Barry Snyder received bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as the Performer’s Certificate and the Artist’s Diploma, from Eastman. He studied piano with Wilbur Hoffman, Vladimir Sokoloff, and Cécile Genhart, and accompanying with Brooks Smith and John Celentano, and was a triple prize winner in the 1966 Van Cliburn International Competition: Silver Medal, Pan American…
Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Allan Schindler pursued his undergraduate education at Oberlin College and his masters and doctoral studies in composition and musicology at the University of Chicago, where he studied with Ralph Shapey and Richard Wernick. He came to Eastman in 1978, where he taught composition and directed the Eastman Computer Music Center. He…
Alan Harris received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas, and a master’s degree and Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University, studying with Raymond Stuhl and Janos Starker. He began his long association with Eastman, and with Rochester, in 1965, when he was also hired as assistant principal cellist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, where…
John “Doc” Marcellus is a respected brass pedagogue and international recording artist whose students play in major symphony orchestras and teach on some of the world’s most prestigious music faculties. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and graduate degrees from Catholic University, and after serving on the faculties of North Carolina…
Beginning his musical career as a composer and jazz pianist, Robert Wason studied music composition and piano at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford (BMus ’67; MMus ’69), joining the Hartt Faculty as an Instructor in Theory and Composition in 1969. During his Hartford years, he worked four to six nights a week…
Robert McIver served as an Eastman faculty member for eighteen years. He began in 1997 as a Visiting Professor of Voice, and joined as full-time faculty member in 1998, teaching until his retirement in 2015. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and Master and Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance…
Dramatic coloratura soprano Rita Shane performed as Queen of the Night more than 250. When she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1973 in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, The New York Times noted her “powerful, precise, expressive, and intense” performance, saying it “left no doubt as to the Queen of the Night’s character.” A leading…
Richard F. Grunow is Professor Emeritus of Music Education in the Department of Music Teaching and Learning at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. A leading innovator in beginning instrumental music instruction, Dr. Grunow is an active lecturer and clinician, having presented extensively throughout the United States, and in Canada, Austria, Germany, Italy,…
Rebecca Penneys is a popular recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral soloist, educator, and adjudicator throughout the world. Her current and former students include prizewinners in international competitions, and hold important teaching posts on every continent. Rebecca’s teachers include Aube Tzerko, Leonard Stein, Rosina Lhévinne, Artur Rubinstein, Menahem Pressler, and Iannis Xenakis. She made her recital debut…
Ramon Ricker has served as Senior Associate Dean for Professional Studies, Director of the Institute for Music Leadership, and Professor of Saxophone at Eastman. Dr. Ricker was instrumental in shaping Eastman’s innovative Institute for Music Leadership, whose Arts Leadership curriculum offers courses in entrepreneurship, careers, leadership, performance, contemporary orchestral issues, and musician’s injury prevention and…