“At 95, David Amram Still Makes Music. And Nobody Can Put Him in a Box,” writes The New York Times.“Jazz, classical, folk, world music—for this composer, categories were never confining.”
“Amram is a composer, musician, author, conductor and boundlessly connected collaborator who has been cheerfully ignoring musical categories since the 1940s. His output includes jazz tunes, symphonies, operas, film scores, theater music, off-the-cuff talking blues and idiom-hopping folk-festival performances where he’s likely to play piano, pennywhistle and percussion.”
“Amram moved to New York City in 1955, where he was hired by (Charles) Mingus, studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music and fell in with Beat Generation writers and artists.”
Read the full article here.
On November 20, baritone Joseph Parrish, from Baltimore, and MSM alumna Shelén Hughes Camacho (MM ‘20), from Bolivia, who are partners in life, 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, alongside Steven Blier and Amir Farid.
“This program is close to our hearts—it celebrates the music and poetry that shaped us, weaving together works from Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Appalachia, Spirituals, Bernstein, and beyond,” said Shelén told MSM President Jim Gandre before the performance. “It’s truly a journey across the Americas, full of warmth, humor, and the joy of connection through song.”
More about the performance here.
On November 9 and 16, MSM alumna Kelly Hall-Tompkins (MM ’95, HonDMA ’17) performed the Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto with Bnagor Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Music Director Lucas Richman and the Bangor Symphony. Before the concert, Kelly took part in a pre-concert interview with Lucas Richman and BSO Executive Director Renia Shterenberg; Kelly was interviewed by Maine Public Radio about the concert.
Kelly Hall-Tompkins will be touring with the North Netherlands Symphony in Leeuwarden, Groningen, and Utrecht from November 27 to 29.
Listen to the Maine Public Radio interview here. Listen to the pre-concert interview here.
Classical piano alumna Isabel Dobarro (PS ’13) is the winner of a 2025 Latin Grammy award in the Best Classical Album category: Her solo album 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. Isabel studied with Solomon Mikowsky at MSM.
The 26th Latin Grammy Awards were held on November 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Click here to view Kaleidoscope and to learn more about Isabel. Click here for the full list of nominees.
The premiere of a new composition by MSM Percussion alumnus James Larter (MM ‘18) Toros: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra took place at the Sinfonia Smith Square in Westminster, London (formerly St John’s Smith Square) on November 6.
A review in musicOMH, a London-based online music magazine, called the concerto “a hugely approachable work, inspired by the paintings of Pablo Picasso and the writing of Pablo Neruda… here was a modern chamber orchestra really leaning into the idiom with joy and class…Larter’s performance, of course, was magnificent – necessarily athletic (the instruments covered at least 10 metres from end to end), it was also ferociously accurate, and full of nuance.”
“I would like to extend my warmest thanks to all those who attended the world premiere of ‘Toros’ Percussion Concerto… (and) a special thanks to City Music Foundation and donors who made this happen, and the wonderful Frederick Waxman, and Sinfonia Smith Square,” James Larter posted in a newsletter following the performance.
More about James Larter here. Watch excerpts from the premiere here.
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.
Click here to learn more about Giovanni and this concerto recording.
The 26th Latin GRAMMYs will take place tomorrow night at 8 p.m. EST at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be televised by Univision, UNIMÁS, ViX and Galavisión. Click here for more information and the full list of nominees.
MSM Musical Theatre alumna Sarah Thorn (BM ‘21) is the understudy for several roles in the off-Broadway production of This World of Tomorrow: Cyndee/Woman Cashier/”ELMA”/Sylvia/Honoria/Late-Night Cabbie.
This World of Tomorrow is a new play featuring Tom Hanks and Kelli O’Hara that opened in late October at the non-profit cultural center The Shed in Hudson Yards, located at 535 West 30th St. The closing date is Dec 21. The play is the story of a disenchanted scientist from the future written by Tom Hanks and James Glossman based on short stories written by Tom Hanks, and directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, Fences).
Earlier this year, Sarah Thorn was an ensemble member of the Broadway production of Othello starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal. Regionally in the U.S., she has received two BroadwayWorld nominations (Best Leading Actress in a Musical; Performer of the Decade) for Sally Bowles in Cabaret with Peregrine Theatre Ensemble.
More about the production here. More about Sarah Thorn here.
Classical pianist Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (DMA ’08) recently became the recipient of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Arts and Music Award from the Pilsudski Institute of America. Its namesake was a pianist, composer, and statesman who was a champion of Poland’s Independence and signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.
