Success Stories

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.

Dr. James Kim (DMA 2023) who studied at MSM with Philippe Muller, was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Cello, tenure-track, at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. His appointment will begin in fall 2024.

“James Kim brings an exceptionally high levels of artistry and teaching to the Hugh Hodgson School of Music faculty, and we look forward to welcoming him to the Hodgson school and UGA,” said Hugh Hodgson School of Music Director Pete Jutras in a statement. “We are excited to see the impact he will have on our students and programs.”

Kim holds an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he served as Studio Teaching Assistant to Joel Krosnick, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Manhattan School of Music, where he was a Teaching Fellow.

“I am proud to join the incredible faculty of Hugh Hodgson School of Music and the vibrant campus of University of Georgia,” said Kim. “It is my honor to be part of a community that not only achieves excellence but also participates in society within and beyond its state borders. I look forward to guiding students toward their goals and sharing the lessons I’ve learned in the process.”

Learn more here.

Violinist and MSM student Risa Hokamura (BM ’24) is performing a recital at NYC’s prestigious The Morgan Library & Museum on February 28 at noon with a program that includes solo works by Ysaÿe, Symanowski, and Ravel, plus Dvořák’s Terzetto in C Major.

The event in the Gilder Lehrman Hall also features guest artists from the YCA family violinist Lun Li and violist Toby Appel. Tickets to this performance include access to current exhibitions.

Watch video of Risa with details about the concert 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.

Rob Moose (BM ’04) studied violin at MSM with Sylvia Rosenberg and is a Grammy Award-winning arranger and string player based in New York and Los Angeles. He’s written and recorded charts for over 400 albums, including work by Bon Iver, Paul Simon, Taylor Swift, and John Legend. He was an orchestrator on the hit song Flowers by Miley Cyrus.

As an orchestrator, Rob Moose has been repeatedly featured on the Declassified Series at the Kennedy Center alongside artists such as Regina Spektor, Emily King, and Ben Folds.

Says Rob about the profile: “This is the most in depth conversation I’ve ever gotten to have about my career, and I’m really honored to be presented on a site I read every day.”

Read the Pitchfork article here.

Learn more about Rob Moose here.

On January 12, a world premiere will take place with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by MSM Trustee Leonard Slatkin: MSM alumnus Kelly Hall-Tompkins (MM ’95, HonDMA ’16) performs solo violin in the world-premiere of the violin concerto Body in Motion by Jeff Beal, written specifically for Kelly, with whom he collaborated on the composition.

The European premiere with Leonard Slatkin conducting the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria will take place on April 5, 2024.

Watch video preview here.
Purchase tickets here.

Violin faculty member Lucie Robert was a jury member at the International Global Music Education League Violin Competition in Beijing, China that took place from November 3 to 13.

There were four rounds to the competition. The finals two rounds were of Mozart and a romantic concerti with orchestra which included members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The competition included prizes ranging from $5,000 to $100,00 dollars.

In photo: International jury members pose with the six finalists, including MSM student Risa Hokamura, along with competition pianists. Lucie Robert is pictured in the back row, first on the left.

Cellist Niles Luther (BM ’20) has been hired as Composer-in-Residence at Brooklyn Museum. For the next year, he will be partnering with the Museum’s art division to produce ‘Art Music’ inspired by pieces in the museum’s collection. This is a new position at the museum and is supported by a fellowship Niles received from the Ford Foundation.

Learn more about Niles Luther here.

MSM alumni and students were prominently featured in the annual concert of Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall on October 20, representing five of the 18 core players, three of whom were principal artists in the performance.

The performers featured are: Thierry de Lucas (BM ’25), second violin;  Maithéna Girault (BM ’20, MM ’22, PPD ’24), second violin; Celia Hatton (MM ’13, PS ’14), principal viola; Christopher Johnson (MM ’08), principal double bass; Tommy Mesa (DMA ’23), principal cello.

Additionally, on the program was a work by MSM alumnus Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (BM ’53, MM ’54). Maithéna Girault introduced the Perkinson work, making mention of the fact that she and Perkinson were both double alumni of MSM.

The Sphinx Virtuosi is an exemplary chamber orchestra and the “flagship performing entity” of the Sphinx Organization.

Learn more about the concert here.

MSM faculty member violinist Ilmar Gavilán will be performing in a special concert event with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on October 28 and 29,  Strings without Borders. Also performing is with violist Jaime Amador. Both are currently artists in residence at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Learn more here.

