Success Stories

Contemporary Performance Program alumna Laura Bibbs (MM ’21) has been performing with Harry Styles and is currently playing trumpet on his international Love On Tour. On the North American leg of the tour, she performed 15 nights at Madison Square Garden.

Laura currently resides in New York City but actively teaches and performs all over the East Coast. She is a member of Soul of Boston (Boston), Big Stuff Band (Astoria), and Patriot Brass Ensemble. She has also shared the stage with a variety of artists including Harry Styles, Jon Faddis, Chris Jaudes, and many others. In New York she primarily works as a studio and session musician, recording and performing with artists in person as well as remotely.

Learn more about Laura in an interview here.

Visit Laura’s website here.

Chromic Duo, comprised of MSM Piano alumni Lucy Yao (MM ’18) and Dorothy Chan (MM ’12), were featured in NIGHTCAP, the New York Philharmonic’s cabaret-style series of music and conversation in the new Kenneth C. Griffin Sidewalk Studio. From Lucy and Dorothy: “Blending toy piano, electronics, and multimedia into genre-fluid performances and installations, we [Chromic Duo] cultivate spaces to share stories inspired by our experiences as third-culture kids within the Asian-American diaspora.”

Chromic Duo’s featured work FROM ROOTS WE CARRY was dedicated to the AAPI community and is a monument and ritual that explores the complex intergenerational legacies that live inside us. The performance also featured MSM Contemporary Performance Program alumna Madeline Hocking (MM ’22, Contemporary Violin).

Learn more about The Chromic Duo and FROM ROOTS WE CARRY here

Learn more about the New York Philharmonic’s NIGHTCAP here

MSM Contemporary Performance Program faculty member Todd Reynolds is the concertmaster for the upcoming Broadway production of Parade, which is moving to Broadway after a sold-out run at New York City Center last fall.

The production is directed by Tony-nominated Michael Arden, with book by Tony-, Pultizer-, and Academy Award-winner Jason Robert Brown. It is co-conceived by Tony Award winning legend Harold Prince.

Parade opens in previews on February 21, with opening night on March 16. The show will have a limited run to August 6.

More info about Parade here.
Learn more about Todd Reynolds here.

MSM alumna Teagan Faran (MM ’22), who studied Contemporary Performance at MSM, joins the faculty at DePauw University as Assistant Professor of Violin. She leads the violin studio and is launching an electronics experimentation studio for the department. 

A native of Buffalo, NY, Teagan Faran is a multidisciplinary musician focused on enacting social change through the arts. Faran has collaborated with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Palaver Strings, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. Recent recording features include albums with Carlos Simon, La Martino Orquesta Típica, and loadbang. Also active in the world of tango music, she has performed with Victor Lavallén and the Orquesta Escuela de Emilio Balcarce, as well as at festivals across the United States. 

Learn more here.

The four MSM students performing at the Nov 14 concert at the  Multi-Phonics music festival in Magdeburg are all in their second year of study for their Master of Music in the MSM Contemporary Performance Program: Emmalie Tello (MM ’22), Steph Dressler (MM ’22), Nicole Brancato (MM ’22), and Teagan Faran (MM ’22). One of the three composers in the project is MSM alumnus William Bolles-Beaven (MM ’21), along with Lacy Kwon, and Yule Han.

The students are also collaborating with the Liszt Academy in Weimar, Germany, and will bring the performance to New York City in spring 2022.

See flyer for the concert here.

Faculty member and clarinetist David Krakauer and his 11-piece band ABRAHAM INC released Together We Stand today on all major music platforms. The band is currently on tour in Europe, and will have their official album launch party tonight at La Cigale in Paris.

David shares, “Our new album, Together We Stand, was born as our response to what we see as forces that seek to divide us in the name of self-interest. After a short hiatus, the Abraham Inc project felt important to resurrect at this moment in time as we take a stand in the name of tolerance and humanistic values. David talks more about the album in this video.

Buy Together We Stand on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Google Music, and CDBaby. Streaming is also available on Spotify, Youtube Music and Napster.

American Dream, Bearthoven’s sophomore release (Cantaloupe Music), “is a reflection of the contemporary American state of mind. Rather than making a political statement, this album reflects the paradoxical nature of the ‘American Dream’ in our current era,” says the group. Consisting of three monumental new works by MSM composition graduate Scott Wollschleger, American Dream will be available on on FEB 8, 2019, with an album release performance at the Tenri Cultural Institute in NYC at 8 PM.

More about the album here
Tickets to the release concert here

The respected on-line publication New York Classical Week reviewed the first of three 10th anniversary concerts this month by the loadbang ensemble comprised of baritone Jeffrey Gavett (MM ’09), trumpeter Andy Kozar (MM’09), clarinetist Carlos Cordeiro (MM ’12), and trombonist William Lang (MM ’09). The four met as students while attending MSM’s Contemporary Performance Program.
The DEC 5 concert at the Church of the Intercession in NYC included a work by MSM composition faculty member and alum Reiko Fueting (DMA ’00), who is on the artistic advisory board of loadbang. Also on their advisory board are MSM Faculty members Todd Reynolds and Mike Lowenstein. loadbang is also performing DEC 6 at the Jerome Robbins Theatre at the Baryshnikov Arts Center at 7:30 PM.

Read the review here

After earning his MM in Contemporary Performance at MSM, Alejandro pursued his MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His new position is a cross-departmental position split between Vanderbilt’s Cinema and Media Arts Program, and its Department of Art.

Learn more

The Library of Congress Kussevitzky Foundation commissioning program awards well-established composers and groups with a record of excellence in contemporary music performance.

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