Success Stories

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.

MSM classical trumpet alumnus Michael Smith (BM ’00) has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra since March 2024 after serving in a variety of management positions with the Symphony for the past 18 years. Under his leadership, the orchestra will be making its Carnegie Hall debut on Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 8 p.m.

The program will feature the Harlem Quartet—including MSM alumnus and faculty member Ilmar Gavilán (MM ’01, ’02) on violin in Edward Hunt’s A Charleston Concerto for orchestra and string quartet. The Symphony will also perform George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. The evening will begin with a performance by the College of Charleston Orchestra and the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra.

“The Charleston Symphony is thriving in ways that are truly rare in our industry,” says Michael Smith.  “We performed throughout the pandemic, launched our first-ever endowment campaign on the heels of the pandemic (raising $16M), and have seen a 75% increase in attendance compared to pre-pandemic levels. Amid so many challenges facing orchestras nationwide, I think this is a story of resilience and innovation that could inspire [our] community.”

Click here to learn more about the concert.
Click here to learn more about the Charleston Symphony.

On November 24, a new work by MSM Classical Composition Faculty member Dr. Paolo Marchettini (DM A ’14), Intermezzo, will be premiered by the Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti of Naples in Chiesa dei SS. Marcellino e Festo. The premiere was announced in multiple publications, including the Naples edition of Italy’s top newspapers, La Repubblica.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Marchettini.
Click here to learn more about Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti.

Two Manhattan School of Music alumni recently joined the faculty of The Hartt School, the performing arts conservatory at the University of Hartford in Connecticut: Classical pianist Dr. Carolina Flores (BM ’93, MM ’96) is Associate Professor of Choral Music and Director of Choral Activities, and operatic and musical theatre vocalist Kyle Pfortmiller (MM ’94) is a voice department faculty member.

Dr. Flores is a DMA alumna of The Hartt School and has held multiple college teaching positions, has served as music director of internationally touring choirs, and is an active concert and collaborative pianist. Kyle Pfortmiller has performed many roles at The Metropolitan Opera and other opera companies in the United States, as well in high-profile musical theatre productions.

Learn more about both alumni and their appointments here.

Above: Dr. Carolina Flores (on left); Kyle Pfortmiller

Jeffrey Langford, MSM Associate Dean of the Doctoral program at MSM, is the author of a new textbook, Opera: A History of the Impossible Genre, an accessible and chronological survey of opera, published by Routledge Co.

“I’m happy to announce that my departure from teaching at MSM has been recently marked by the publication of my new textbook,” says Dr. Langford. “ It feels like a nice culmination to my work over all these years.”

Dr. Langford retired from teaching music history at MSM in 2022. He presently serves as a MSM faculty member, advisor, and associate dean of doctoral studies.

Dr. Langford’s previous publication is A History of the Symphony: The Grand Genre. He is also the author of an annotated bibliography of research materials on Berlioz titled Hector Berlioz: A Guide to Research.  His book Evenings at the Opera is a collection of essays addressing the question of the relationship of music to drama in opera from Mozart to Britten.

Learn more about Dr. Langford’s new publication here.

Manhattan School of Music Orchestral Performance alumnus Taylor Smith (MM ’14) was recently appointed to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO) as Assistant Principal Bassoon.

Smith is currently Principal Bassoon of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra (Alabama) while freelancing in New York City; he will relocate to Birmingham for his upcoming full-time position with ASO.

Click here to watch an HSO interview with Taylor from this past summer.

Baritone and musicologist Derek Greten-Harrison (BM ’04) restored 41 original orchestral film arrangements from 20th Century-Fox films of the 1940s-50s—including the complete score to Rodgers & Hammerstein’s State Fair—and subsequently recorded world-premiere stereo recordings of them with conductor David Charles Abell and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

The resulting 2-CD album, State Fair and the 20th Century-Fox Songbook was released this year on the Dutton Epoch label to rave reviews from BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and MusicWeb International. It features solo vocals by Derek and luminaries such as Broadway and West End star Scarlett Strallen, British jazz vocalist Clare Teal, American tenor James Taylor, and “Ambassador of the American Songbook” Michael Feinstein.

Derek also wrote the album’s extensive liner notes, and will give a presentation at the international music conference, “Editing Film Music: Challenges of Multimediality” being held Nov 22 and 23 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Click here to learn more about Derek and his film music restoration projects.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation has appointed Blake-Anthony Johnson (’16) as its new CEO starting January of 2025. With extensive experience as CEO of the Chicago Sinfonietta, Johnson is known for his innovative approach in music and cultural advocacy.

