Arts Features

Violinist Epongue Ekille from Rochester is one of the people calling for a greater recognition of Black musicians’ contributions to classical music. She shares her experiences and some listening recommendations.

Judi Vinar first saw Bobby McFerrin on the Grammy Awards back in the 80’s. “I was blown away,” she said by phone from her home in the Twin Cities. “When I first heard Bobby do a solo piece, you know, a lot of what he does is jump around with a bass note and octave note on top and somehow he fits the melody inside of that.” She went out and bought all his records. Vinar grew up listening to a wide range of styles from Julie Andrews musicals to Tom Jones LPs, soaking up styles like a sponge. She studied classical music and singing at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. But in her heart, she said, she was always drawn to pop music and jazz. And she’d not heard anyone sing like Bobby. When McFerrin was appointed creative chair of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 1994, she jumped at the chance to sing with him. Her career as a singer, teacher, and conductor was taking off when she walked into a beautiful church and auditioned for him. “He was very focused,” she remembered. “He has this

David Temperley composes tuneful, expressive pieces in a classical mold, drawing on his experiences with chamber music and influences from the popular music he grew up listening to on the radio. He's also a music theorist who writes about rock music, including in his latest book The Musical Language of Rock . Read more about Temperley and his music in CITY Newspaper this week: "Having it Both Ways. The Music of Rochester Composer David Temperley." You can also hear his music and story in this radio feature:

To get to know Maria Newman, you have to understand who her father was. She is the daughter of nine time Academy award-winning film composer Alfred Newman, who wrote the 20th century Fox fanfare. Her brothers and cousin are equally famous; there’s Randy Newman of Toy Story fame, Thomas Newman, who scored Finding Nemo and Shawshank Redemption . Her brother David has scored nearly 100 films such as Galaxy Quest . It’s no exaggeration to say she comes from a musical dynasty.

The characters in Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème start out as broad archetypes: the moody poet, a fun-loving musician, a lonely young woman dreaming of love, a flirtatious party girl… They're drawn in broad strokes, and it’s easy for everyone to see something of themselves, or their friends, in this group. But as the cast of this summer’s Finger Lakes Opera production of La Boheme discussed – the opera’s true power lies in how all these characters change.

Composer Margaret Brouwer lives in Ohio, near Lake Erie. She loves the natural beauty of the Great Lakes and she’s worried about them. She has composed her love for Lake Erie -- and her concerns for its future -- into a musical work called "Voice of the Lake ."

The summer solstice is “Make Music Day,” which is being celebrated in Rochester and around the world. If you’re downtown on Friday afternoon, you might notice a group of people standing in a circle with their arms linked. They’ll be doing the Heart Chant by composer Pauline Oliveros.

I see myself as an educator, and over time I have also seen myself more broadly as a part of the healing community, that music is a healing force. My participation in music and my representation of a living entity, bringing music to life and engaging with audiences, is a healing act. This is Professor Katherine Ciesinski . You might find her performing onstage in a grand opera house in Mexico; or maybe teaching in a studio at a conservatory; or maybe even taking notes in a science classroom. She is known among Eastman students as the professor who attends every performance and event, gives hours of voice lessons a week, and even pursues an additional degree outside of her teaching. Whether you spend a few minutes or almost an hour listening to her stories, you will find that this long time teacher still values the importance of being a life-long learner, as well as using music to heal people and tap into our deepest human emotions. Even as she moves forward, Professor Ciesinski never

Lynn Harrell has been a musical performer for most of his life. He started playing cello at a young age, and his professional career has spanned decades: he started playing in the Cleveland Orchestra at the age of 18, where he was then principal cellist from 1964 to 1971, and he has played solo and chamber music performances around the world. While still very busy with music, Harrell has recently tried something new: acting in a movie. It's a beautiful short film called Cello , where he portrays a (fictional) cellist named Ansel Evans, who has to deal with deblitating effects of ALS, and how it affects his relationship with his family and his music.

World-renowned composer, conductor, and pianist André Previn has died at the age of 89 . During his wide-ranging career, Previn wrote Oscar-winning movie scores, played piano on noted jazz recordings, conducted pretty much all the top orchestras. His compositions included an opera version of A Streetcar Named Desire, written for Renée Fleming in the starring role. And in 2014, he wrote a piece for the Eastman Wind Ensemble: Music for Wind Orchestra (No Strings Attached). When he visited for the premiere, Previn was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Rochester, and worked with students at the Eastman School of Music. Here is a remembrance, with selections from our interview during his time in Rochester. You can also listen to more of what he said about his experiences in music, along with some words of advice for music students in the extended interview here: Celebrating Andre Previn at 85 .

If you pay attention to science news, you might be concerned by recent reports from both The United Nations and the U.S. Federal Government warning of the effects of climate change. Skeptics abound, however, and there seems to be little political will to make large-scale changes to the way we live. That's why, in part, the National Science Foundation is sending artists and musicians to far-flung places all over the planet. That's how composer Glenn McClure found himself sleeping in a tent in Antarctica. “It was fascinating,” he says. “We were tenting on the Ross Ice Shelf, which is a kilometer thick and about the size of France.” McClure was there as a kind of translator in 2016, to look, listen, and write music in response to the place. There wasn't much to see, he says. No birds. No rocks. No plants. The horizon simply blended into the sky, and he found it disorienting, like being on an ocean of white. But it was noisy, he says, full of sounds like wind and the crunch of different

