Eastman DMA conducting student David Chin leads Bach’s St. John Passion at Malaysia’s Good Shepherd Church. For over 90 years Eastman has inspired people at home and abroad. It has led to exceptional performances of some of the greatest works ever written via tours of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Eastman Jazz Ensemble, Baroque Ensembles and…
John Hunter and Zach Sheets after the first Tal Perkes Competition in April 2015. This spring, one Eastman alumnus remembered another by supporting a current student. A flute competition, open to all Eastman graduate and undergraduate flute students, was held to honor the memory of Eastman flutist Tallon Perkes (BM ’84). Tal’s friends and family…
When you’re an incoming freshman, Commencement seems a million miles away. It wasn’t on my radar. I believed my road would contain too many twists and turns for me to even think of a time when I would have to say goodbye to my friends. But like a hunter stalking its prey, time eventually catches…
Photograph of James VanDemark by Kurt Brownell, 2013 Eastman’s longtime professor of double bass, James VanDemark, will be the featured recitalist at ISB 2015 – this year’s convention of the International Society of Bassists, to be held at Colorado State University from June 1-6, 2015. His ISB Convention recital will be held Friday, June 5.…
Eastman RAs greeting the Class of 2017 in August 2013: Top row, left to right: Alexa Tarantino, Mary Baron, Micah Gharavi, Nick German, Alina Jeon, Calvin Chan. Bottom row: Eric Metzgar, Andrew Psarris, Rachel Beninghof, Melissa Zgouridi. One of the most interesting things I have done at Eastman was participating in Eastman Residential Life as…
A mentor to me is anyone who has your trust and who has advised you on something important to you. There are hundreds of mentors I have had in my time here at Eastman, from deans, to professors, to staff members, to community members, to fellow students. First is my teacher, Jim Thompson. I have…
There have been many incredible Eastman professors throughout the years. Only a few ever get to experience the wonder of their students reaching the top of their craft because of their instruction; fewer still are so revered that their names become synonymous with an institution or idea for all time. Professor Rayburn Wright was one…
Summer@Eastman director Sylvie Beaudette recently interviewed Nan Gullo Bassett, director of the ECMS Harp Workshop, a staple of our summer programming. How long have you been teaching in Rochester? How have things changed in terms of pedagogy, repertoire, and instruments through these years? I came to Eastman to work on my DMA in Harp, which…
Apollinaire Habonimana recently opened a music school in his country of Burundi. At the invitation of Eastman student Matthew Langford, Apollinaire spent a few weeks in Rochester during the summer of 2014 in order to take classes and learn about teaching, planning courses, and administrating a music school. Summer@Eastman director Sylvie Beaudette gathered his thoughts…
Professor of Saxophone Chien-Kwan Lin During China’s Cultural Revolution, one of the world’s oldest civilizations tore itself apart, with an estimated 70 million deaths. One story from this terrible period comes from China’s remote Xiaoxiang region, where a widow avenged the death of her husband by tormenting his killer, a local Communist official. With no…