An online course by MSM faculty member and alumna Lisa Yui (DMA ‘05) on J.S. Bach’s Italian Concerto launched recently on Tonebase Piano, a popular platform for classical music education with over 25,000 active members worldwide.

In the series, Dr. Yui delves into the history and style of this immensely popular piece, offering technical guidance on ornamentation, pedalling, and more.

Watch an excerpt of the course on YouTube shorts here.
Find the full course here.

Minnesota Public Radio recently aired a 30-minute interview with David Leisner, Chair of the Guitar Program at MSM. In the interview he speaks about his new album Charms to Soothe, his book and he talks at length about the Guitar Program at MSM. David also discusses his interest in visual art.

Charms to Soothe was released in late May on Azica Records and has been receiving positive attention from classical music press.

Listen to the interview here.
Learn more about the album here.

Critically acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Ted Rosenthal  presents “Rhapsody in Gershwin” with his trio on Sept 26, at 7:30 PM at Birdland Jazz Club in NYC, celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue on Gershwin’s birthday.

The Ted Rosenthal Trio is:
Ted Rosenthal – Piano
Martin Wind – Bass
Tim Horner – Drums

More information and tickets here.
More about Ted Rosenthal here.

An interview with MSM Strings faculty member Lucie Robert appears in the “Teaching & Playing: Techniques” section of the October edition of the respected The Strad magazine.

In the article, Lucie discusses the topic of “Playing from your heart—exploring expressive fingering.”

“Music is a language of ideas and expressive, so expressive fingering is all about our individual connection with the music we play,” she tells interviewer Naomi Yandell in the publication.

The October issue of The Strad can be found here.

On October 13 in Auburn, Washington, the Auburn Symphony Orchestra (ASO) will perform the world premiere of MSM Viola faculty member Jessica Meyer’s composition Turbulent Flames, commissioned by the ASO.

The concert will also feature classical piano alumnus Dominic Cheli (BM ’14) performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the ASO.

Read more about the concert here.
Read more about Jessica Meyer here.
Read more about Dominic Cheli here.

David Leisner’s recording Charms to Soothe that was released in late May on Azica Records has been receiving positive attention from classical music press.

“Charms to Soothe is a collection of early 19th-century works by Sor, Giuliani, Mertz, Regondi and Schulz, intended to be healing in these turbulent times of ours,” says David Leisner.

“Distinguished by attention to detail, thoughtful consideration of pacing, and clear affection for the music…Leisner’s articulation is unfailingly precise and his interpretations illuminating. Executed with the kind of ease and authority that comes from decades of playing, the material impresses for its melodic richness, warmth, and clarity,” writes Textura.

“This is a disc for anyone, guitar lover or not, with a taste for beautiful and stimulating music in an intimate format, played with taste and devotion,” writes Göran Forsling, Music Web International.

The recording can be purchased here.
The liner notes can be viewed here.

The Ted Rosenthal all-star Sextet played a concert entitled “Bernstein and Bop” at Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning, and received a rave review from the Berkshire Edge:

“Ted Rosenthal, has all of Bernstein’s classical chops, plus a virtuosic facility for jazz that Lenny would have envied. His solo rendition of Bernstein’s ‘Somewhere’ had the crowd in tears. Now he owned them.  Rosenthal’s leadership and arrangements are nothing short of brilliant,” writes reviewer David Noel Edwards.

Ted Rosenthal’s Sextet is:

Ted Rosenthal — piano
Noriko Ueda — bass
Dennis Mackrel — drums
Erena Terakubo — alto saxophone
Scott Robinson — tenor saxophone
Gary Smulyan — baritone saxophone

Read the full review here.

The composition Symphony No. 1 “Four Loves” by MSM alumnus and Precollege faculty member Kyle Werner (DMA ‘14) will receive its world premiere on September 19 with the Houston Ballet. The work is his largest to date:  a 33-minute, four-movement work in the symphonic tradition.

The work was commissioned by the Houston Ballet, is choreographed by Silas Farley, and will be performed by 27 dancers from the Houston Ballet, with music performed live by its orchestra conducted by Simon Thew.

Learn more about the event here.

A trio of saxophonists will join the trio of jazz pianist, composer, and MSM faculty member Ted Rosenthal in Studio E at the Linde Center to play a new program called “Bernstein & Bop: A Saxophone Colossus.”

The musicians will play songs linked to, or written by, Leonard Bernstein.