To Magdalena, the award represents “the passing of the torch of our great ancestors…The award expresses a shared pride in our heritage, rich history, and beautiful culture which builds bridges of communication and mutual understanding.”
This Thursday (November 6), she will perform The Banquet Concerto and The Triple Resurrection by the Oscar-winning Chinese-American composer Tan Dun in Greece with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the composer. In addition to her performance career, Magdalena is both Director of the Music Performance Program and a Senior Lecturer in Music at Columbia University. She was a student of Constance Keene at MSM.
Click here to learn more about Magdalena and the upcoming concerto performance. Click here to view the Pilsudski Institute’s 2025 Awards Gala program.
During the Covid 19 lockdown, MSM alumna Harriet Stubbs (MM ‘13) gave 250 daily concerts in London and was subsequently awarded a British Empire Medal by Her Majesty The Queen in the Queen’s Honours list of 2022 in recognition of her service to the country. She was also named Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals In the Arts for their Resilient Warriors Special of 2022.
In 2024, after releasing her most recent CD, Life on Mars, she developed a form of carpal tunnel syndrome—ulnar nerve compression—which threatened to jeopardize her ability to play the piano. Successful surgery in fall of 2025 has restored her ability to play: “I feel like a completely different human being now,” she tells American Songwriter magazine. “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.”
Read the full interview here. Information about Life on Mars here.
Soprano Sofia Gotch (MM ’23, PPD ’25) has been named to the 2026 roster of San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows. Sofia took part in the San Francisco Opera Merola Program this past summer, and will continue at San Francisco Opera for the next two years in the Adler program.
Click here to learn more about Sofia. Click here to learn more about the next class of Adler Fellows.
MSM Precollege alumna Isabel Leonard (PC ’98, HonDMA ’21) has been selected as a” Top 100 Latina Powerhouse” by the popular Hola! publication. The GRAMMY-winning mezzo-soprano will be honored at MSM’s upcoming Precollege gala taking place on November 15.
“With a rich, powerful voice and undeniable stage presence, Isabel Leonard has carved out a place as one of today’s most acclaimed mezzo-sopranos, and her journey is still unfolding. Born in the United States but deeply connected to her Argentine heritage, Leonard has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including three GRAMMY Awards,” writes the magazine.
Manhattan School of Music’s Graduate Opera Theatre is featured on WQXR’s “Young Artists Showcase”, a weekly radio show that since 1978 has sought out and displayed the talents of young emerging artists.
The host of the program is MSM alumna Alexa Smith who shares performances from MSM’s Graduate Opera Program. Audiences can hear scenes from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Dvořák’s Rusalka, and Robert Ward’s The Crucible.
In photo above, Sofia Gotch (MM ’23, PD ’25) as Juliette from MSM Opera Theatre’s Roméo et Juliette (2024), photograph by Brian Hatton.
Full details and to listen to the program here.
MSM classical composition alumna Kenedea Lee (MM ’24) will have her new piece entitled Eunoia and inspired by Clara Schumann premiered by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra on November 15.
The program will also include Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor (featuring Avery Gagliano) and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.
Click here to learn more about Kenedea.
Click here for more information about the concert and for tickets.
Classical piano alumna Héloïse Pieaud (BM ’20), a student at MSM of Jeffrey Cohen, founded her own successful music school La Maison several years ago, located in a reconverted mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She is the subject of a recent feature article in The Spirit, an Upper West Side news publication. The educator and entrepreneur discusses her beginnings in music, her path from France to New York, and cultivating her vision and securing funding for her own school, all while earning a visa to live and work in the US.
Click here to read the article.
Click here to learn more about Héloïse and La Maison.
On Sunday, Oct 12 from 4 to 5:30 PM in Washington Heights, MSM Jazz Composition alumna and guitarist Jhoely Garay (MM ’23) will lead her Viva La Tierra ensemble on the lawn at the Metropolitan Museum’s Cloisters location in Fort Tryon Park as a NYC Parks Conservancy gardener officially inaugurates the Fort Tryon Park’s “Great Ginkgo” — a large, aged tree located on the lawn — as one of NYC Parks’ celebrated great trees.
The program will consist entirely of Jhoely’s large ensemble compositions, and the group contains MSM affiliates Steve Wilson (former faculty), Reed 1; Brandon Choi (MM ’22), Trumpet 1; Keegan Riley (MM ’18), Trumpet 2; and Jenny Xu (MM ’19), Piano.
