Our listing of alumni successes is organized below by class graduation decade and according to the most recent MSM degree for those members of the alumni community with more than one.
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MSM alumnus David Amram (’56) was featured prominently in the November 24, 2025 edition of The New York Times. The headline: “At 95, David Amram Still Makes Music. And Nobody Can Put Him in a Box.”
95-year-old MSM piano alumnus Roy Eaton (BM ’50, MM ’52) returned to play in Bryant Park’s “Piano in Bryant Park” series.
William Goldstein (BM ’65) was interviewed by KUSC’s Kate Drabczynski about his practice of instant composition and career. He also released the studio version of his opera Kazimierz (The Orchard, 2026).
Classical Piano alumnus Lorenzo Pablo Martinez (MM ’69) published his latest novel, The Pianist and the Snake. This music-driven young adult mystery about a teen pianist confronting bullying and unraveling a campus mystery emphasizes themes of perseverance, artistry, and music’s role in healing.
Spouses Anna (BM ’74, MM ’75), violin, and Frederick Ostrofsky (BM ’74, MM ’75), cello, were featured performers in The Blithedale Romance, a film directed by Cody Knotts and based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Paul Brantley (BM ’83) completed his seventh MacDowell Fellowship in Music Composition this past fall.
The National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina performed Sonatina for Orchestra by Máximo Flügelman (BM ’80), a student of former MSM Composition faculty member John Corigliano (’63, HonDMA ’92), in Buenos Aires’ new National Auditorium.
Rebecca Noreen (MM ’83) retired from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra after 22 years as Contrabassonist/Bassoonist. She also performed in the USCG Band Alumni Centennial Celebration concert alongside current USCG Band personnel, including fellow MSM alumni Laura Pirruccello (MM ’08) on piccolo, and Principal Percussionist Christopher Smith (PC ’97) in addition to other USCG alumni.
Vibraphonist Ted Piltzecker (MM ’85) released his new album, Peace Vibes (Origin, 2025).
MSM Jazz Piano faculty member Ted Rosenthal‘s (BM ’81, MM ’83) new album High Standards (TMR, 2025) was featured on WGBO’s morning show “Daybreak.” Host Gary Walker also interviewed Professor Rosenthal during the program.
Under Artistic Director Robert Cassidy (MM ’92), Santa Ynez Valley Concert Series celebrated its 45th season.
Artistic Director and Music Director Marlon Daniel (BM ’93) was interviewed by the Violin Channel ahead of the Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges 2025 in Guadalupe. A component of the festival is the Joseph Bologne International Violin Competition. Part of the interview was about the musical legacy of the Competition’s namesake.
Kelly Hall-Tompkins (MM ’95, HonDMA ’16) toured the Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto across the Dutch cities of Leeuwarden, Groningen and Utrecht.
Shuler Hensley (BM ’90, HonDMA ’14) directed and Jasmine Amy Rogers (’19) starred in Carnegie Hall’s January 2026 Oklahoma! In Concert performance. Several current students from MSM’s Musical Theatre program performed on the final chorus of the show’s iconic title song.
Tony Mazzocchi (BM ’95, MM ’97), Executive Director of Kinhaven Music School, is proud to share news about the launch of the first and only semester-long music immersion program for high school students in the United States. This fall, Kinhaven welcomed its inaugural cohort to its Vermont campus in partnership with Burr & Burton Academy.
Dr. Jason Oby (BM ’88, MM ’90) retired from his professorship at Texas Southern State University.
N’Kenge Pacurar (BM ’96) released her latest album CenterStage: Live from the Ella Fitzgerald Festival.
Dr. Marc Peloquin (MM ’89, DMA ’95) will have his next KeyedUp performance at the National Opera Center tomorrow, featuring the music of Mason Bates and David Del Tredici.
Luis Perdomo (BM ’97) began his appointment as Associate Professor of Jazz Piano at Oberlin College & Conservatory in the Fall 2025 semester.
On February 20, pianist and composer Dr. Hayk Arsenyan (PS ’08) released the album recording of his composition Stratum for Piano and Bass on the Navona Label.
Classical guitarist and producer Rupert Boyd (MM ’06) launched a new GatherNYC season featuring 31 performances at the Museum of Arts and Design.
Reiko Fueting (DMA ’00), Composition Faculty member and Dean of Academic Core, Composition, and Contemporary Performance, has been commissioned to write a work for the Dresdner Kammerchor, one of the premier chamber choirs in Germany, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary.
Citlalli Guevara (MM ’05) made her debut at Teatro Mayor in Bogotá (Colombia) this fall in a duo piano recital with Dr. Slavina Zhelezova (DMA ’18) as part of an 11-concert tour in major theaters and music halls in China.
Amy Justman (PC ’96, MM ’02) began a new position as Individual Giving Manager at Classic Stage Company.
Pianist Isabelle O’Connell (MM ’01) was one of five 2025-26 Fulbright Alumni Project Fund Awardees (Fulbright Commission in Ireland) for her project, Transatlantic Currents: New Music for Piano and Electronics.
Mezzo-soprano Rachel Payne (BM ’04) made her Carnegie Hall debut as a part of Duo Atlantis.
Tenor Nicholas Phan (’02) made his Teatro dell’Opera di Roma debut as Yonas in Saariaho’s Adriana Mater.
Pianist and educator Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (DMA ’08) received the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Arts and Music Award from the Pilsudski Institute of America. She also appeared as featured soloist with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra.
Lecolion Washington (MM ’01), Executive Director of the Community Music Center of Boston, was named one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year (2025).
Soprano Maria Brea (BM ’15) and pianist Dror Baitel released duo album Alba: Beyond Borders on the Lexicon Classics label.
