Eastman School of Music Posts and Musings
Sunday, March 9, is the 104th birthday of one of America’s most popular classical composers, Samuel Barber (1910-1981). His String Quartet, Op. 11, which contains his most famous piece, the “Adagio,” was recently recorded by Eastman’s quartet-in-residence, the Ying Quartet, along with music by longtime Eastman director Howard Hanson. You can hear David, Philip,…
During the month of March, we celebrate the achievements of women throughout musical history. At Eastman, this takes its most visible form with our annual Women in Music Festival, returning for its tenth year from March 24-29, 2014. Begun in 2005 by Eastman professor Sylvie Beaudette, the festival not only exalts women as musical…
One of the most-recorded jazz bassists in history is an Eastman School of Music graduate: Ron Carter (1937 — ), who received a bachelor’s degree in 1959 and an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Rochester. (The photo shows him performing in Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall before the awarding of the doctorate in October…
George Walker was the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, in 1996 for his vocal-orchestral work Lilacs. One of America’s most distinguished composers, Walker was born in 1922. He was trained as a pianist and as a composer at the Eastman School of Music, where he received doctoral degrees in…
This weekend, Eastman hosts two of the music world’s most famous performers: pianist Leon Fleisher (pictured above), who will perform the Brahms Piano Quintet with the Ying Quartet on Sunday afternoon’s Kilbourn Series chamber music concert; and violinist Itzhak Perlman (pictured below), who appears with conductor Neil Varon and the Eastman Philharmonia in Max…
The Breaking Winds is an Eastman alumni success story — and a very unusual one, since they are a bassoon quartet. Brittany Harrington (BM ’10), Yuki Katayama (BM ’11), Kara La Moure (BM ’10), and Lauren Yu (BM ’11) are building a name for themselves in the music business, including YouTube videos (see the latest…
February 14 is not only Valentine’s Day, it is the birthday of one of America’s great singers, soprano — and Eastman graduate — Renee Fleming (MM ’83). Anybody who follows classical music is well aware of Renee’s busy international career, but we thought it was worth noting that this month alone — in fact,…
… to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Howard Hanson’s Merry Mount, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on February 10, 1934. A great success at its premiere – the cast and creators received 50 curtain calls, which is still a house record – Merry Mount was performed eight more times that season but then dropped…
During Black History Month, we’ll remember some of the African American composers and musicians who are part of Eastman history. One of the most prominent and respected was William Grant Still (1895-1978), often called “The Dean of African American Composers”; among his many accomplishments, he was the first black American composer to have a…