On December 5, 2022, the Eastman School of Music will present the world premiere of 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis’ How Bright the Sunlight, a work for symphony orchestra and narrator, with a libretto curated by the first Native American US Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo. The narration is based on both the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving…
Two of Eastman’s most prestigious orchestras, the Eastman Philharmonia and the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra (ESSO), under the baton of celebrated conductor Neil Varon, present a beautiful series of concerts this fall/winter. With repertoire that ranges from Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Beethoven to the premiere of a very special piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis,…
This excerpt from the autobiography of the father of former Eastman School director Robert Freeman was published in Eastman Notes magazine this fall, shortly before Robert Freeman’s death on October 18, 2022, in Austin, Texas. We also offer the story on the Eastman website in tribute to Bob Freeman, who led Eastman from 1973 to…
Confusion, fear, panic, and loneliness are not uncommon emotions in opera. Add to the list aging, family dynamics, manipulation, suffering, madness, foolishness, order, vision, and loyalty, as inspired by the themes and character relationships in Shakespeare’s King Lear, and you have a compelling contemporary opera with a distinctly contemporary voice: Lear on the 2nd Floor,…
Wellness at Eastman is a monthly seminar series from Eastman Performing Arts Medicine (EPAM) featuring artists and clinicians speaking to physical and mental wellness for performing artists, inspired by the Healthy Conservatoires movement in Europe. The next Wellness at Eastman seminar will be on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, at 6 p.m.: Alexander Technique and the Performing Artist, presented…
Tonight and next Friday night you’ll have two chances to hear new music by a talented young Eastman student composition winner, Zihan Wu. Tonight, October 21 at 7:30 p.m., the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra premieres Zihan’s Three Songs after Japanese Haiku; next Friday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m., Musica Nova unveils her Seven Scenes After…
Kicking off our Eastman Opera Theatre (EOT) season on November 3-6, is Lear on the 2nd Floor (2013) – an opera inspired by Shakespeare’s King Lear, with music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis and libretto by Allan Havis. Directed by Steven Daigle and conducted by Timothy Long, the opera will take place in Kilbourn…
This Wednesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. Brad Hogarth ‘10E returns as a guest conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble. For the concert he’ll lead Kenneth Amis’ Driven! and an arrangement of William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony. (See below for more details about this concert.) Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brad is the…
The Mexican American composer, percussionist, writer, educator, and arts advocate Ivan Trevino ‘06E, ‘10E (MM) has shared his music with audiences around the world, from Asia to South America to Madison Square Garden. On Wednesday, October 19, he’ll share his latest music with Eastman, when Mark Davis Scatterday conducts the Eastman Wind Ensemble, with Ivan…
The Eastman School of Music, in collaboration with The Juilliard School and Ithaca College School of Music, Theatre, & Dance, is presenting the 15th Annual Upstate New York Music College Fair on Thursday, November 3, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Cominsky Promenade, on the second floor of the Eastman School of Music, and on…