School of Music News

Saturday, December 12, 2009 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Ferguson Hall, University of Minneapolis

The Conducting Symposium will inspire you and invigorate your passion for teaching and music-making. The symposium focuses on issues of interest to music educators at all levels including effective rehearsal and conducting techniques, communication, and movement for conductors. You will learn how to become an advocate for genuine music-making by approaching it from the inside out. The Conducting Symposium will be limited to 50 overall participants with 12 conductors selected to participate as active conductors. Participants will be accepted on a first come first serve basis.

For more information, download the Conducting Schedule Cover Letter. To apply, download the Application and Conducting Component.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 2:19 PM | Permalink

The University of Minnesota High School Honor Band Weekend will be Friday, January 29 through Sunday, January 31, 2010. Ninety of the upper Midwest's finest young wind and percussion instrumentalists will rehearse and perform challenging wind music in Ted Mann Concert Hall.

For more information, download the Letter from the Directors.

To apply, download the application.

All applications and tapes must be received in the University of Minnesota Bands Office no later than Monday, November 9, 2009.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 4:12 PM | Permalink

Event will take place in Ted Mann Concert Hall on Tuesday, October 6 at 10 a.m. Featuring a keynote by Marin Alsop, internationally acclaimed conductor, on "Education and the Arts: Musicians as Engaged Leaders" and a performance of Leonard Bernstein's "Make Our Garden Grow" by the University Symphony Orchestra and Combined Choirs. Featured speakers also include James A. Parente, Jr., College of Liberal Arts Dean and David E. Myers, School of Music Director. The community is invited to attend. For more information on Marin Alsop, visit her website.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 6:31 PM | Permalink

Discover new and perennial U of M School of Music summer programs! New programs include Opera Arriva!, an opera intensive for advanced operatic performers, and the U of M Summer Orchestra. Visit our Summer at the School of Music to find the program for you.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 12:21 PM | Permalink

The University of Minnesota School of Music, the Department of Art, the Collaborative Arts Department, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Minnesota Futures Grant Program present Mobile Music for Everyday People: A Symposium on Mobile Music and Sound on May 22 and May 23. Michael Bull, author of Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience (2007), will be the keynote speaker. Other featured participants include Ali Momeni, Jenny Schmid and Minneapolis Art on Wheels.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 1:49 PM | Permalink

Join the Contemporary Music Workshop for three world premieres of new works by School of Music composition students. The concert will take place on Friday, May 8 at 7 pm in Ferguson Hall, Room 85. The encore performance will be on Tuesday, May 12 at 3:30 pm in Ferguson Hall, Room 85. Noriko Kawai and James Dillon direct the Contemporary Music Workshop.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 10:45 AM | Permalink

The University of Minnesota Opera Theatre presents Leoš Janácek’s Jenůfa. Performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 23 through Saturday, April 25 and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 26 in Ted Mann Concert Hall. U of M students, faculty and staff receive a two for one ticket discount. For more information visit the University Opera Theatre webpage.

Photo by Kelly MacWilliams.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 5:48 PM | Permalink

The School of Music and the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota present The Duo Gelland, internationally renowned Swedish violin duo, performing the music of James Dillon and Luigi Nono. The concert will take place on Monday, March 30 at 7 p.m. at the Weisman Art Museum (333 East River Road on the University's East Bank Campus in Minneapolis). The concert is free and open to the public, and no advance tickets are required.


The Duo Gelland, featuring Cecilia and Martin Gelland, tackle new music with an overwhelming empathy and a virtually feverish intensity, capturing their audience in a bubble of absolute presence. The Duo Gelland’s awards include the internationally prestigious Annual German Record Critics’ Award Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2008 for James Dillon’s Traumwerk on DVD and the Interpreter’s Prize of the Society of Swedish Composers. For further information visit the Duo Gelland website.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 3:22 PM | Permalink

Listen to School of Music alumni/composer David Evan Thomas discuss professor/conductor Mark Russell Smith's monumental task of conducting two Mahler symphonies in one week on Minnesota Public Radio's website. Mark Russell Smith will lead the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 9, Thursday, March 12, at Ted Mann Concert Hall. On March 13 and 14, he'll conduct the Minnesota Orchestra as it performs Mahler's Symphony No. 4 at Orchestra Hall. David Even Thomas is a freelance composer in Minneapolis

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 11:58 AM | Permalink

Professor Kathy Saltzman Romey (choral) was featured in a New York Times review of her Carnegie Hall Festival Chorus concert with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. The concert was a performance of Haydn’s oratorio “Die Schöpfung” (“The Creation”) at Carnegie Hall. To read the full review, visit the New York Times website.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 5:38 PM | Permalink

School of Music professor Peter Mercer-Taylor (Musicology) was mentioned in Alex Ross's article "The Youngest Master, Mendelssohn at two hundred" in The New Yorker magazine. To read the article, visit The New Yorker website.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 5:35 PM | Permalink

Denis Evstuhin (DMA candidate, Piano, student of Alexander Braginsky) won the First Prize at Iowa Piano Competition, a three day contest, hosted by the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra in Iowa. The program included two complete Piano Quintets and Concerti for Piano and Orchestra in addition to the solo round. Twelve contestants were selected, representing wide spectrum of universities and conservatories. Six proceeded to the second round and three performed in the finals with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra. Evstuhin performed Haydn's Sonata and Liszt's Spanish Rhapsody in the first round; in the second round, he performed the third and fifth movements of Shostakovich's Quintet and the first movement from Dvorak's Quintet; and for the third round, he performed Grieg's Concerto. Second, third, and fourth prizes went to graduate students from Yale, Ann Arbor, and Juilliard.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 5:27 PM | Permalink

A 2008 “Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik�? (The Annual German Record Critics’ Award) was recently awarded to the film Traumwerk, Book I for Violin Duo directed by Johan Ramstroem and based on an interpretation of the music of James Dillon, University of Minnesota School of Music professor and composer. Traumwerk (Dreamwork) was one of ten recipients to receive the award, winning the category of classical DVD for film and sound production. Click here for the press release.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 4:00 PM | Permalink

To read the front page article about School of Music student Brian Frutiger and University Opera Theatre, check out the Minnesota Daily website.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 2:03 PM | Permalink

Congratulations to the U of M School of Music Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition winners! First place went to Nick Donatelle (BM, Cello, student of Tanya Remenikova), Natalia Moiseeva (DMA Candidate, Violin, student of Sally O'Reilly), and Ivan Konev (DMA Candidate, Piano, Student of Alex Braginsky) who performed Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano by Beethoven. Second place was awarded to Woobin Park (DMA Candidate, Piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) who performed Piano Concerto op. 16 by Edvard Grieg. Jiye Kim (DMA Candidate, Piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) received an honorable mention for a performance of Piano Concerto in A Major by W.A. Mozart.

Posted by School of Music Pubs and Public Rel at 4:46 PM | Permalink