MSM alumnus Jinwoo Lee (AD ’09, DMA ’16) is the newly appointed 2023-2024 concertmaster and lead violinist at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He was most recently the first concertmaster of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen in Germany. He was a violin faculty at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf from 2018 until 2022.

Jinwoo Lee grew up in South Korea, the United States, and Germany and began playing violin at the age of four. He told CBS Sunday Morning in Milwaukee that being a concertmaster is a great responsibility. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra hasn’t had a new concertmaster for more than a quarter century.

“This is not a completely new job for me but it’s a different orchestra, different colleagues, different conductor and of course, it’s a different country, so there are some cultural and traditional differences,” Lee explained.

Watch the CBS Sunday Morning report  here.

MSM faculty member Valerie Coleman and MSM alumnus cellist Thomas Mesa (DMA ’17) are both featured soloists on the new album Songs for Our Times by Sphinx Virtuosi released on the Deutsche Grammophon label.

Ms. Coleman is featured on two songs, Tracing Visions for String Orchestra I: Till. and Tracing for String Orchestra II: Amandla!

Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa, first prize winner of the 2016 Sphinx Competition and the Astral Artists 2017 National Auditions, is soloist on the concerto Divided, written for Thomas and Sphinx Virtuosi by Jesse Montgomery.

Sphinx Virtuosi is a groundbreaking self-conducted American string ensemble comprised of 18 exceptional young Black and Latinx string players.

More about the album here.
Listen to the album on Spotify here.

Alumnus Caleb van der Swaagh (PS ’13, PS ’14) recently joined the critically acclaimed Aizuri Quartet which is about to launch its 12th season. Caleb studied at MSM with David Geber and is currently a professor of cello at SUNY Purchase. A champion of new music, he is a member of counter)induction and Ensemble Échappé.

Read more here.
Learn more about Caleb here.

Jinwoo Lee (AD ’09, DMA ’16), who studied at MSM with Robert Mann, has been appointed concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony. He was a violin faculty member at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf from 2018 until 2022.

Learn more about Jinwoo Lee here.

Naoko Nakajima (PPD ’24), currently studying with Sylvia Rosenberg at MSM, has won a position with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra beginning in fall 2023.

More information about the San Francisco Opera Orchestra here.

Venezuelan violist and MSM alumnus Ramón Carrero-Martinez (BM ’19, MM ’21) has been selected as a 2023-2025 fellow for Ensemble Connect. While at MSM, Ramón studied with Daniel Avshalomov.

Ensemble Connect is a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. This two-year fellowship program prepares extraordinary young professional classical musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Learn more about Ramón here.
Learn more about Ensemble Connect here.

MSM faculty member violinist Peter Winograd, a member of the American String Quartet, is the concertmaster for The Discovery Orchestra’s performance of Saint-Saëns “Organ” Symphony conducted and presented by George Marriner Maull, airing on April 22 at 11 AM on WNET’s (New York PSB affiliate) online All Arts channel.

Recorded by this Emmy-nominated and Telly Award-winning symphony orchestra and its 91 musicians last October, the interactive, educational concert will also be distributed nationally by American Public Television (APT) on May 1 for broadcast on U.S. public television stations (check local listings).

More info here.

The New World Symphony has accepted MSM cello student Shirley Kim (MM ’23) who is graduating this year from the Orchestral Performance (OP) program, and OP alumnus cellist Marcie Kolacki (MM ’21, PS ’22). The prestigious New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, is based in Miami and prepares graduates of music programs for leadership roles in professional orchestras and ensembles.

The New World Symphony consists of young musicians who are granted fellowships lasting up to three years.

Learn more about the New World Symphony here.

On April 7, MSM piano faculty members Jeffrey Cohen (in center of photo) and MSM strings faculty member Lucie Robert (violin) will perform Brahms and Schubert in a chamber recital at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary, along with Gábor Farkas (in photo on left).

Admission is free.

More information about the concert here.

Taihi Chen (MM ’23), second year master violin student at Manhattan School of Music in the class of Lucie Robert just won the position of Concertmaster of the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra in Chengdu, China with principal conductor, Mo Darell Ang.

Ms. Chen will also be performing in June of 2023 the Wieniawski D minor violin concerto with the Manila Symphony Orchestra in the Philippines under the baton of Mo Darell Ang.

