Success Stories

The DIVA Jazz Orchestra performed at Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center in late March that featured MSM student Kellin Hanas (BM ’24) trumpet, who studies and MSM with Dean of Jazz Arts Ingrid Jensen, along with alumni Pureum Jin (MM ’17), alto saxophone, and Barbara Laronga (MM ’02), trumpet.

In the photo above, MSM President James Gandre poses with the three after the performance.

Read our interview with Kellin Hanas here.

Learn more about the DIVA Jazz Orchestra here.

MSM Jazz Arts student Motswedi Modiba, known professionally as Moe, was a featured speaker at the Forbes magazine African Leading Women Summit held in South Africa on March 8, 2024.

According to organizers, the event “brings together the who’s who of female leadership from the African continent and beyond – from the world of business, politics, art, sports, civil society and life; a unique collection of female trailblazers who are distinct in their thinking but single-minded in their purpose.”

Moe was recently a contestant on the high-profile singing competition in China known as “Sing! China” (photo above).

Learn more about the event here.

MSM alumnus Ambrose Akinmusire (BM ’05) has been named Best Trumpeter by DownBeat for eight years in a row and the venerable magazine — along with respected general news publications including The Guardian, The Irish Times, and the Wall Street Journal — is giving high critical praise to his latest album Owl Song.

DownBeat gives Owl Song a five-star review describing it as “a quiet rush of gorgeous sound where space, tone and beauty come together in one of the most impactful albums of 2023… This is one of the most interesting recordings to come along in a very long time by one of the most interesting artists of our time.”

Read the full DownBeat review here.

The University of Arkansas has been awarded a $45,000 research grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that will support researchers Jake Hertzog (MM’ 16) (in photo on left) and Justin R. Hunter in the Department of Music.

They are examining the importance of collegiate jazz programs to the jazz ecosystems in three U.S. cities — Kansas City, Missouri; Portland, Oregon; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Each of these cities represents areas that have varied and expansive jazz scenes and music ecosystems beyond collegiate jazz programs that act as sources, anchors and hubs.

“We are thrilled to receive support from the NEA on this project — right now is a pivotal time for higher education, the music industry and the evolving and important work on musical and cultural placemaking,” Hertzog says.

Learn more here.

The former New York Yankees star helped win four World Series for the franchise and graduated from MSM in 2016 with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Arts. He is also a MSM trustee.

Bernie Williams (BM ’16) will be making his debut performing with the New York Philharmonic on April 24 at the Philharmonic’s spring gala at the Lincoln Center. A classically trained guitarist, he’ll perform in the orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel.

Learn more 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.

Dynamic Maximum Tension, the new album on Nonesuch records by MSM Jazz Arts faculty member Darcy James Argue and his group Secret Society — the recording also features Dean of Jazz Arts Ingrid Jensen  — has been featured recently in two national media outlets: The New York Times writes about the album in its column “5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen To Right Now” and the album is featured on NPR‘s program Fresh Air.

Read The New York Times article here.

Listen to the NPR program here.

MSM Jazz Orchestra was the featured group on October 16 at Merkin Hall in NYC for  the concert”Swing! The Great Big Bands of the Swing Era” at the Kauffman Music Center.

The concert was part of the critically acclaimed series: “What Makes It Great?” conducted by Ron Kapalow.

Photo by MSM President James Gandre.

Learn more about the series here.

MSM Jazz Arts alumnus Jahari Stampley of Chicago has been named first place winner of the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition.

Four of eight semi-finalists in the competition are MSM Jazz Arts alumni and a current student: Alan Bartuš (MM ’25) of Lučenec, Slovakia; Esteban Castro (PC ’17) of Hackensack, New Jersey; Dabin Ryu (MM ’20) of Seoul, South Korea; and Jenny Xu (MM ’19) of Surrey and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Jahari stands next to Herbie Hancock in the photo above.

The competition held by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, the world’s preeminent jazz education organization, in association with the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PACNYC), awarded major scholarships and prizes including a $50,000 first place award.

World-renowned pianists Bill Charlap, Orrin Evans, Herbie Hancock, Hiromi and Danilo Pérez served as the Competition judges.

Read more here.

MSM Jazz Arts master’s student Motswedi (Moe) Modiba has advanced to the finals in the Sing! China competition program on Chinese television, watched by hundreds of millions of spectators. The South African native is singing in Chinese; she speaks the language having lived in the country previously. MSM faculty member Jean Baylor is coaching Moe for her performances. The program is modelled after the US TV program The Voice.

Clips of her performance have been trending on both Chinese and South African social media platforms, and Moe has been invited to perform during an upcoming state visit to China by the South African president. She is the first Black and first performer from South Africa to appear on the show, and news of her appearance is being reported by major news outlets in China and in South Africa.

