Here are some select recent clippings showing the variety of hits/mentions identifying musicians and scholars as Eastman School of Music alumni, faculty or students. (Note: Some links may have expired.)
George Walker: the great American composer you’ve never heard of
(The Guardian 08/27/2015)
There is a lot to catch up on: a 93 year-old composer with one of the most remarkable lives in the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and I’ve only just discovered his music properly. George Walker was the first African American to win a Pulitzer prize for music (in 1996, for his Walt Whitman song-cycle, Lilacs), and his career as a pianist and composer is, especially in his early decades, a story of firsts. He was the first black graduate of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia in 1945, the first black musician to play New York’s Town Hall in the same year, the first black recipient of a doctorate from the Eastman School in 1955 (you can hear his remarkable performance of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto, conducted by the composer Howard Hanson here), the first black tenured faculty member at Smith College in 1961 – and many more.
Twin Cities jazz pianist Mary Louise Knutson is always thriving
(Minneapolis Star Tribune © 08/25/2015)
Mary Louise Knutson was always drawn to the piano, even as a young child.
Knutson, who was adopted, later learned that her birth family was chock-full of musicians. She kept up her lessons, and it eventually became a major part of her life.
Knutson, who’s played with numerous big-name artists, first discovered jazz during a summer music program at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York, when she was in high school.
Recital by international organists
(Hereford Times UK 08/26/2015)
HerfordshireE Organists’ Society’s annual recital, which takes place in Hereford Cathedral on Monday, August 31 at 11.30am, will be given by international concert organist Nathan Laube.
In addition to his busy international performing schedule, Nathan Laube serves as Assistant Professor or Organ at The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Recent and forthcoming performances include major venues – Philharmonie, Berlin and Verizon Hall, Philadelphia among others – on four continents. He also has two new CD recordings available, of the Stephen Paulus Grand Concerto and a new solo recital.
Musical Club concert will remember pianist, teacher Anne Koscielny
(West Hartford News 08/26/2015)
A concert in memory of Anne Koscielny, pianist and former Hartt faculty member, will be presented by the Musical Club of Hartford in conjunction with the Hartt School of Music, Sept. 13 at 3 pm, in Millard Auditorium, at the Hartt School of Music.
The musical community mourns the loss of pianist and educator Anne Koscielny, who died earlier this year. Born in 1936, as a young woman she won a scholarship to Eastman School of Music, where she studied piano with Cécile Staub Genhart, and graduated with distinction in 1958. Koscielny won multiple awards, including first prize of the Kosciuzko Chopin Competition and a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Vienna, Austria. In 1960, she was a finalist in the Warsaw Chopin Competition. L In 1962, she was awarded a full scholarship to study at Manhattan School of Music with Robert Goldsand. Upon graduation with distinction in 1964, she was hired at Hartt School of Music. She remained at Hartt for 23 years, and due to her tireless dedication to her students and to the refinement of her art, she was a vital part of the energy and life force of the school.
New Conductor Causes Fanfare in Music Department
(Golden Gate Express 08/26/2015)
With a trumpet and conductor’s baton in hand, musician Brad Hogarth’s ambition has sent him across continents on every face of the globe to share his craft. Throughout his career, he has been invited to teach and perform classical music in over a dozen countries. His most recent professional endeavor brought him to SF State as the music department’s newest assistant professor of conduct and wind ensemble.
Hogarth chose a career in music over engineering at the end of his senior year in high school. With the support of his family, he left Texas for Rochester, New York to pursue a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance and music education at Eastman School of Music. During his undergraduate studies, Hogarth spent a semester abroad at the German music academy Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. He described his first time traveling internationally to study music as a formative experience.
Skaneateles Festival celebrates tradition, talent with Robinson Award winner’s performance
(Auburn Citizen © 08/26/2015)
For more than a decade, The Robinson Award has been given to a local student to honor his or her excellence in music, and this year’s recipient is Whitesboro High School graduate Brian Gadbow.
This month, he will enroll in the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, continuing his studies as a cellist. David Ying, former Skaneateles Festival artistic director, who was in attendance at the evening’s performances, will take young man under his wing.
Brittany Mruczek comes home for show with Rochester Lyric Opera
(Batavia Daily News © 08/27/2015)
Brittany Mruczek was turning heads with her voice from the time she was a child attending Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Batavia.
Brittany, 26, will appear in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s short opera “The Impresario” on Friday, celebrating Rochester Lyric Opera’s 10th anniversary. The performance will take place in the RLO’s new home, the historic Lyric Theater at 440 East Ave.
Brittany was only 9 or 10 when her father contacted the Eastman School of Music about his daughter’s talent. She attended Eastman’s Community Education Division for eight years, where she was the multiple-year recipient of the June Clase Vocal Scholarship in honor of Renee Fleming. She also received an honor’s diploma in voice.
Bridge Chamber Music Festival Features Caviani and Milne, August 21 & 24
(Jazz Police 08/20/2015)
David Milne is Professor and Chair of the Music Department at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he teaches applied saxophone, jazz improvisation, saxophone ensemble, jazz ensemble, and directs the RADD Jazz Series. A native of Rochester, NY, he holds BA and MM degrees in music from Indiana University and a DMA from the Eastman School of Music. In the Twin Cities, Dave is an active jazz and classical saxophonist, flautist, guest artist/clinician, and composer/arranger who has appeared with the JazzMN Orchestra, the Out to Lunch Quintet (Eric Dolphy tribute band), Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pete Whitman X-Tet, Phil Woods, Doc Severinsen, Ray Charles, Jack McDuff, Smokey Robinson, and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. With vibraphonist Dave Hagedorn, Dave launched the Spiral Visions ensemble in 2012, paying tribute to the music of Bobby Hutcherson and Harold Land.
Sorenson ready with jazzed-up set list
(Star News 08/28/2015)
Dean Sorenson loved the horn music. He was a kid in Anoka with a piano-instructor mom. In other words, he had an in-home music guru. Cool, huh?
It’s perhaps hard to believe because Sorenson is director of Jazz Studies at the University of Minnesota. He has played in the Orpheum pit band for touring shows. Recently, he backed Idina Menzel, the voice of Queen Elsa in Disney’s “Frozen,” when she came to town.
And when he gigs, what instrument does he play? Not the piano. That goes back to his growing-up years and a deal he made with Mom. “The deal was if I quit piano, I could take up trombone,” Sorenson said.
He quit piano. He took up trombone. That trombone led him to the music program at the University of Minnesota. He pursued a master’s at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. That was where he found a mentor in Fred Strum. (Also reported by Jazz Police )