Success Stories

MSM classical violin alumna Jihye Sung (BM ’14, MM ’16) was named Associate Concertmaster of the Bozeman Symphony. She joined the Symphony in 2022 as a section violinist, also at times serving as Principal Second Violinist, and as guest Associate Concertmaster.

Jihye also performs regularly with the Montana Chamber Music Society and the String Orchestra of the Rockies and has taught violin, viola, and chamber music at Montana State University. She also has performed as a soloist with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Strings, and the Korean and American Youth Orchestra.

To read more about Jihye and her appointment, click here.

Under Artistic Director & Conductor Dr. Justin Bischof (BM ’90, MM ’92, DMA ’98), the Modus Operandi Orchestra returns to Merkin Hall on March 12, 2025, at 6:30 PM. 

MSM Classical Piano Co-Chair and faculty member Alexander Moutouzkine (BM ’03, MM ’05, AD ’06) will be the featured soloist on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”). The evening, entitled “The Three B’s,” will also celebrate two other Beethoven masterpieces, the Coriolan Overture and Symphony No. 7.

For tickets (student price available), visit this link.  

MSM AFFILIATE ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL:

Eiko Kano (BM ’05, MM ’07), Concertmaster
Marina Alba (MM ’26), Violin I
Carlos Rafael Martinez Arroyo (BM ’22, MM ’24), Violin II
Hao Yuan (PPD ’25), Violin II
Jihyun Baik (PPD ’25), Violin II
Milad Daniari (BM ’15), Double Bass
Anna Urrey (MM ’11, PS ’12), Flute I
Hsuan-Fong Chen (PS ’15), Oboe I
Benjamin Fingland (MSM faculty), Clarinet I
Blair Hamrick (PS ’18), Horn II
Changhyun Cha (MM ’20, PS ’21), Trumpet I
Sean Ritenauer (BM ’07, MM ’09), Timpani

Violinist Risa Hokamura (BM ‘24), a first year master’s student of Lucie Robert and Koichiro Harada as well as a Young Concert Artist, will be performing the Six Eugene Ysaye Sonatas for Solo Violin op 27 on March 7, 2025 at the Kioi Hall in Tokyo.

Risa Hokamura had 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.

More about Risa Hokamura here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumni Alesha Nicole Jeter (BM ’23) (in photo taken backstage, on right) and Lars Hafell (BM ’20) (on left) are currently performing in the ensemble of the Book of Mormon national tour with stops in Arkansas, Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, and other states through early June, with other dates being added.

Lars Hafell is a Kentucky native now based in NYC. Alesha Nicole Jeter’s most recent role was as Auntie in the Kennedy Center’s TYA National Tour of Show Way The Musical.

Learn more about the tour here.

Krakauer and Tagg’s Good Vibes Explosion will perform a series of concerts in February the Tristate Area (New York & Connecticut), including a residency with Fairfield University and performing at the Quick Center in Fairfield, Connecticut; The Local in Saugerties, New York; and Flushing Town Hall (in a rare New York City appearance for the band) as part of the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts.

Krakauer and Tagg’s Good Vibes Explosion is a touring project conceived and created by Grammy-nominated “ebullient clarinet wizard” (Time Out NY) David Krakauer and multi-instrumentalist/producer Kathleen Tagg, showcasing a multi-generational/high-octane group of collaborators from very different backgrounds, hailing from the USA, Canada, Iran and South Africa.

Their album Mazel Tov Cocktail Party  has received rave reviews across North America and Europe: France’s Le Monde calls it: “a breath of fresh air, an incentive to dance…In the face of the overwhelming negativity and alarming rise of hatred and intolerance in today’s world, let’s breathe and dance together…More than a suggestion, an injunction.”

Touring information here.

Mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron will make her Carnegie Hall debut on March 20 with pianist Kunal Lahiry. Fleur Barron recently won Best Opera Recording at the 2025 Grammy Awards for her role as Adriana Mater in Saariaho: Adriana Mater. Another MSM alumnus, tenor Nicholas Phan ( ’02), won as well for the recording, interpreting the role of Yonas.

The Carnegie Hall performance featuring Fleur Barron and the pianist Kunal Lahiry, entitled The Power and the Glory, is taking place in Weill Recital Hall.