On alto sax will be recent graduate of MSM, Erena Terakubo. The other musicians in the concert are: Gary Smulyan (baritone saxophone), Scott Robinson (tenor saxophone), Noriko Ueda (bass), and Dennis Mackrel (drums).

Ted Rosenthal speaks in detail about the concert to the publication The Berkshire Edge; the interview can be found here.

Information about the concert can be found here.

MSM Dean of Vocal Arts Carleen Graham has been named to the Board of Opera America’s National Opera Center, New York City’s “communal home for opera and the performing arts.”

The Center’s custom-built facility provides flexible rental spaces for companies, choruses, ensembles, teaching studios, and individuals for performances, rehearsals, auditions, recordings, meetings, special events, networking, and more.

Opera America is a national service organization that supports and encourages the flourishing of opera in the United States. It leads and serves the entire opera community, supporting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera.

Learn more here.

MSM Jazz Arts faculty member Darcy James Argue has been named Arranger of the Year in the 72nd Annual DownBeat Critics Poll. In addition, his recent recording Dynamic Maximum Tension — which features MSM Dean of Jazz Ingrid Jensen and MSM trombone faculty member Ryan Keberle — was voted one of the Top 10 Jazz Albums of the Year.

The composer and bandleader serves as one of the driving forces behind new generations of ambitious large ensemble instrumental music. Dynamic Maximum Tension serves as proof,” writes the magazine.

Read the list of the Top 20 Jazz Albums of the Year selected by the DownBeat Critics Poll here.

On July 8, the American String Quartet (ASQ) performed a recital of Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Ravel to an enthusiastic audience at the Aspen Music Festival, celebrating their 50th anniversary as an ensemble.  In 1974, the ASQ was appointed as Quartet-in-Residence at AMF, a position held until the mid-2010’s.

The ASQ are Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney on violin, Wolfram Koessel, cello, and Daniel Avshalomov, viola. The group has been Artists in Residence at MSM for many years performing several concerts a year. Several members of the ensemble are on the MSM Strings faculty.

Learn more about the ASQ here.

MSM Dean of Jazz Arts Ingrid Jensen and the Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra are headlining the Iowa City Jazz Festival taking place from July 5–7. An interview with Ingrid is featured this week in The Daily Iowan, the independent newspaper of the University of Iowa.

The paper says this collaboration with Ms. Jensen and the Orchestra has been years in the making, and that there are great expectations about the event, which Ms. Jensen says she is looking forward to.

“When I’m playing I’m always paying attention to the sounds around me, and that includes the audience… I’m very in tune with vibe, and music is all vibrations. When the audience opens up to that atmosphere, it can be very rewarding,” she tells the paper.

Last week, the MSM Dean of Jazz Arts led a jazz camp for high-school-aged players in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Read the interview with Ingrid Jensen in The Daily Iowan here.

Darcy James Argue is following in the footsteps of Composer in Residence and MSM faculty emeritus Jim McNeely who has been the Composer in Residence of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band for the past 16 years.

Writes the Frankfurt Radio Big Band in a news release on their website: “The Canadian composer and big band leader Darcy James Argue began his musical career in the Montreal jazz scene before making his way to New York, where he has been attracting a great deal of attention for years with his ensemble Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society. Today he arranges and composes for the biggest names in the genre and is active all over the world.”

The first musicians that Darcy James Argue has invited as guest artists are Warren Wolf and Aaron Diehl. “The band is going to love playing with them!” says Darcy. “For my part, I’m very excited to dive into writing for Warren and Aaron, taking their original compositions and other works from their repertoire and reimagining them for jazz orchestra.”

The Warren Wolf concerts take place January 23rd in Darmstadt and January 24th in Frankfurt, and the Aaron Diehl concerts are June 5th in Frankfurt, and June 6th in Giessen.

Learn more about the appointment here.

NAACP Image Award winners Marcus and Jean Baylor of The Baylor Project performed on NBC’s The Today Show on June 17, 2024 performing their Grammy-nominated single Laugh and Move On. Watch the appearance here.

They also appeared on the syndicated Tamron Hall Show for their 3rd annual “Father’s Day Extravaganza,” also performing Laugh and Move On. Watch their interview here, and their performance here.

On June 19 at 10:30 PM ET, composer, violist, and MSM faculty member Jessica Meyer performs a special recital , live from Zipper Hall at The Colburn School in Los Angeles.

In this concert called Sounds of Being, Jessica will perform a collection of self-composed works for loop pedal and viola.

Watch the concert here.

MSM trombone faculty member Sasha Romero, who is also Principal Trombone in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is the featured artist on the cover of this month’s issue of International Musician.