Jhoely is the recipient of five Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation awards and a 2024 ACF | create award from the American Composers Forum. She was also a Stanford Jazz Mentors Fellow from 2022-2023. She has also served as a guest composer, arranger and conductor of the NYO Jazz Orchestra in the U.S., the Berlin Youth Jazz Orchestra in Germany, and the UNAM Philharmonic Orchestra in Mexico.
Click here for more information about Jhoely.
Click here for more information about the concert (free), located at the MET Cloisters.
MSM alumnus and former Yankee Bernie Williams (BM ‘16) (in photo on left) and MSM alumnus tenor Jonathan Tetelman (on right) will be performing at Carnegie Hall on January 13 along with violinist Katia Reguero (in middle), who is married to the Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor. (She played “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a game at Citi Field last month.)
Writes The New York Times: “Williams said the program would be ‘a mix of things that I might be more comfortable with, popular-slash-jazz music.’ Tetelman used the word ‘eclectic.’” Read the full article here.
The concert at Carnegie Hall is the brainchild of Adam Unger, who had met Williams when Unger was a 14-year-old ball boy with the Yankees. Unger later played for the Yankees’ team in the Gulf Coast League, then became an opera singer and is now a sports lawyer.
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. He succeeds longtime trumpeter Kevin Cobb, who joined the group in 1998 and recently stepped down. In addition to ABQ, Tiago has been appointed to the music faculty of The Juilliard School as of this semester.
Since its founding in 1960, the American Brass Quintet has performed on five continents, made nearly 60 recordings, and premiered more than 150 contemporary works for brass.
Originally from Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil, Tiago served as Principal Trumpet of the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2024.
Click here to learn more about Tiago.
Click here to read more about Tiago’s appointment to the ABQ.
On Monday, October 13 at 7 PM at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Cantos de Quisqueya, presented by the Pan Global Music Initiative (PGMI), showcases Dominican classical music under the artistic direction of pianist and composer Dr. Patricio Molina (BM ’10, MM ’16).
The concert features Dominican and American artists Dr. Zuly Inirio, Gabriel de los Santos, Leonardo “Leo” De Jesus, Vic Ortiz, and Mallory Molina, performing a program that includes the world premiere of authentic Dominican pieces revived through PGMI’s Dominican Music Initiative, in partnership with Universidad Católica Nordestana.
Click here to learn more about Patricio.
Click here for concert information and for tickets.
Luís Perdomo (BM ’97) was recently appointed Associate Professor of Jazz Piano at Oberlin College and Conservatory (Fall 2025). For the past four years, he has been Associate Professor of Ensembles and Jazz Piano at Berklee College of Music. He is also Adjunct Faculty at Queens College.
Luís won a 2024 Grammy Award for “Best Latin Jazz Album,” El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 2 (Miel Music, 2023), a duo project with alto saxophonist and MSM alumnus Miguel Zenón (MM ’01).
Learn more about Luís here.
Learn more about Luís’s appointment here.
Bassoon and contrabassoonist Rebecca Noreen (BM ’83) is retiring from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra after 22 seasons. For two decades, prior to her appointment with the Hartford Symphony, Rebecca was a member of the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Band, a premiere military ensemble based in New London, Connecticut.
She will perform in the USCG Band Alumni Centennial Celebration concert this Saturday, September 28 alongside current USCG Band personnel, including MSM alumni Laura Pirruccello (MM ’08) on piccolo, and Principal Percussionist Christopher Smith (P ’97) in addition to other USCG alumni.
Learn more about Rebecca here.
Learn more about the USCG Band Alumni Centennial Celebration here.
Musical Theatre Alumni Kianna Kelly-Futch (BM ‘24) is performing through April 2026 as swing for the roles of Zelma, Bodacious Lady, Alline, and the Ikettes, as well as working as Assistant Dance Captain in the Broadway national tour of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.
More information about the musical here.
On Friday, September 19 from 12:30–2:30 PM, 95-year-old MSM piano alumnus Roy Eaton (BM ’50, MM ’52) is playing in Bryant Park’s “Piano in Bryant Park” series. Roy was the inaugural winner of the 1950 Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition, was featured as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1951, and debuted at NYC Town Hall in 1952. His performance career was interrupted by compulsory military service, which led him to embark on a barrier-breaking career as a renowned advertising executive on Madison Avenue. He returned to performance in 1986 at Alice Tully Hall, followed by international tours and the release of several albums.