The event description underlines the talents of the two performers: “Fleur—who has been called “a knockout performer” by London’s The Times—traverses 150 years of music and poetry, plus several traditions alongside BBC New Generation Artist Lahiry, whose technique at the keyboard has been called “orchestral in its scope and power.”

Information about the concert here.

MSM alumnus Tony Mazzocchi (BM ’95, MM ’97), who studied classical trombone at MSM, has been named the new Executive Director of the Kaufman Music Center in New York City, a performing arts complex that houses Lucy Moses School, Special Music School, the Merkin Hall concert venue, and the new Pathways program for low-income middle school students.

“A visionary leader who has dedicated his career to shaping the future of music education and performance, Mazzocchi has served since 2020 as Director of the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, and Executive Director of the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont since 2010,” writes the Kaufman Music Center in a website statement. “An accomplished trombonist, Mazzocchi has performed with leading ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony and San Diego Symphony, and in numerous Broadway productions.”

In a statement,Tony Mazzocchi says he is deeply honored to assume the leadership role and calls the Kaufman Music  “a truly extraordinary organization that stands at the unique intersection of education, performance and public service. I am excited to further demonstrate the power of the arts to develop individuals and strengthen communities.”

Learn more here.

This year, 14 members of our MSM Community were part of GRAMMY Award-winning projects (out of our nearly 50 nominations). The 67th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony on February 2 honored winning and nominated recordings, compositions, and artists for work released between September 16, 2023, and August 30, 2024, as chosen by the members of the Recording Academy.

Read our full list of winners in the MSM Community here.

MSM classical composition alumnus Alfonso Molina‘s (MM ’10) Monarch: A Mexican-American Musical won multiple Broadway World Washington, D.C. Regional Awards last month. The production, staged late in 2023 at Creative Cauldron, received the distinction of “Best Musical” and “Best New Play or Musical,” while Alfonso’s collaborator and sister Mayu Molina Lehmann won “Best Direction of a Musical.”

To learn more about the Molinas and Monarch, click here.

To learn more about the 2024 BroadwayWorld Washington, D.C. Awards, click here.

Composer Jacob Leibowitz (BM ’23), an MSM alumnus, is one of 13 artists who are part of the LABA fellowship — the Laboratory for Jewish Culture — at the 14th St Y in New York City. While at MSM, Jacob studied with Reiko Fueting and Mark Stambaugh.

The artists in the Fellowship will spend the next year exploring Jewish texts to inspire groundbreaking new work around the theme of CHANGE. “From painters to playwrights, composers to filmmakers, this talented group embodies artistic innovation,” writes LABA leadership in an Instagram post.

“Change is constant, yet we resist it. We long for the past while chasing transformation. This year, our 14Y LABA Fellows will grapple with these paradoxes—through words, music, movement, and ideas—culminating in powerful LABAlive events.”

Learn more about LABA here.
Learn more about Jacob Leibowitz here.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has launched a new series called 25 for 25: Sounds of the Century, which includes 25 commissions for BBC ensembles and New Generation artists. A composition by MSM alumna Anna Clyne (MM ’05) called The Eye, played by the BBC Philharmonic, launches the series.

The 25 for 25: Sounds of the Century program includes compositions inspired by notable British events of the 21st century, which will be performed between January 25th and July 12th.

The events range from 9/11 to the London 2012 Olympics to the death of Queen Elizabeth II; many of the compositions reflect on social and technological changes in our world over the past quarter century.

25 for 25: Sounds of the Century premieres on Saturday, January 25, and runs each week to 12 July, across all BBC Radio 3 schedules.

More about Anna Clyne here.
More about the series here.

Three MSM 2024 doctoral graduates, pianist Tianyu Deng (second from right in photo), flutist Leo Sussman (second from left in photo), and violinist Jisu Choi (third from left), were featured in a performance at the The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation on Eldridge Street in Manhattan on January 23.

The concert was entitled “Lineage and Innovation: Music by Schoenberg, Berio, and Boulez.” In attendance were MSM composition faculty member Paolo Marchettini (in photo on left) and the Chair of the MSM Woodwinds program Linda Chesis (in photo on right).

More information about the concert with biographies of the performers here.