Watch a clip of Moe’s performance here at the 20-minute mark.
Read a news story from South Africa here.

The New York Times classical music critic Zachary Wolfe reviewed Treemonisha praising MSM alumnus and faculty member Damien Sneed’s reworking of Scott Joplin’s opera.

“Sneed gamely inhabited a Joplin-like idiom in the newly composed material,” writes the critic.

Zachary Wolfe also hailed MSM alumnus Justin Austin (BM ’14, MM ’17) who has a lead role in the production: “Baritone Justin Austin vibrated with passionate life as Joplin and Remus.”

Read article here.

MSM Jazz Arts alumnus the Grammy-nominated Jimmy Greene (DMA ’18) has been named to a full professor position at Western Connecticut State University.

A native of Connecticut, Greene is considered one of the most respected saxophonists of his generation. Greene and his groups perform regularly in jazz venues, festivals and clubs worldwide. In addition to his recordings and appearances as a leader, Greene appears on over 75 albums as a sideman, and has toured and/or recorded with Horace Silver, Ron Carter, Tom Harrell, Freddie Hubbard, and Harry Connick, Jr., among many others.

Learn more about Jimmy Greene here.

Ambrose Akinmusire (BM ’05), who studied Jazz Trumpet at MSM with Laurie Frink, has been named the Artistic Director of UCLA’s prestigious Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance in residence at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He is a 2007 graduate of the program.

In 2007, Akinmusire won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world.

The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance is a tuition-free two-year program that accepts one ensemble of musicians for each class.

Learn more about the program here.

Jazz voice student Moe — Motswedi Modiba (MM ’24) — from Pretoria, South Africa, won the Best New Age R&B category of the South African MetroFM awards on May 7. It was her first time being nominated for an award. The MetroFM Awards are considered the South African equivalent to the American Music Awards.

“This is a huge milestone for me,” says Moe. “I want to thank MSM for creating a space for me to flourish and really put my best foot forward, especially because I’m so far from home.”

Moe studies at MSM with Jean Baylor.

More about the awards here.

Jazz pianist, composer, and educator Donald Vega (MM ’07) has been named a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded to who have artists who have “demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”

Donald Vega was trained classically in piano in his native Nicaragua. He emigrated to the United States at age 14. He currently performs internationally as the pianist for world renowned bassist Ron Carter’s (also a MSM alumnus) Golden Striker Trio with whom he has recorded several albums.

Mr. Vega is also a professor at The Juilliard School and Hofstra University and sits on the board of BackCountry Jazz, a non-profit organization which provides music education programs and performances to underprivileged youth.

Christian McGhee (BM ’21, MM ’23) is a film composer and multi-instrumentalist studying for his master’s at MSM after completing his bachelor’s degree. Christian is also a music director and orchestrator.

The BMI Future Jazz Master Award is an annual competition open to rising jazz stars enrolled at colleges and universities nationwide. The award was established by Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) in 2015.

More about Christian McGhee here.
More about the BMI Future Jazz Master Scholarship here.

Vocalist and MSM Jazz Arts student Martina Barta (MM ’23) is the featured jazz vocalist with the classical ensemble Orquestrina Baborak on March 11 at The Berliner Philharmonie concert hall in Berlin, Germany, home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Martina, a Czech singer and musician, will be singing in a program that includes music by Gershwin and Bernstein; the concert is conducted by internationally renowned Czech Hornist Radek Baborak.

More information about the concert here.

U.S. President Joe Biden says he would nominate trusted confidante and long-time economic adviser Jared Bernstein (BM’ 78) to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Jared Bernstein, 68, is one of three senior economists on the council and has worked in Democratic administrations for decades.

Jared Bernstein studied double bass at MSM with Orin O’Brien. He played in jazz bands and worked as a social worker in New York City before getting a doctorate. He served in former President Bill Clinton‘s Labor Department and then as Biden’s chief economist when Biden was vice president.

Read our Q&A with Jared here.
Read the news story about the nomination here.

MSM Jazz Arts student Michael Migliore (MM ’23) (in photo on left) played bass with Samara Joy, the winner of the 2023 GRAMMY award for Best Jazz Vocalist, in a performance that took place during the awards. The artist and her band received a standing ovation from the televised audience.

Michael Migliore studies at MSM with legendary bassist Buster Williams.

Watch the performance here.

The New York Times writes about pianist and composer Jason Moran‘s (BM ’97) new album From the Dancehall to the Battlefield that “puts the music of James Reese Europe through a contemporary prism,” says journalist Seth Colter Walls.

Jazz pianist, composer, and band leader James Reese Europe was active in the 1910s, took part in the first world war, and returned to the New York music scene in 1919 before being murdered by a disgruntled band member that year.

The new recording “rewinds jazz’s history a bit and brings Europe’s sound into a relationship with successive waves of jazz and contemporary music,” writes Seth Colter Walls.