In an article titled “Visibility Promotes Acceptance” the publication writes as an introduction: Romero’s journey toward self-acceptance started with striving for an understanding of who she was, and her place growing up as young boy in the East Texas town of Longview.

“I didn’t really know enough back then to question my identity,” she says. “I realized that I didn’t like my assigned gender at birth. I wanted to be a girl from the age of 5. But I didn’t have the basis to even begin to understand what being trans meant.

Read the article here.

MSM Alumnus and faculty member Xiao Wang (BM ’13, MM ’15, AD ’16) placed first of ten finalists in the New York Classical Violin Competition which was held at Manhattan School of Music in late May.

In addition to winning $22,000 in prize money, Xiao Wang is eligible to participate in the invite-only inaugural Classic Violin Olympus International Competition taking place in Dubai in April 2025.

Learn more here.

Violinist and conductor David Chan joins the artistic team of the Apollo Orchestra as principal conductor this month. The Orchestra was founded in 2010 and provides a platform for many of the Washington D.C. area’s finest professional freelance classical musicians. In addition his role as head of the Orchestral Performance Program at MSM, David Chan is also the concertmaster for the MET Orchestra.

Learn more here.

Congratulations to the MSM Jazz Arts alumni and faculty members who won high-profile awards in the prestigious Jazz Journalists Association Awards for 2024. The winners in the MSM Community include faculty member Darcy James Argue who won Best Arranger, and the ensemble Artemis with MSM Dean of Jazz Arts Ingrid Jensen which won for Best Mid-Sized Ensemble.

Learn more here.

MSM Dean of Jazz Arts Ingrid Jensen is part of the critically acclaimed ensemble Artemis that has been nominated Best Small Ensemble by the Jazz Journalist Association (JJA) for the all-female group’s recent recording In Real Time.

Ingrid is also part of MSM faculty member Darcy James Argue’s ensemble Secret Society that played with him on his JJA award-nominated recording Dynamic Maximum Tension, along with two other MSM faculty members, Nadje Noordhuis and Ryan Keberle. Darcy James Argue has been nominated for four awards by the JJA, including best album.

The winners will be announced on May 8.

Learn more about Artemis here.
Learn more about the 2024 Jazz Journalist Awards here.

MSM Jazz Arts faculty member Darcy James Argue has been nominated in the categories of Record of the Year, Composer of the Year, Arranger of the Year, and Large Ensemble of the Year, in the 2024 Jazz Journalist Awards for his most recent release Dynamic Maximum Tension, recorded with his ensemble Secret Society.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and deeply honored to be nominated, ” he says. The winners will be announced on May 8.

Darcy James Argue was recently in Paris attending the world premiere of his new orchestral arrangements for singer Cécile McLorin Salvant with L’Orchestre National d’Île-de-France. These arrangements will receive their New York premiere next March at Carnegie Hall, with Salvant and The Knights, as part of Carnegie’s Perspective series.

Learn about the 2024 Jazz Journalist Association nominees here.
Watch video clips of Salvant’s tour in France featuring arrangements by Darcy James Argue here.
Information about the Carnegie Hall concert here.

MSM faculty member, the respected violinist Ilmar Gavilán, will be part of Summerfest at the Kaufman Music Center taking place this summer at the respected arts center in New York City from August 19 to 24, 2024.

Kaufman Music Center’s SummerFest is an intensive week of masterclasses, lessons, workshops, chamber ensembles and performance opportunities led by world-renowned guest artists and faculty for advanced pianists, violinists and cellists age 14 – 22.

Musicians taking part also include: Adele Anthony, Fabio Bidini, Amir Eldan, Richard Goode, Grigory Kalinovsky, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Masao Kawasaki, Clara Minhye Kim, and others.

Learn more about Ilmar Gavilan here.

Learn more about Summerfest here.

Ebony Chants, Paolo Marchettini‘s second album on the label New Focus Recordings showcases music for clarinets in both solo and ensemble setting and will be released on April 14th.

The album features Rome-born and New York City-based Paolo Marchettini as both composer and clarinetist, working alongside with three other clarinetists who are MSM current and former students: Meng Zhang (DMA) (also worked as recording engineer), Ka Hei Chan (MM ’23) and Tommy Shermulis (MM ’23).

In liner notes, the respected guitarist Dan Lippel comments that Ebony Chants evokes the rich wood used in clarinet construction, and highlights Marchettini’s “subtle, lyrical composition voice.”