Mitzie Collins might be excused for resting on her laurels. She's not. For her contributions Rochester's musical life, she earned the 2007 Artist Award from the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester, and she was honored as 2014 Musician of the Year by the Rochester Alumnae of the Mu Phi Epsilon Music Fraternity. Hammered dulcimer expert. Shape-note singer. Organist. Recording artist. For decades Mitzie has performed, taught, and delighted audiences in a wide range of musical styles. In some ways, she says, she's enjoying the fruits of her labor. Many, many years ago (like 47 years ago) I was one of the Founding Mothers and Parents of the Golden Link Folk Singing Society. Now I make a point of getting to many of those Tuesday night sing-arounds. The Founding Parents didn't run it for the last 47 years, so we have somthing that's viable that other people take part in, and I'm really proud of that. Now I want to take advantage of the music-making that's in Rochester. Occasionally

A descendant of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington says Rochester should be the permanent home of an organization dedicated to their legacies. Kenneth Morris is the great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great grandson of Booker T. Washington. His non-profit organization, the Douglass Family Initiatives, provides educational programming about modern day slavery and the prevention of human trafficking. Morris says his team is looking at properties in Rochester that could be the organization's new headquarters, and he will consider feedback from the community about the possible move. "We started looking at cities that were significant in the life of Frederick Douglass. Rochester, to me, seems like it should be the epicenter of everything Douglass, not only locally, but nationally and internationally. Morris was a guest on WXXI's Connections with Evan Dawson on Monday. Morris says there isn't a timeline for the move, but he's optimistic it will happen. The

He was a piano man in a bar. Now he's shaping the future as the dean of a conservatory. Brazilian-born musician Armenio Suzano, Jr. got an unconventional start as the youngest member of the Rio de Janeiro Opera House Symphony Orchestra (Orquestra do Teatro Municipal) at the age of sixteen. Faith and passion moved him from that orchestra pit in Brazil to a small town in Massachusets, serving a Portuguese-speaking community of immigrants. How Suzano came to lead the Greatbatch School of Music in Houghton College is a fascinating story. His favorite part of being a musician? All of it. I love performing the clarinet and the saxophone. I love performing the piano. I love the administrative part of things because you get to create, almost shape up the future with your colleagues. You look at circumstances and possibilities. You look at this donor and you look at that program and you put those two things together, and the next thing you know, magic is happening! So there's a certain beauty

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Veronica passed away suddenly on October 9, 2019 from Malaria, after being bitten by a mosquito while attending her father's funeral in Nigeria. She had accomplished so much for the classical music and the arts in the short time she was in Ghana, and we hope that her passion will inspire others to carry on her legacy. Learn more about her life, her mission and her passing here .

Christmas Eve, during the first year of World War I, soldiers from opposite sides put aside their differences and the war they were fighting to spend time together, sharing their provisions and stories with each other, to celebrate Christmas. This beautiful, true story was told in the movie Joyeux Noël in 2005, and then adapted into an opera, Silent Night , in 2011 by librettist Mark Campbell and composer Kevin Puts, who as an alum of the Eastman School of Music. Silent Night played to sold out houses in its first production at Minnesota Opera, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2012, and continues to be performed – including in a production at Glimmerglass for just a few more performances this summer. I was able to catch up with Kevin Puts over the phone to talk about the opera, as well as his love of film music, and his plans to expand a work that he wrote for Renee Fleming based on a commission from the Eastman School of Music, “ Letters from Georgia .” You can hear a short feature

One of the operas on stage at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, NY this year is the Pulitizer Prize-winning Silent Night – based on a true story of a legendary cease-fire during World War I. Composer Kevin Puts spoke with WXXI's Mona Seghatoleslami for a preview of this moving opera. You can hear an extended interview with Kevin Puts here . Musical examples in the feature are courtesy of Minnesota Opera . Thanks also to Unision Media for helping to make this story happen.

His cello has floated to islands and scaled mountains. Its sound has echoed across remote lakes and dense pine forests. Brian Donat is The Adirondack Cellist , and he's performed on wild peaks, in hunting cabins, and on lakeside docks. Brian performed and taught across the Adirondack region for nearly a decade before moving to Webster, NY in November of 2017. He has performed abroad in Italy and Australia, as well as with the Glens Falls Symphony, the Orchestra of Northern NY (Potsdam), the Battenkill Chorale (Saratoga Springs), Hubbard Hall Opera (Cambridge), the MostArts Festival (Alfred), and just about everywhere in between. He currently plays with the Southern Tier Symphony in Olean, and the Penfield Symphony Orchestra in Penfield. As the Adirondack Cellist, he has won the WeddingWire Couples' Choice award for five years in a row for his wedding services; he's played for countless local events and productions and collaborated with soprano Holly McCormack as the duo Cello Voce.

Guest conductor Christopher Warren-Green led the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Rochester Oratorio Society in a performance of Handel's Messiah in December of 2016. The maestro is no stranger to the British royal family. In an interview with WXXI's Julia Figueras, Warren-Green tells stories from his concerts for the Queen of England, including one tale of a harpsichord discovered in the bowels of Kew Palace he thought must have been played by George Friedrich Handel himself. See more about the upcoming wedding on WXXI-TV. The Royal Wedding Live will replay on Sunday, May 20 at 11 a.m. on WXXI-TV.

To hear a concert by pianist Tony Caramia is to hear beautiful and unexpected music. He follows his intuition, chance, a ravenous curiosity and a good ear into some wonderful musical discoveries, that open up new worlds for listeners – as well as for the students he teaches at Eastman. On Live from Hochstein this afternoon , Caramia is playing music that stands out for its lovely harmonies – and playful energy - in a program called “Syncopated Sounds from Germany.” Listen above to hear him introduce you to Ernest Fischer, Erwin Schulhoff, Lothar Perl, and others.