On March 7, 2024, the University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) will host a program reflecting the themes of its new installation of Renaissance stained glass. The program, titled “Diaphany: Reflections in/on Glass,” features the Chicago-based early music collective Schola Antiqua, alongside Eastman School of Music’s student-run contemporary music ensemble OSSIA and Naomi Gregory ’14E (DMA), ’20E (PhD), who will contribute from the Italian Baroque organ. The repertoire will reflect wide-ranging expressions from the pre-modern sound world, interwoven with the provocative chamber music of American minimalist Philip Glass. “Diaphany” has received funding from fifteen sponsors at the University of Rochester, led by a grant from the Humanities Project.
Michael Alan Anderson, Chair of Eastman’s Musicology Department, developed the program and serves as artistic director of Schola Antiqua. He shares that he is “delighted to be involved with another collaboration between the Eastman School of Music and the Memorial Art Gallery.” He continues, “For more than a decade, I have enjoyed developing creative connections between visual art and the sound world that unite our institutions. To have the support of so many departments and programs across the university for ‘Diaphany’ has been especially gratifying.”
MAG is thrilled to celebrate the long-awaited opening of their Renaissance stained-glass roundel display with this concert. The museum’s curator of European Art, Nancy Norwood, elaborates on the exhibit itself: “This newest installation in the museum’s second-floor galleries comprises 17 rare works of early 16th-century European glass and is the culmination of two decades of focused acquisition.” The initiative was supported for several years by patrons Mark Chaplin and John Strawway, who wanted the museum to offer the best holdings of Renaissance glass of any museum in the United States, outside of New York City. Connecting back to the upcoming concert, Norwood states that “Professor Anderson has carefully curated the concert program to complement both the period and the subject matter of these rare gems of light and color; it could not be a more fitting tribute.”
This event is supported by generous grants from the University of Rochester Humanities Project, the Rossell Hope Robbins Library, the Dean’s Office of the Eastman School of Music, and the Arthur Satz Department of Music. Co-sponsored by the departments of History; Musicology; Conducting & Ensembles; Humanities (Eastman); All Eastman Events; the Visual and Cultural Studies Program; Art and Art History; Organ, Sacred Music, and Historical Keyboards; Religion and Classics; Chamber Music; and Voice, Opera, and Vocal Coaching.
Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Fountain Court, Memorial Art Gallery
Concert included with museum admission; half price after 5:00 p.m.
University of Rochester Students, Faculty, and Staff get in free with URID.
Please note that seating in the Fountain Court is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Image Credit:
Unknown German Workshop
Wild Man with the Arms of the Holzhausen Family, 1599
Glass with silver stain, vitreous paint, and lead
Bertha Buswell Bequest, 1942.28.2
Media only: Lauren Sageer, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Digital Content,
(585) 451-8492, lsageer@esm.rochester.edu
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About Memorial Art Gallery:
A visit to the Memorial Art Gallery is a journey through more than 5,000 years of art history. From the relics of antiquity to works in the vanguard of contemporary practice, MAG offers a panorama of the world’s art. Our 14-acre campus is a spectacular public art space that is a popular destination for Rochesterians and out-of-town visitors alike.
MAG’s permanent collection of more than 12,000 objects has been called “the best balanced in the state outside of metropolitan New York City.” In addition to its collection, the museum offers a year-round schedule of temporary exhibitions, lectures, concerts, tours, and family activities.
About OSSIA New Music:
OSSIA New Music is a student-run organization at the Eastman School of Music committed to performing the works of contemporary composers. OSSIA hosts concerts and events at Eastman and throughout the Rochester community and promotes the music of diverse and vibrant composers. OSSIA is generously funded through the Howard Hanson Fund and grants from Eastman’s Institute of Music Leadership.
About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community. Additionally, more than 1,700 members of the Rochester community, from young children through senior citizens, are enrolled in the Eastman Community Music School.
About the University of Rochester:
The University of Rochester is one of the nation’s leading private research universities, one of only 62-member institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives undergraduates exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.