His focus will include expanding local partnerships, securing sustainable funding, and advancing programs that celebrate the heritage of New Orleans. Johnson succeeds Don Marshall, who led the Foundation for over 20 years, enriching the community through various festivals and educational programs. Johnson’s leadership is expected to drive the Foundation’s mission forward with a focus on inclusivity and cultural preservation.

Click here to read the full press release.

At the Nobel festivities in 1993, Swedish-born soprano saxophonist and composer Anders Paulsson (MM ‘86) performed for Nelson Mandela when he received the Nobel Peace Prize; Anders consequently composed the 22-minute-long Celebration Suite to celebrate 20 years of democracy in South Africa. The composition, which had its world premiere in 2013, was a commission for the MIAGI (Music is a Great Investment) Orchestra, a non-profit educational youth orchestra based in South Africa, where Anders was Composer-in-Residence.

This past summer, MIAGI performed Celebration Suite to mark the 30-year anniversary of democracy in South Africa, in a series of concerts in Germany with Anders Paulsson featured on solo soprano saxophone. The concerts took place at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and the Konzerthaus Berlin, with Chevonne Plaatjies conducting.

Click here to learn more about Anders.
Click here to learn more about the MIAGI Orchestra.

Vocal Arts alumnus Cameron Johnson (MM ’14) is part of the ensemble cast of the new musical, Swept Away, featuring music by the folk-rock band The Avett Brothers, with a book by playwright and screenwriter John David Logan. The story is loosely based on an 1884 shipwreck off the coast of New Bedford, Massachusetts. The production is currently in previews on Broadway at the Longacre Theatrer; opening night is November 19.

Johnson is one of several cast members who performed in the show in its run from November 2023 to January 2024 at the Arena Stage Theatre in Washington, D.C. He was a part of the 2022 Broadway revival of Into the Woods as well as Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish and The Golden Bride.

Click here to learn more about Swept Away.

An online course by MSM faculty member and alumna Lisa Yui (DMA ‘05) on J.S. Bach’s Italian Concerto launched recently on Tonebase Piano, a popular platform for classical music education with over 25,000 active members worldwide.

In the series, Dr. Yui delves into the history and style of this immensely popular piece, offering technical guidance on ornamentation, pedalling, and more.

Watch an excerpt of the course on YouTube shorts here.
Find the full course here.

MSM alumnus and trustee, the Grammy Award-winning countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (MM ‘08), will discuss his meteoric rise from singer to general director of Opera Philadelphia in person at the National Opera Center in New York on November 4 from 7 PM to 8 PM. The event will also be livestreamed.

From his early career start at age 11 to his acclaimed performances across opera, film, and Broadway, Costanzo will talk about his exceptional journey with Marc A. Scorca, president/CEO of OPERA America.

The National Opera Center is located at 330 Seventh Avenue (at 29th Street) in Manhattan.

In-Person Tickets:$5 Members, $10 Non-Members, Free for Students
Livestream: Free, registration required

Register here.

A finalist of the 2024 Susan Wadsworth International Auditions is current MSM violin student Koshiro Takeuchi (BM ’28) who studies at MSM with Lucie Robert and Koichiro Harada. Semi finalists from MSM are current flute student Blue Shelton (BM ‘25) who studies with Marya Martin, and Shelén Hughes (BM ‘18, MM ‘20) who studied with Ashley Putnam at MSM.

Anchored by Young Concert Artists founder Susan Wadsworth and YCA President Daniel Kellogg, the jury (in photo above) for the semi-final and final rounds included pianists Inon Barnatan and Angela Cheng, violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, violinists Barry Shiffman and Pamela Frank, flutist Marya Martin, soprano and MSM alumna Dawn Upshaw, and conductor Constantine Orbelian; along with Cristina Rocca, VP of Artistic Planning at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Donald Palumbo, Chorus Master at the Metropolitan Opera; and Abhijit Sengupta, Director of Artistic Planning at Carnegie Hall.

The finals took place on October 27 at Merkin Hall; a winner’s concert will be held October 28 at 7PM at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

MSM Trustee and classical piano alumnus Dr. Scott Dunn (MM ’97) will perform two concerts in 2025 at The Wallis Annenberg Centre for the Performing Arts (known as The Wallis) in Beverly Hills, California.

On January 18, 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.

The Scott Dunn Orchestra will perform a second program at The Wallis in May 2025 called Henry Mancini at 100—a Celebration of the Man and his Music.

Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.