“Marchettini strikes an engaging balance between experimental elements such as the use of microtones and extended techniques, and more traditional material, performing the works with elegance and virtuosity…  Allusions to multiple eras and styles of music are seamlessly integrated in music that is natural and always breathes,” he writes.

Preorder the CD here.

MSM Precollege faculty member Kariné Poghosyan (MM ’05, DMA ’07) performed to a full house at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on February 14.

The centerpiece of the program was the centennial celebration of the world premiere of George Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue which debuted on February 12, 1924. The concert was presented by the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations.

“We were happy to have partnered, once again this year, with our distinguished artist, the New York-based Armenian-American pianist Kariné Poghosyan, to bring together dear friends and colleagues,” said His Excellency Ambassador Mher Margaryan during pre-concert remarks before the group of Permanent Representatives of the U.N. member states.

The Armenian Weekly is calling the performance “magnificent… (she has) impeccable phrasing, breathtaking vulnerability and power.”

The cultural advisor of the Embassy of Armenia to the U.S., Vicki Shoghag Hovanessian said “Kariné Poghosyan is one of those virtuoso spectacular pianists with extraordinary stamina and musical skills as well as jaw-dropping performances. It’s a musical reverie to attend Ms. Poghosyan’s performances.”

Read the review in The Armenian Weekly here.

Pianist, Precollege faculty member, and MSM alumna Kariné Poghosyan (MM ’05, DMA ’07) will perform a concert in honor of the 100th anniversary of the premiere of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on February 14 at 8 PM at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Presented by The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the United Nations, the concert will also feature works by Alberto Ginastera, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Tania León, and Arno Babajanian.

Rhapsody in Blue is to me one of those iconic works that speaks to absolutely everyone,” says Poghosyan. “It is a stellar example of what Gershwin was aiming for with his compositions – erasing boundaries between different genres and styles of music. Therefore, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its premiere, I have created a program that highlights that magical combination of classical, jazz and Latin elements, alongside works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Alberto Ginastera and Tania Leon, with a bit of my Armenian roots sprinkled in through virtuosic selections by Arno Babajanian.”

Learn more about the concert and purchase tickets here.

Eugene Drucker — violinist, author, educator, composer, founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, and MSM violin faculty member — has been named Artistic Director of The Berkshire Bach Society (BBS). The 34-year-old arts organization presents live performances of Baroque music by world-class musicians in the Berkshires and surrounding areas.

Mr. Drucker is a longtime member of the Berkshire Bach Ensemble and director of the BBS Bach at New Year’s concert series. As Artistic Director of the BBS, he will help spearhead new programming and performance opportunities.

The appointment comes following the retirement of the Emerson String Quartet, which Mr. Drucker co-founded 47 years ago. Over the course of its existence, the Emerson earned nine Grammy Awards, three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” award.

MSM faculty member pianist Elio Villafranca will be the headlining musician and a lecturer at the University of Arkansas‘s annual symposium dedicated to educating and exposing the community to the music contributions of Black Americans. The 11th annual conference will be held Jan. 31 to Feb. 4.

The theme for the 2024 symposium, “Celebrating Afro-Caribbean Music,” explores the rich culture of the Caribbean nations and their contributions to music genres ranging from reggae and salsa to merengue, calypso and more. Throughout the symposium, there will be lectures that support the theme exploring the ways in which Afro-Caribbean music relates to the experiences of Black musicians as well as social movements.

On Feb 2, Elio Villafranca will deliver a lecture on “The Music of the Afro Diaspora in the Caribbean,” hold a master class, and be the featured performer at an evening concert. 

More information on the event here.

MSM faculty member Andrew Gerle is a composer/lyricist, librettist, pianist and author whose most recent production Whisper Darkly, set at the height of Prohibition in 1928, is “the world’s first eclectro-swing musical,” he says, an immersive theatre experience that follows the lives of three women living their lives on their own terms. The music and lyrics are by Andrew Gerle; the book and concept is by librettist DJ Salisbury.

The video teaser for the production was recorded in The Back Room, one of the last Prohibition era speakeasies still operating in NYC.

For more on the musical and to see both the production and recording teaser, visit the production’s website here.

Learn more about Andrew Gerle here.

The album Dynamic Maximum Tension by MSM Jazz Arts composition faculty member Darcy James Argue has been named to NPR’s list of 50 Best Albums of 2023, as well as to Slate’s list of Best Jazz Albums of 2023.

The album has been nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.

Find the NPR list here.

Find the Slate list here.