Read more about the free concert here.
Learn more about Roy here.
On August 24, conductor Earl Lee (MM ’13) stepped in to replace Zubin Mehta to conduct Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in their final concert of the summer season at the festival in Lenox, Massachusetts.
In photo: Earl Lee with MSM Executive Vice President and Provost Joyce Griggs backstage following the performance.
Lee was the BSO’s Assistant Conductor from 2021 to 2024. Upcoming: Lee returns to the BSO three times in the 2025–26 seasons, leading the Schoenberg arrangement of Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer in October 2025 with the BSO Chamber Players; a Lunar New Year concert with the Boston Pops in February 2026; and a Beethoven program in the orchestra’s Explorer Series in April 2026.
More about Earl Lee here.
In the upcoming North American tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, MSM Vocal Arts alumna Jordan Lee Gilbert (BM ’23) will perform the lead female role of Christine Daaé.
Jordan studied at MSM with Edith Bers and recently sang the role of Turnspit in MSM Graduate Opera Theatre’s production of Dvořák’s Rusalka. The North American tour of The Phantom of the Opera will premiere at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, MD, from November 7 to 11, and will continue to major markets throughout its first touring year, including Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and more.
Learn more here.
MSM alumni Ye In Kwak (MM ’24), Yeongtaek Yang (MM ’24), and Hannah Jeané Jones (MM ’24) have been selected to return for a second year to the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Arts Development Program (LYADP).
Founded in 1980, the LYADP is regarded as one of the world’s most prominent training programs for emerging opera talent.
Meet the full roster of 14 talented artists for the 2025-26 season here.
Ariela Pizza Hindley stars in the production as Elle Woods and also serves as a producer of the production. The cast features current MSM Musical Theatre students Gianna DiTucci (BM ’26) in the ensemble; Aidan Olma (BM ’27) as Warner Huntington III; and Victoria Walker (BM ’26) as Serena.
Ariela helped transform Sceneworks from a family-run production house into a “full-blown local powerhouse.” Produced in partnership with Bergen Community College, previous to opening night, the production had just fourteen days or “two weeks to tumble, fly, memorize lines, harmonize, jump rope in sync, and rehearse with live dogs.” This time even included a master class with the original Broadway Elle Woods, Laura Bell Bundy.
Read more about the production and purchase tickets here.
MSM classical composition alumnus David Handler (BM ‘04), a contemporary composer and violinist, is featured this week in Entrepreneur magazine, talking about his successful and highly respected NYC music venue (Le) Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village “a place to experience music unlike any other in New York City”, which he started in 2008 with another MSM alumnus Justin Kantor (BM ‘02), who studied classical cello at MSM.
Read the interview here.
MSM Vocal Arts alumnus, basso profondo Edwin Jhamaal Davis (MM ’17), is featured as the Commander in the cast in an off-Broadway production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni: A Rock Opera. Performances take place at The Cutting Room at 44 East 32nd Street; the production opens on June 30 and runs through August 26. Mozart’s Don Giovanni: A Rock Opera is sung in English and is backed by a rock orchestra.
Last season, Mr. Davis made his house débuts in X: The Life & Times of Malcolm X with The Metropolitan Opera as Garvey Preacher and with the Seattle Opera as Bass 2, a role he reprised in the previous season with Opera Omaha. He recently made his New Orleans Opera début as Angelotti in Tosca and returned to Seattle Opera as the Second Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte, and joined Opera Grand Rapids as the King in Aida.
Buy tickets and learn more here. Learn more about Edwin Jhamaal Davis here.
MSM Orchestral Performance percussion alumnus Tarun Bellur (MM ’22, PS ’23) has been named Principal Percussionist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra.
Tarun Belluris a percussionist, timpanist, and educator based in New York City. A native of Dallas, TX, Tarun has performed with a variety of ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Harlem Chamber Players, Uptown Philharmonic, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, and the Kansas City Orchestra, in a variety of venues including Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall in Chicago. He spent summers with the Spoleto Music Festival and the Round Top Music Festival.
MSM Musical Theatre alumna Jasmine Amy Rogers (‘19) won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical for her role in BOOP! THE MUSICAL at the Drama Desk Awards 2025, presented on June 1.
Jasmine plays the iconic 1930s cartoon character Betty Boop in the production; she tied for the award with Audra McDonald, the star of GYPSY.
Jasmine is also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical; the awards will be presented in New York on Sunday, June 8.
Read the full list of Drama Desk award winners here.
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