MSM Precollege Classical Piano faculty member Zhen Chen (MM ’12, MM ’14, PS ’15) released the album Mozart, W.A.: Piano Concertos No. 15 & 21 (Solo Musica, 2025) with the Chamber Orchestra Mannheim (Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester), conducted by Thomas Rösner.
Dr. Matthew Hough (BM ’04, MM ’09, DMA ’12) was appointed Assistant Professor of Music at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California.
Chloé Kiffer (MM ’14, PS ’15) was featured in the Modus Operandi Orchestra’s performance of Mozart’s 5th Violin Concerto at Merkin Hall under the direction of Maestro Justin Bischof (BM ’90, MM ’92, DMA ’98).
The new opera by classical composition faculty Dr. Paolo Marchettini (DMA ’14), Il Giudizio di Paride, premiered at Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi, Italy.
The New York Times listed the New York Philharmonic musical festival “Sound On” as one of the “Best Classical Performances of 2025” highlighting the NY Phil’s performance in January 2025 of Pierre Boulez’s Pli Selon Pli in which the publication drew attention to “the radiant soprano Jana McIntyre [(MM ’16)] in her Philharmonic debut.”
Under the artistic direction of pianist and composer Dr. Patricio Molina (BM ’10, MM ’16), Cantos de Quisqueya, presented by the Pan Global Music Initiative (PGMI), showcased Dominican classical music at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
Classical piano alumna Isabel Dobarro (PS ’13) won the 2025 Latin Grammy Award for “Best Classical Album.” Her solo recording Kaleidoscope – Contemporary Piano Music By Female Composers From Around The World, was produced by Javier Monteverde and released on the Grand Piano label (Naxos subsidiary) in October 2024.
MSM composition alumnus Giovanni Piacentini (MM ’13) was nominated for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” in the 2025 Latin GRAMMY Awards. The guitar concerto entitled El Llanto De La Guitarra features the legendary Eliot Fisk and Mexico’s renowned Orquestra de Escuela Carlos Chávez, under the direction of maestro Eduardo García Barrios.
Baritone Daniel Rich (MM ’19) began his new position as Adjunct Professor of Voice at University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Time Out New York named Musical Theatre alumna Jasmine Amy Rogers (’19) “Breakout Theater Star of the Year.”
Tenor Aaron Short (MM ’13) joined the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts as an Adjunct Faculty of Language Skills.
Pianist Harriet Stubbs (MM ’13) was interviewed by American Songwriter magazine following successful surgical treatment of her ulnar nerve condition that had previously jeopardized her ability to play. About the experience, Ms. Stubbs told the publication “I feel like a completely different human being now…I’ve been given everything anyone could ever want because I’ve been given my hands back, and I know that all I needed was to be able to do everything that I’m meant to do.”
Hannah Cho (PS ’19) has been appointed to the Violin Section of the Vienna Philharmonic.
Ramón Carrero-Martínez (BM ’19, MM ’21) has been appointed Principal Viola of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
Soprano Sofia Gotch (MM ’23, PPD ’25) has been named one of San Francisco Opera’s 2026 Adler Fellows.
Ziqing Guo (BM ’18, MM ’20) has been appointed to the Violin Section of the Indianopolis Symphony Orchestra.
Soprano Shelén Hughes (MM ‘20), from Bolivia, and bass-baritone Joseph Parrish, from Baltimore, opened the season for the New York Festival of Song at the Kaufman Music Centre with the performance “South America, North America, a Love Story” performing alongside Steven Blier and Amir Farid. Shelén also advanced to the upcoming semi-final round of the 2026 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.
Musical Theatre alumna Kianna Kelly-Futch (BM ‘24) was cast as Assistant Dance Captain and as a Swing for the roles of Zelma, Bodacious Lady, Alline, and the Ikettes in the Broadway national tour of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.
MSM composition alumna Kenedea Lee (MM ’24) had the new work Eunoia premiered by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.
Church Street School for Music and Art (CSSMA) will honor Dr. Tereza Lee (BM ’05, MM ’07, PS ’10, DMA ’20) during their annual gala, THE EVENT, on Monday, March 9th, 2026, at the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca.
MSM classical trumpet alumnus Tiago Linck (’24) has been appointed to the American Brass Quintet (ABQ) becoming the first Latin American to hold a permanent position in the ensemble’s distinguished six-decade history.
Chilean classical guitarist Sebastian Molina (MM ’24) earned the 2025 Global Alumni Award by the Universidad Mayor in Santiago, Chile.
In Prague, Czech Republic, Chase Park (PPD ’25; AD ’26) performed the Antonin Kraft Cello Concerto in C Major, Op 4 with the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at Smetana Hall.
MSM piano alumna and La Maison school founder Héloïse Pieaud (BM ’20) was featured in NYC local press (The Spirit). Several years ago, she founded La Maison in a reconverted mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Classical pianist Seth Schultheis (PC ’18, BM ’22, MM ’24) won First Prize at the 2025 Deutsche Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn.
Jazz composer Rin Seo‘s (MM ’20) Rin Seo Collective, a 14-piece chamber jazz orchestra, released its debut album, City Suite (Cellar Music, 2025).
Soprano Sara Stevens (BM ’23, MM ’25) began her position as a Bailey Apprentice Artist at the Palm Beach Opera.
Musical Theatre alumna Sarah Thorn (BM ’21) was cast in the understudy Cyndee/Woman Cashier/”ELMA”/Sylvia/Honoria/Late-Night Cabbie track in The Shed’s fall production of This World of Tomorrow written by Tom Hanks and James Glossman.
Countertenor Haolun Zhang (MM ’24) advanced to the upcoming semi-final round of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.
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