Brad Lubman conducting Musica Nova in 2015. Photograph by Kurt Brownell By Dan Gross Tonight at 8 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall, Eastman Musica Nova gives its first concert of the fall semester. A highlight of the program (described in detail below) will be performances of music by Frank Zappa — “Dog Breath Variations/Uncle Meat,” “Outrage…
By Dan Gross Don’t Blame Anyone is the first opera by Eastman faculty members to premiere at Kodak Hall in 60 years. This piece combines music, puppetry, dance, and theatre into a two-act opera, and is a collaboration of performers from the United States and Mexico. (It will also be performed at Teatro Diana in…
ESP (Eastman Saxophone Project) meets PRISM: From left to right: Myles Boothroyd, Jeremy Howell, Jon Wintringham, Michael Matthews, Harrison Clarke, Zach Stern, Chien-Kwan Lin, Clancy Ellis, Matthew Levy, Erik Elmgren, Zach Shemon, Timothy McAllister, Drew Viavattine, Taimur Sullivan, Stephanie Venturino, Tyler Wiessner, Aiwen Zhang, Gabe Piqué, Nicki Roman, Chaithu Natarajan, Ye Wang, Khanh Nguyen, Siobhan…
Instructor of Music Theory Matt Curlee conducts Eastman students in his composition Harmonic Maneuvers. Music theory is sometimes seen as the most cerebral and abstract branch of musical scholarship – a mixture of math, acoustics, and philosophy. But throughout history, many music theorists have also been composers; Rameau, Schoenberg, and Milton Babbitt are famous examples.…
David Chin conducts Eastman students in a Bach cantata at Reformation Lutheran Church. On Sunday, September 25, Eastman doctoral conducting student David Chin (MM’12) will be presenting a lecture concert on Bach’s Cantata No. 21, Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (I had much grief) at 3 p.m. at Reformation Lutheran Church, 111 North Chestnut Street. The…
By Erik Elmgren This year, the Eastman Computer Music Center (ECMC) has undergone a rebranding process and now is known as the Eastman Audio Research Studio (EARS). In addition to this new title, EARS has expanded to another room at the school, which will house state-of-the-art audio equipment enabling new learning and performance opportunities for…
By Dan Gross Tonight, September 22, at 7 p.m., in Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall, the Rochester Fringe Festival presents Scarred by the Somme, the latest production of Table Top Opera, inspired by the centennial of World War I and the music of Claude Debussy. Dan interviewed Eastman Professor of Music Theory Matthew Brown, one of the…
Soprano Robin Steitz By Kameron Ghanavati Robin Steitz, currently a second-year graduate student of voice at Eastman, was intrigued after hearing a performance by Dawn Upshaw. The piece Upshaw sang was compelling and detailed, sprinkled with Surrealist poetry, tonal ambiguity, and childlike thoughts. With her interest in 20th-century French poetry, Robin decided to research this…
Creating outside the box: artist Mark McDermott, dancer-choreographer Collette Fuierer, composer Dave Rivello by Dan Gross Eastman jazz faculty member Dave Rivello and his ensemble join forces with two other Rochester artists – an artist and a dancer-choreographer – to create a unique project for this year’s First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival called “Invisible Boxes,”…
Grace Frarey is the recipient of this year’s Rochester International Jazz Festival/Eastman School of Music (RIJF/ESM) Jazz Scholarship. The 18-year-old Canandaigua resident just began a double major in jazz studies and music education at Eastman. Grace, who has appeared in the jazz festival since 2013 as lead saxophonist for the Canandaigua Academy Jazz Band, was…