenors.”  

After graduating from the Eastman School of Music this May, Grills will spend the summer in the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program and begins a year-long long residency with the Portland Opera in the fall.

The judges awarded two Second Prizes of $10,000 each, which went to Jacob Keith Watson, 23, tenor (Wynne, Ark.) and to Justin Hopkins, 28, bass-baritone (Philadelphia). The third prize of $7,500 was awarded to Megan Marino, 30, mezzo-soprano (Malvern, Penn.). 

In addition to the top prizes, the judges presented two Lys Symonette Awards, named in honor of Weill’s musical assistant on Broadway and Lenya’s longtime accompanist and advisor. Soprano Natalie Ballenger, 22, (Santa Cruz, Calif.), who received her Bachelor of Music degree at the Eastman School in 2011, and soprano Maria Failla, 23, (Scarsdale, N.Y.), each received a $3,000 prize.

The Lotte Lenya Competition is an international theater singing contest that recognizes talented young singer-actors, ages 19 to 30, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire, and emphasizes the acting of songs within a dramatic context. It was founded in 1998 by foundation President Kim H. Kowalke, who is the Richard L. Turner Professor in Humanities at the University of Rochester and professor of musicology at the Eastman School.

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