Award-winning composer and violist Jessica Meyer has been commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra to write a composition for their orchestra. The world premiere will be held on October 25 at Carnegie Hall.
Jessica’s works have been performed in venues from the Kennedy Center to Carnegie Hall, by musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and by orchestras around the country. Upcoming premieres include a work for MET Opera tenor Paul Appleby and the Claremont Trio, a viola and piano work commissioned by Juilliard Pre-college, a new orchestral piece “Turbulent Flames” to be performed by a consortium of orchestras across the United States.
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is offering free tickets to all concerts in its 2025-26 season including the Carnegie Hall concert on October 25 featuring the premiere of Jessica’s commission. Visit the Orchestra’s website for more information here.
Learn more about Jessica Meyer here.
On May 23, MSM piano faculty member Wael Farouk will be performing Rachmaninoff’s 3rd piano concerto with the renowned Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the top orchestras in China, and the only non-state-owned and self-financing orchestra in the country. The image above is the promotional poster for the event.
Egyptian-American pianist Wael Farouk has performed internationally in such venues as the White Hall in St. Petersburg, Schumann’s House in Leipzig, and Carnegie Hall in New York, where his solo debut in 2013 was described as “absolutely masterful.” He has been a faculty member at MSM since 2021.
Learn more about Wael Farouk here.
MSM violin faculty member Lucie Robert has been named president of the jury of the newly launched 2025 Bogotá International Violin Competition that will be taking place in Colombia from October 31 to November 7 at the Auditorio Fabio Lozano and the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo. The competition is open to violinists of all nationalities up to the age of 30 as of May 31, 2025.
The Bogotá International Violin Competition aims to promote excellence in violin performance, and position Bogotá as a leading classical music hub in Latin America; it also hopes to inspire the young people of Bogotá’s “Vamos a la Filarmónica” programs.
Lucie Robert has also been named president of the International Jury for Violin 2026 of the Concours International de Montréal, a prestigious competition where the international elite of the new generation of classical musicians compete.
Learn more about the Bogotá International Violin Competition here. Learn more about the Concours International de Montréal here.
Essential Voices USA has released a new choral album entitled Listen to the World. The ensemble Essential Voices USA is led by Music Director and Conductor Judith Clurman, who teaches voice and ensemble voice for the MSM Musical Theatre program.
The recording features compositions by Judith Clurman, Matthew Sklar, and Robert Sirota, with texts by William Schermerhorn and Victoria R. Sirota, and as themes, addresses pressing global challenges including environmental preservation, immigration, and human connection.
The recording on Albany records can be streamed on all platforms. It was produced and engineered by Silas Brown. The published scores will be available at Hal Leonard this summer.
Learn more here.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has named MSM Jazz Arts faculty member Caroline Davis to its 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows in Music Composition. A composer, saxophonist, and educator, Caroline Davis lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is an active leader and sidewoman on the national jazz scene.
Chosen through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of nearly 3,500 applicants, the Guggenheim Fellows Class of 2025 was tapped based on both prior career achievement and exceptional promise. As established in 1925 by founder Senator Simon Guggenheim, each Fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.”
Since its establishment, the Guggenheim Foundation has granted over $400 million in Fellowships to more than 19,000 individuals, among whom are more than 125 Nobel laureates, members of all the national academies, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Fields Medal, Turing Award, Bancroft Prize, National Book Award, and other internationally recognized honors. Recognizing a broad range of fields of study is a unique characteristic of the Fellowship program.
Learn more about the 2025 Fellows here. Learn more about Caroline Davis here.
“I’m very pleased to announce that my arranging debut at Carnegie Hall last month, in a concert featuring Cécile McLorin Salvant with The Knights, is included in The New York Times’ “Classical Music Our Critics Can’t Stop Thinking About” roundup for March,” says Darcy James Argue.
Writes Seth Colter Walls in the New York Times about the concert: “Hopefully a studio recording session is in the works. For now, we have a scaled-back version of Argue’s new arrangement of Sophisticated Lady, performed by Salvant with the Metropole Orkest for Dutch television earlier this year. In the closing seconds, the piano part nods to an iconic reading of another Ellington tune, In a Sentimental Mood (which Ellington famously recorded with John Coltrane). At Carnegie, I exhaled with real delight as that quotation echoed throughout the auditorium.”
Watch the video with arrangement and conducted by Darcy James Argue here. Read The New York Times article here.
Long-time MSM Vocal Arts faculty member Joan Patenaude-Yarnell was honored on April 8 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild. In the photo above, posing with Joan (seated) from left to right is MSM Dean of Vocal Arts Carleen Graham, MSM Provost and Executive Vice President Joyce Griggs, and MSM President James Gandre.
The Canadian-born soprano has been a member of both the New York and San Francisco Operas.