In January and February, MSM Jazz Arts Faculty member Darcy James Argue debuts as the new Composer in Residence for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, and conducting for the Metropole Orkest. These projects each involve arrangements he has written to feature two of his favorite musicians: vibraphonist Warren Wolf (in photo on left) and vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant (in photo on right).The arrangements for Salvant will also receive their US premiere at Carnegie Hall in March, in a concert with The Knights.

The concert dates are:

GRAND VIBES: WARREN WOLF, DARCY JAMES ARGUE, FRANKFURT RADIO BIG BAND
Jan. 23: DARMSTADT – Centralstation
Jan. 24: FRANKFURT – hr-Sendesaal

CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT, DARCY JAMES ARGUE, METROPOLE ORKEST
Feb. 3: GRONINGEN – SPOT
Feb. 4: UTRECHT – TivoliVredenburg
Feb. 5: – AMSTERDAM – Het Concertgebouw
Feb. 7: EINDHOVEN – Muziekgebouw

CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT & THE KNIGHTS
Orchestral arrangements by DARCY JAMES ARGUE
Mar. 27: NYC – Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium

Learn more here.

The music publisher Theodore Front Musical Literature, in selecting MSM alumnus Christopher Cerrone (BM ’07, DMA ’00) as composer of the month, writes that he is internationally acclaimed for “compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations.” Christopher studied composition at MSM with Nils Vigeland and Reiko Fueting.

Recent works include In a Grove, an opera co-produced by LA Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, hailed as “a vividly immersive thriller” by The New York Times; Breaks and Breaks, a violin concerto for Jennifer Koh and the Detroit Symphony; A Body, Moving, a brass concerto for the Cincinnati Symphony; The Year of Silence for the Louisville Symphony and baritone Dashon Burton.

His first opera,  Invisible Cities, was a 2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Cerrone is a triple-GRAMMY nominee, with his recent studio recording of In a Grove named one of the best of 2023 by The New York Times. He won the 2015–2016 Samuel Barber Rome Prize and was a resident at the Laurenz Haus Foundation in Basel, Switzerland from 2022–2023.

Learn more here.

The 2025 Composer Prizes, awarded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in Switzerland, each worth 35,000 euros, have been awarded to MSM faculty member Ashkan Behzadi (Iranian-Canadian), Bastien David (France), and Kristine Tjøgersen (Norway).

In addition to the prize money, music productions are also part of the prizes.

Ashkan Behzadi grew up in Iran, where he initially studied architecture at the University of Tehran. After moving to Canada, he pursued composition studies in Montreal and New York, where he resides. He earned his DMA in composition at Columbia University, where he studied with Fred Lerdahl, George Lewis, and Georg Friedrich Haas.

“His music demonstrates a great attention to detail, conveying a miniaturist and gentle lyrical landscape. By employing techniques of allusion and pastiche as the foundation of his craft, his music ultimately seeks to invoke the collective memory of folklore music,” writes the Foundation in a news release.

Learn more about the prizes here.

The three MSM alumni are Emilie Kealani (BM ’21), soprano, Tess Levine (BM ’23), soprano, and Jouelle Roberson (PS ’22), soprano.

They are among twenty-nine promising young singers from around the world who have been selected for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL)’s acclaimed young artist development programs, which provide early career singers with key opportunities for vital dramatic and musical training.

OTSL’s young artist programs cultivate the next generation of promising opera talent by offering invaluable professional experience to emerging young singers. Led by the world-renowned soprano Patricia Racette, also OTSL’s Artistic Director of Young Artist Programs, these programs span nine weeks during the Festival Season and offer artists extensive vocal coaching, master classes with renowned opera artists, understudy opportunities, and onstage experience in both the ensemble and featured supporting roles.

Learn more here.

MSM composition faculty member and performer Susan Botti has been awarded a NYSCA (NY State Council for the Arts) grant for a new work for her ensemble Duo della Luna in collaboration with poets with the Dream Project Writing for Resilience Cohort.

On December 15, Susan took part in a concert at Carnegie Hall, performing with Duo della Luna.

Susan Botti’s musical explorations have encompassed traditional, improvisational, and non-classical composition and singing styles with theater and the visual arts playing a formative role in the aesthetic of her work.

Botti is the recipient of numerous awards, including: a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Rome Prize, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Fromm Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Chamber Music America, NY Foundation for the Arts, the Greenwall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and ASCAP. She was the third Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra.