Read the article here.
Find out more about the album here.

Jazz pianist, composer, and MSM faculty member Phil Markowitz has released Solo Piano Live in Rome, a nearly 90-minute live recording of a concert held at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. The three-encore performance includes original compositions and re-imagined standards. The album is Mr. Markowitz’s first solo release in his long and storied career.

Available at Amazon Music and iTunes. More about the album here.

MSM Jazz Arts faculty members Damien Sneed and Theo Bleckmann are both featured in a groundbreaking series at New York City’s Town Hall celebrating four women composers who have shaped American culture over the decades.

Theo Bleckmann is part of Meredith Monk‘s Vocal Ensemble on Saturday, October 15, for the New York premiere of Memory Game. On January 7, composer/producer/arranger Damien Sneed will be music director in a program celebrating the Grammy-winning Gospel singer, songwriter, record producer, musician, and evangelist Elbernita “Twinkie” Clark.

Also being celebrated as part of this Town Hall series: legendary singer-songwriter Judy Collins and composer Laura Kaminsky.

More information on the series here.

Jazz Arts faculty member Damien Sneed received a rave review for his conducting and arrangement of the June performance of  The Ordering of Moses at Riverside Church. The Harlem Chamber Players presented R. Nathaniel Dett’s 1937 oratorio in honor of the centennial of the Harlem Renaissance, for the Juneteenth weekend.

MSM Alumna Krysty Swann (BM ’08)was the mezzo soprano soloist.

“Sneed’s harmonization gave it a discordant underbelly reflective of struggle — a reminder that it has been only two years since protests for George Floyd swept the globe, and one year since Juneteenth, an annual observation of Emancipation dating to 1866, was consecrated as a federal holiday,” writes NY Times critic Oussama Zahr.

Read the review here.

The feature article in Opera News by Karen Chilton with photography by Darío Acosta spotlights MSM faculty member Damien Sneed conducting The Ordering of Moses at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City on June 17, presented by the Harlem Chamber Players.

Read the article here.

Learn more about the production here.

Recent MSM graduate, composer, and arranger Eliana Fishbeyn (MM ’22) is among 21 young composers named  a 2022 ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer. She received the honor for her composition Unknown Knowns for big band, which had previously won the Sophie Desmarais International Composition Competition for Large Jazz Ensemble at the Université de Montréal in 2021.

Eliana Fishbeyn is a composer and arranger of Russian-Jewish heritage from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who currently resides in New York City. She graduated with her Master’s degree in jazz composition at Manhattan School of Music in May 2022, having studied with Jim McNeely and Phil Markowitz.

The ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award  is granted annually to encourage talented young jazz composers during the earliest stages of their careers. The recipients receive cash awards and are selected through a juried national competition.

Learn more about the award here.

Congratulations to MSM faculty and alumni who won 2022 GRAMMY Awards for classical, jazz, and composing/arranging!

The awards were presented on April 3, 2022 in Las Vegas. Winners include MSM alumni Anthony Roth Costanzo (MM ’08) (in photo on left) and J’Nai Bridges (BM ’09) soloists in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Philip Glass’ Ahknaten which won Best Opera Recording.

View the full list of winners here.

View all MSM faculty and alumni nominated for the 2022 awards 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.

GRAMMY-winning jazz musician Ron Carter, a MSM alumnus and faculty member, is one the most recorded jazz bassist of all time with over 2,200 individual recording credits, and has been named one of the “10 Greatest Bassists of All-Time” by Rolling Stone.

At the Carnegie Hall concert, Ron Carter will play select material from his six-decade career, leading groups in three combinations: trio, quartet, and octet.

Ron Carter has performed and collaborated with other legends of jazz and music including Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Gil Scott-Heron, Wayne Shorter, Paul Simon, McCoy Tyner, Aretha Franklin, Stan Getz, Roberta Flack, Bill Evans, Chet Baker, and dozens more.

Learn about the concert here.

Ally Alchrecht (MM ’17) Jazz Trumpet is the newest trumpet instrumentalist with the Commodores Jazz Ensemble, part of the United States Navy Band.

Previously she was a member of the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West. Highlights with the USAFB  include performing as a soloist at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil, on ESPN live for Monday Night Football, and at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Ally graduated with her Master’s Degree in Jazz trumpet from Manhattan School of Music in 2017 where she studied with Tony Kadleck.

Learn more about Ally here.

MSM Jazz Arts drum set faculty member John Riley received the Lifetime Achievement in Education Award at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention on November 11.

Critically acclaimed performer, author, and teacher, John Riley has worked with the world’s leading jazz musicians for over 30 years. A multiple Grammy award winner, John has played on hundreds of recordings and at major venues with jazz icons such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Lovano, and many others.

Learn more about John Riley here.