Joan Patenaude-Yarnell has also sung with opera companies throughout North America and Europe. Her roles have included Violetta in La Traviata, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Gilda in Rigoletto, Nedda in I Pagliacci, the title role in Suor Angelica, Mimì in La Bohème, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Elle in La Voix Humaine, and Héro in Béatrice et Bénédict.
Learn more about Joan Patenaude-Yarnell here.
Cellist and MSM alumnus Tommy Mesa (DMA ‘23), who recently joined MSM’s College faculty, has been named one of three recipients of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grants awarded for 2025. Tommy Mesa is an acclaimed performer, recording artist, and educator.
The Avery Fisher Artist Program was created by the late Avery Fisher as a gift to Lincoln Center in 1974. The program’s Avery Fisher Career Grants support exceptional instrumentalists and chamber groups who are citizens or permanent residents of the U.S.
In addition to receiving $25,000 for career advancement, the winners will get unrestricted use of a professional recording of their performances at the award ceremony, and a custom-designed rosette as a symbol of the Career Grant.
The awards ceremony on March 18 will be streamed live at 6 PM EST on the Violin Channel.
More information here.
Chantal Poulin and Shira Gilbert, the Executive and Artistic Directors of the Concours International de Montréal, have announced that Lucie Robert will be President of the International Jury for Violin 2026.
The Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) is a prestigious competition where the international elite of the new generation of classical musicians compete.
“I am deeply honoured to serve as President of the International Jury for Violin 2026. It is with great pleasure that I will welcome the selected violinists to my hometown of Montreal. Their participation in this major competition will undoubtedly represent a meaningful milestone in their musical careers,” said Lucie Robert in a statement. “I look forward to being together with my colleagues on the jury and with the Montreal public to discover these young musicians, and to be moved and transported by their artistry.”
Learn about Lucie Robert here. Learn about the Concours International de Montréal here.
The all-female jazz ensemble Artemis —that features MSM Dean of Jazz Arts Ingrid Jensen and MSM Jazz Arts faculty member Nicole Glover —held a residency at the prestigious Village Vanguard jazz club in New York during the week of March 3–9 to launch their new recording. Last fall, the group topped Downbeat magazine’s reader’s poll as jazz group of the year for the second year in a row.
On March 3, the band released its third album, “Arboresque,” which “captures both the hard-bop strut of the most beloved 1960s recordings by its storied label, Blue Note Records, as well as Artemis’s own fresh take on jazz tradition,” writes The New York Times.
The group was formed by pianist Renee Rosnes in 2016, featuring the trumpeter Ingrid Jensen — who named the group for the Greek goddess of the hunt and wilderness — the drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, the bassist Linda May Han Oh, the clarinetist Anat Cohen, the saxophonist Melissa Aldana, and the singer Cécile McLorin Salvant.
Performing at the Village Vanguard is the current ensemble line-up Allison Miller, Noriko Ueda, MSM Jazz Arts faculty member Nicole Glover, Ingrid Jensen, and Renee Rosnes.
A profile of the ensemble is featured in The New York Times here.
The Only Girl in the Orchestra won the Oscar at the Academy Awards on March 2 for Best Documentary Short Film.
The documentary tells the story of former MSM bass faculty member Orin O’Brien who, in 1966, was the first woman to be hired in the then 125-year history of the New York Philharmonic. The documentary is by Orin’s niece, Emmy-award-winning producer/ director Molly O’Brien.
Portions of the documentary were filmed at MSM’s Neidorff-Karpati Hall with recording assistance provided by MSM sound engineers.
For more about the documentary, click here.
Krakauer and Tagg’s Good Vibes Explosion will perform a series of concerts in February the Tristate Area (New York & Connecticut), including a residency with Fairfield University and performing at the Quick Center in Fairfield, Connecticut; The Local in Saugerties, New York; and Flushing Town Hall (in a rare New York City appearance for the band) as part of the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts.
Krakauer and Tagg’s Good Vibes Explosion is a touring project conceived and created by Grammy-nominated “ebullient clarinet wizard” (Time Out NY) David Krakauer and multi-instrumentalist/producer Kathleen Tagg, showcasing a multi-generational/high-octane group of collaborators from very different backgrounds, hailing from the USA, Canada, Iran and South Africa.
Their album Mazel Tov Cocktail Party has received rave reviews across North America and Europe: France’s Le Monde calls it: “a breath of fresh air, an incentive to dance…In the face of the overwhelming negativity and alarming rise of hatred and intolerance in today’s world, let’s breathe and dance together…More than a suggestion, an injunction.”
Touring information here.
This year, 14 members of our MSM Community were part of GRAMMY Award-winning projects (out of our nearly 50 nominations). The 67th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony on February 2 honored winning and nominated recordings, compositions, and artists for work released between September 16, 2023, and August 30, 2024, as chosen by the members of the Recording Academy.