More about Susan Botti here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumna Sarah Thorn (BM ’21) has been named an ensemble member of the Broadway production of Othello starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal that is opening at the Barrymore Theater on February 24 for a 15-week run. This is the Broadway debut for Sarah who is based in New York City and in London. Regionally in the U.S., she has received two BroadwayWorld nominations (Best Leading Actress in a Musical; Performer of the Decade) for Sally Bowles in Cabaret with Peregrine Theatre Ensemble.

Sarah studied voice at MSM with Judith Clurman.

Learn more about the production here.
Learn more about Sarah Thorn here.

MSM Vocal Arts alumni, Benjamin Dickerson (BM ’17) (in photo, on top right), Sofia Gotch (MM ’23, PPD ’25) (in photo, bottom right), Eva Rae Martinez (BM ’23) (top left), and Anna Maria Vacca (BM ’22, MM ’24) (bottom left), will be taking part in the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco in summer of 2025.

Merola trains and develops the world’s finest young opera singers, pianist/coaches and stage directors. This past summer, 23 singers, 5 apprentice coaches and 1 apprentice stage director were selected from over 1,300 international applicants to participate in the Merola Opera Program. During their 12 weeks at Merola, these talented young artists receive life-changing instruction from a faculty of opera masters and hone their talents in professional quality productions, all entirely free of charge.

Learn more about the Merola Opera Program Young Artists here.

MSM Trustee and classical piano alumnus Dr. Scott Dunn (MM ’97) will perform in three concerts in January 2025:

On January 10 at the Hollywood Bowl, Dr. Dunn will be conducting a concert of covers and original works by the Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Cody Fry. Concert details here.

January 18 at The Wallis Annenberg Centre for the Performing Arts (known as The Wallis) in Beverly Hills, he is conducting the inaugural concert of his ensemble, the Scott Dunn Orchestra, in a program called The Hollywood Modernists —the Second Golden Age of Film Scoring, celebrating the influence of American and European modernism on composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Alex North, and  Leonard Rosenman, and featuring music from the iconic films Psycho, Jaws, A Streetcar Named Desire To Kill A Mockingbird, and more; most of the arrangements are by Scott Dunn. Concert details here.

On January 28, Dr. Dunn will appear at the Soka Performing Arts Center with the award-winning young pianist Shunta Morimoto and the Four Seasons Orchestra. Mezzo Kayleigh Decker will sing three Malher Ruckert Songs and they will present the west coast premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett’s Partita. Concert details here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumnus Galvin Yuan (BM ’23) recently completed his first national tour as an ensemble member of Elf: The Musical.

The production opened on November 6 at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, completing its run on December 29 at the Belk Theatre in Charlotte, NC.

Earlier in 2024, Galvin appeared in the production Catch Me If You Can with the Mountain Theatre Company at the Highlands Performing Arts Center in Highlands, NC,

Born in San Francisco, Galvin moved to Guangzhou, China at 9 months old to be with the rest of his family. After living there for 13 years, he moved back to the San Francisco bay area in 2014 for high school. During high school, Galvin started doing Olympic recurve archery and in 2017 he got into the Junior Dream Team, a team comprised of the top young archers in the country training year-round at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.

More about Galvin here.

The recording by pianist Kirill Gerstein (BM ’99, MM ’00), Music in Time of War (Platoon), was selected as one of the 25 best classical recordings of 2024 by The New York Times. Kirill Gerstein’s photograph was featured at the top of the article.

“This year, no album was as ambitious and intelligent as Music in Time of War, a imagined conversation between Claude Debussy and Komitas Vardapet, witnesses to 20th-century horrors,” writes Joshua Borone in The New York Times. “The recording’s physical edition includes a book of essays and photography, but the highlight is the often revelatory music, not least Komitas’s achingly beautiful folk songs.”

For the recording, Kirill is joined by the Armenian soprano Ruzan Mantashyan, and pianists Thomas Adès and Katia Skanavi to perform a selection of works for solo piano, voice and piano, piano four hands and two pianos

Read the list of the full selection of recordings here.
Learn more about the album here.

MSM Musical Theatre faculty member Judith Clurman invited a group of MSM Musical Theatre students to perform with her Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) ensemble for her two Carnegie Hall holiday concerts Merry and Bright on December 21. Both concerts were sold out.

Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is one of New York’s preeminent choral ensembles. EVUSA performs in many of the city’s iconic venues and events, and records and premieres works by America’s finest composers and lyricists. The ensemble is comprised of a talented roster of seasoned professionals and auditioned volunteers, dynamically fitted to the unique needs of each project.

Photo above: MSM Musical Theatre students pose backstage at Carnegie Hall with Judith Clurman.

Learn more about Essential Voices USA and Judith Clurman here.

Composer and percussionist Andy Akiho (MM ‘09) won the Young Artist Award at the 27th annual Beijing Music Festival. Founded in 1998 by Long Yu and under the artistic direction of Shuang Zou, the festival fosters a commitment to contemporary music in addition to connections between China and the West.

Andy Akiho’s work Seven Pillars was also given its Asian premiere by the Sandbox Percussion ensemble.

Andy spoke with the Violin Channel about his new composition.
Read the interview here.

Two MSM Musical Theatre students, Ishita Bansal (BM ’27) and Madeline Kimmel (BM ’26), were cast in the 29-hour reading of the new musical The Turning at Theatre Row on December 10 attended by a full house of industry professionals. Starring in the reading were Anthony Rapp (star of Rent in both the film and Broadway versions), Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Lola Tung.

Last year, The Turning was part of the MSM Musical Theatre Lab Series season. “The creative team included director Sammi Canold who was so impressed with our students that she cast two of them in the 29-hour reading,” explains MSM Dean of Musical Theatre Liza Gennaro.

“I cannot overstate the value of the MT Lab Series,” she says. “It provides our musical theatre students with experience working on new musical theater material and puts them in the room with musical theater creators, giving them professional theater experience.”

Learn more about the reading here.

The Netflix documentary The Only Girl in the Orchestra tells the story of former MSM bass faculty member Orin O’Brien who, in 1966, was the first woman to be hired in the then 125-year history of the New York Philharmonic.

Portions of the documentary were filmed at MSM’s Neidorff-Karpati Hall with recording assistance provided by MSM sound engineers.

The documentary is by Orin’s niece, Emmy-award-winning producer/director Molly O’Brien.
Learn more here.

The Canadian-American violinist Christina Bouey (MM ’11, PS ’12, PS ’13) has joined the Albany Symphony as its new Concertmaster Lifetime Chair. At MSM, Christina studied with the Orchestral Performance Program.

Christina most recently won first prize at the Waldo Mayo Violin Competition and had her concerto debut at Carnegie Hall. She has also won top prizes at the Vietnam International Chamber Competition, Schoenfeld International String Competition, Fischoff Competition, and the Osaka International Chamber Competition.

Christina serves as concertmaster of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and has performed as a soloist with the Greenwich Symphony, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Salina Symphony, River Cities Symphony, Symphony of the Mountains, Tonkünstler Ensemble, Metro Chamber Orchestra, and the Bergen Symphony, among others.

Learn more here.

The influential strings music magazine The Strad is featuring an interview with MSM viola faculty member Jessica Meyer in the December issue of the publication and online:

“The award-winning composer and violist Jessica Meyer is an unclassifiable phenomenon even in today’s genre-defying contemporary music sphere. Meyer has been carving a unique space through her extraordinary blend of creativity, charisma, technical mastery, educational work and innovation, all in service of an urge to share ideas and build musical communities.”

Read the article here.

MSM Precollege alumna Chloe Flower is interviewed by The New York Times in their Sunday column about New Yorkers and their time in the city.

In “How a Pop Pianist Spends Her Sundays,” Chloe talks about coming to New York City to study at Manhattan School of Music at age 12.

She talks about how since the age of 2 years old she has loved to play the piano, “which would eventually take her to the Grammy Awards stage to perform alongside the rapper Cardi B,” writes The New York Times.

Read the article here.

MSM piano alumna Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (DMA ’08) was interviewed by NBC-TV News recently about the previously unknown Chopin Waltz that was recently unearthed in the files of the Morgan Library.

It was the first time in over a century that such a discovery was made.

Magdalena is the Director of the Music Performance Program at Columbia University, as well as a Senior Lecturer in Music in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Watch the NBC-TV story here.