On March 1, cellist and MSM alumnus Tommy Mesa (in photo on right) (DMA ’17) was honored along with soprano Aundi Marie Moore and composer Joel Thompson by the Sphinx Organization for their accomplishments which distinguish them from their peers in the field.

The Sphinx Medal of Excellence is the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization, the social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts, and comes with a $50,000 career grant. The medal recognizes extraordinary Black and Latinx classical musicians. Recipients are artists who, early in their career demonstrate artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a spirit of determination, and an ongoing commitment to leadership and their communities.

More about the Sphinx Organization here.

Violinist Risa Hokamura (BM ’24) who studies at MSM with Koichiro Harada and Lucie Robert will have her recital debut with Young Concert Artists at the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall in New York City on February 8, 2023 and at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C. on March 23, 2023.

At the age of 10, Risa Hokamura began to capture top prizes in competitions in Japan. She won the 2018 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and First Prize in the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions at the age of 17.

Merkin Hall concert info here.
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater concert info here.

More about Risa Hokamura here.

Violinist Thierry de Lucas Neves (top photo), who studies at MSM with Patinka Kopec, and violist and MSM alumnus Ramon Carrera-Martînez (BM ’19, MM ’21) have been named two of the 10 Sphinx Competition (Senior Division) Semi-Finalists. The competition takes place in Detroit from January 26 to 28, 2023, and awards more than $100,000 in prizes.

The Sphinx Organization is a social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts.

Learn more here.

Peiwen Liao, a DMA student of Lucie Robert, earlier this year released her first album, Brushstrokes: The Intersection of Art and Music, a collaboration with Hollywood composer and MSM alumnus William Goldstein (BM ’65), on the Gold Music label. The album is based on instant composition with no rehearsals, created in real time. It has been receiving positive reviews, including one from Fanfare Magazine.

Peiwen will be Artist-in Residence at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Tallinn, Estonia, in Spring 2023, in addition to performing Brahms Double Concerto with cellist and MSM alumna Jung-Hsuan Ko (BM ’13) at the National Concert Hall in Taiwan in Summer 2023.

Purchase the album here.

MSM alumna Lumeng Yang (BM ’20, MM ’22) recently won a violin position with the National Center Orchestra of the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing.

The NCPA is an arts centre known colloquially as “The Giant Egg,” which contains three performance spaces for opera, theatre, and music.

NCPA website here.

Violinist and MSM alumnus I-Jung Huang (PS ’20), who studied at MSM with Lucie Robert, was recently appointed to the New York Philharmonic. Prior to joining the Phil, I-Jung had been a member of the first violin section of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since 2020.

Originally from Taiwan, Huang received First Prize at the 2017 Ima Hogg Concerto Competition and the 2016 Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, and was a laureate of the 2015 Michael Hill International Violin Competition.

Learn more about the New York Philharmonic appointment here.

MSM faculty member and alumnus Shmuel Katz has been named Associate Principal Violist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Shmuel had been for many years an associate member of the MET Orchestra for a decade before this step up.  He also serves as Principal Violist of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center and the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra.

Shmuel is on the viola faculty and the orchestral performance program faculty at MSM. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at MSM, where he studied violin and viola with Pinchas Zukerman, Michael Tree, and Patinka Kopec.

Learn more about the appointment here.

Cuban-American MSM alumnus and current doctoral student Thomas Mesa (DMA ’17) is the First Prize-winner of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence given to three recipients by the Sphinx Organization.

The medal recognizes extraordinary Black and Latinx classical musicians who demonstrate artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a spirit of determination, and an ongoing commitment to leadership and their communities.

Thomas won the Sphinx Organization’s inaugural Robert Frederick Smith Prize in 2016, and was a winner of the Astral Artists 2017 National Auditions. He has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras that include the Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

Learn more here.

The GRAMMY Awards take place on Sunday, April 1, with more than 30 MSM alumni and faculty members nominated, including MSM trustees Terence Blanchard (HonDMA ’19) and Anthony Roth Costanzo (MM ’08), as well as J’nai Bridges (BM ’09), and faculty member, Miguel Zenón.

Read the full list of MSM community nominees here.

Violinist Giovanni Andrea Zanon led the Italian national anthem alongside Italian pop singer Malika Ayane at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Their performance accompanied the raising of the Italian flag as a symbolic handing over of hosting duties to Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Giovanni received his Master’s degree at MSM at age 16 where he studied with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec in the Pinchas Zukerman performance program.

Learn more about Giovanni here.