Read our full list of winners in the MSM Community here.
In January and February, MSM Jazz Arts Faculty member Darcy James Argue debuts as the new Composer in Residence for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, and conducting for the Metropole Orkest. These projects each involve arrangements he has written to feature two of his favorite musicians: vibraphonist Warren Wolf (in photo on left) and vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant (in photo on right).The arrangements for Salvant will also receive their US premiere at Carnegie Hall in March, in a concert with The Knights.
The concert dates are:
GRAND VIBES: WARREN WOLF, DARCY JAMES ARGUE, FRANKFURT RADIO BIG BAND Jan. 23: DARMSTADT – Centralstation Jan. 24: FRANKFURT – hr-Sendesaal
CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT, DARCY JAMES ARGUE, METROPOLE ORKEST Feb. 3: GRONINGEN – SPOT Feb. 4: UTRECHT – TivoliVredenburg Feb. 5: – AMSTERDAM – Het Concertgebouw Feb. 7: EINDHOVEN – Muziekgebouw
CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT & THE KNIGHTS Orchestral arrangements by DARCY JAMES ARGUE Mar. 27: NYC – Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium
The 2025 Composer Prizes, awarded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in Switzerland, each worth 35,000 euros, have been awarded to MSM faculty member Ashkan Behzadi (Iranian-Canadian), Bastien David (France), and Kristine Tjøgersen (Norway).
In addition to the prize money, music productions are also part of the prizes.
Ashkan Behzadi grew up in Iran, where he initially studied architecture at the University of Tehran. After moving to Canada, he pursued composition studies in Montreal and New York, where he resides. He earned his DMA in composition at Columbia University, where he studied with Fred Lerdahl, George Lewis, and Georg Friedrich Haas.
“His music demonstrates a great attention to detail, conveying a miniaturist and gentle lyrical landscape. By employing techniques of allusion and pastiche as the foundation of his craft, his music ultimately seeks to invoke the collective memory of folklore music,” writes the Foundation in a news release.
Learn more about the prizes here.
MSM composition faculty member and performer Susan Botti has been awarded a NYSCA (NY State Council for the Arts) grant for a new work for her ensemble Duo della Luna in collaboration with poets with the Dream Project Writing for Resilience Cohort.
On December 15, Susan took part in a concert at Carnegie Hall, performing with Duo della Luna.
Susan Botti’s musical explorations have encompassed traditional, improvisational, and non-classical composition and singing styles with theater and the visual arts playing a formative role in the aesthetic of her work.
Botti is the recipient of numerous awards, including: a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Rome Prize, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Fromm Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Chamber Music America, NY Foundation for the Arts, the Greenwall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and ASCAP. She was the third Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra.
More about Susan Botti here.
The Netflix documentary The Only Girl in the Orchestra tells the story of former MSM bass faculty member Orin O’Brien who, in 1966, was the first woman to be hired in the then 125-year history of the New York Philharmonic.
The documentary is by Orin’s niece, Emmy-award-winning producer/director Molly O’Brien. Learn more here.
The influential strings music magazine The Strad is featuring an interview with MSM viola faculty member Jessica Meyer in the December issue of the publication and online:
“The award-winning composer and violist Jessica Meyer is an unclassifiable phenomenon even in today’s genre-defying contemporary music sphere. Meyer has been carving a unique space through her extraordinary blend of creativity, charisma, technical mastery, educational work and innovation, all in service of an urge to share ideas and build musical communities.”
Read the article here.
On November 24, a new work by MSM Classical Composition Faculty member Dr. Paolo Marchettini (DM A ’14), Intermezzo, will be premiered by the Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti of Naples in Chiesa dei SS. Marcellino e Festo. The premiere was announced in multiple publications, including the Naples edition of Italy’s top newspapers, La Repubblica.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Marchettini. Click here to learn more about Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti.
Jeffrey Langford, MSM Associate Dean of the Doctoral program at MSM, is the author of a new textbook, Opera: A History of the Impossible Genre, an accessible and chronological survey of opera, published by Routledge Co.
“I’m happy to announce that my departure from teaching at MSM has been recently marked by the publication of my new textbook,” says Dr. Langford. “ It feels like a nice culmination to my work over all these years.”
Dr. Langford retired from teaching music history at MSM in 2022. He presently serves as a MSM faculty member, advisor, and associate dean of doctoral studies.
Dr. Langford’s previous publication is A History of the Symphony: The Grand Genre. He is also the author of an annotated bibliography of research materials on Berlioz titled Hector Berlioz: A Guide to Research. His book Evenings at the Opera is a collection of essays addressing the question of the relationship of music to drama in opera from Mozart to Britten.
Learn more about Dr. Langford’s new publication here.
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.
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