Here are some select clippings from the past week 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.)
Comings and goings: Chuck Murphy joins Colorado Public Radio as investigative editor …
(Current 08/16/2019)
Melissa Ousley will take over as host of Classical MPR’s live broadcasts of Minnesota Orchestra performances Sept. 20, at the start of the 2019/2020 season. … Ousley, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., got her start in classical music broadcasting at Wichita-based Radio Kansas and hosted at WCAL in Northfield, Minn., the classical station that MPR acquired in 2004 for its contemporary music station, The Current.
From Bulgaria to Redlands, violinist has performed throughout the world
(Redlands News 08/16/2019)
… Todor Pelev’s illustrious musical career began in his native Bulgaria. […] After graduate studies at Juilliard, he was invited to complete his doctoral studies with Donald Weilerstein at the Eastman School of Music. While serving as Weilerstein’s teaching assistant, he won the Eastman Concerto Competition. …
Crane faculty featured at opening Orchestra of Northern New York concert Aug. 25 in Potsdam
(North Country Now 08/19/2019)
Nicholas Kilkenny (bass-baritone) is a classical vocalist and voice professor. […] He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Bachelor of Music Education degree from …
Boone Native Willa Finck of the Forget-Me-Nots Returns to Boone to Perform with Folk-Art Band …
(High Country Press 08/15/2019)
Willa Finck is known to many as one of the young fiddlers in the Celtic group The Forget-Me-Nots, who for many years were featured performers around the High Country. Finck moved to Rochester, New York in 2014 to pursue musical studies at the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman she served as concertmaster of the school’s orchestra and performed as a soloist. She completed her degree in violin performance in 2018. Since May of that year she has performed full time in the first violin section of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
Copper Hill features Finck and Katie Knudsvig on violin and vocals, Caroline Samuels on upright bass, and Ethan Cypress on banjo and trombone. All are classically-trained musicians who met at Eastman and formed Copper Hill in 2017. Their concert on August 18 will feature all-original tunes from their debut album.
Remember the Ladies: Music educator, composer and concert pianist
(Muskogee Daily Phoenix 08/16/2019)
In 1976, music portrayed the enormous diversity of bicentennial America – its multiplicity of tastes, ethnic origins, religious and political beliefs. During America’s Bicentennial Celebration, Dr. Merle Montgomery was director of the Bicentennial Parade of American Works music series at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., which included 50 state concerts, placing of 200 plaques honoring musicians of the past 200 years, and 15 13-week series of radio programs celebrating composers in every state. […]
Montgomery went to Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, completing work on her Masters of Music in Music Theory in 1943. She taught piano and theory there for the next decade while completing her doctorate in 1953. …
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