Eastman School of Music Posts and Musings
Is it possible that we die “not for ourselves alone, but for each other”? This is one of the questions at the heart of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, this French composer’s most ambitious work and one of the great 20th-century operas. Set during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, the opera tells the true…
The great Italian writer Italo Calvino (pictured) is the inspiration for this year’s Benson Forum on Creativity, which brings together the music of Professor of Composition Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and several Eastman student composers, the Eastman BroadBand ensemble (pictured below), and the bilingual Kairos Italy Theater troupe. They are collaborating for “If on a Winter’s Night…
Last Sunday’s concert in Kodak Hall by the United States Army Field Band not only brought several Eastman alumni back to the their alma mater, it gave them the opportunity to perform alongside their former teachers, who joined the band for several numbers. Here are photos of Professor of Horn Peter Kurau with his student…
The British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was such a renowned figure that he was featured on the cover of Time magazine when he was only in his thirties. His centenary in 2013 was celebrated worldwide; Eastman joined in with performances of his opera The Rape of Lucretia in the fall and his massive War Requiem…
March 22 is the 84th birthday of one of the great American theater composers and lyricists: Stephen Sondheim, who was born in New York City in 1930. Sondheim got his start on Broadway as the lyricist of West Side Story (with Leonard Bernstein, 1957) and Gypsy (with Jule Styne, 1959), and has written many award-winning…
The United States Army Field Band pays Rochester a visit this weekend and will give a concert this Sunday afternoon, March 23, at 2 p.m. in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. The band will be joined by the Soldiers’ Chorus in a diverse program of Mozart, Verdi, Vaughan Williams, Gilbert and Sullivan, and much…
The day after St. Patrick’s Day is as good as any to remind readers that Sir James Galway, probably the world’s best-known flutist and one of its better-known Irishmen, is a guest at Eastman this week, along with his wife (and frequent musical partner) Lady Jeanne Galway (both are shown above). Sir James was an…
Enjoy a late celebration of the centennial of the great English composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) on Tuesday night, March 18, with the acclaimed tenor Nicholas Phan. He makes his debut in Eastman’s Kilbourn Concert Series with a program of music mostly by Britten, but also including a selection of Schubert songs. For more information on…
These 19th century phonographs in the Collection Charles Cros, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, were photographed by Sarah Fuchs Sampson, a PhD student in musicology. Beginning in 1891, anyone with a private telephone line in France could subscribe to the Théâtrophone — and listen to live performances of opera in the comfort…