VPA’s Setnor School of Music presents Graduate Composers Concert featuring Billy Joel Fellows in New York City May 4

Tuesday, April 22, 2008, By News Staff

VPA’s Setnor School of Music presents Graduate Composers Concert featuring Billy Joel Fellows in New York City May 4 April 22, 2008Erica Blustesblust@syr.edu

The Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) will present a concert of music by its graduate student composers, featuring its Billy Joel Fellows, on Sunday, May 4, at 8 p.m. at the Tenri Cultural Institute, 43 W. 13th St. #A in Manhattan. The concert is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.

The concert will feature the music of Nilo Alcala, Jongyun Choi, Diego Davidenko, Ian Hartsough, Diane Jones, Elizabeth Luttinger and Eric Merten, students in the Setnor School’s graduate program in composition. The concert will be performed by students, faculty and alumni from the Setnor School as well as three professional musicians from Central New York and New York City.

Alcala, Choi, Hartsough and Jones are the Setnor School’s Billy Joel Fellows. The fellowships were created using a portion of a gift from entertainer Billy Joel. CVPA was one of seven East Coast institutions awarded gifts in fall 2005 as part of Joel’s commitment to music education and newly established music education initiative. The gift was also used to create the Billy Joel Visiting Composer Series in the Setnor School.

“Billy Joel’s generosity around contemporary composition has been quite remarkable and has made possible this opportunity for our students,” says Andrew Waggoner, associate professor and chair of the composition program at the Setnor School “They’ve responded with a cool program of wildly disparate pieces. It will be a great evening.”

Following are the concert performers:

  • Kelly Covert, flute, is a faculty member at Ithaca College and the SUNY College at Oswego. She performs around the country in solo and chamber music concerts and with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (SSO), Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, Society for New Music in Syracuse, Ensemble X and other chamber groups.

  • Ronald Caravan, clarinet, is a Setnor faculty member with broad experience as a solo and chamber music recitalist, as well as a clinician. He regularly performs with the SSO as a saxophonist and has recorded in performance with the Saxophone Sinfonia and the Aeolian Saxophone Quartet.

  • Robin Zeh, violin, maintains an active and diverse schedule as a performing artist in the New York City area and abroad. She has appeared as soloist with the Bronx Symphony, Centre Symphony, Greenwich Village Orchestra, New York Repertory Orchestra, Hunterdon (N.J.) Symphony and the Jose Limon Dance Company.

  • Alyssa Blount, violin, earned a master of music degree from the Setnor School in 2007 and currently teaches strings at Eagle Hill Middle School in Manlius. She is a frequent performer with the Society for New Music and has also performed with the Skaneateles Festival and the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble.

  • Junah Chung, viola, is an active chamber musician and soloist who has been featured in solo performances at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Lincoln Center’s Paul Recital Hall, the National Museum of Iceland, Music in Chelsea and the Lotte Concert Hall in Yusong, Korea, among others.

  • Caroline Stinson, cello, is a faculty member in the Setnor School and coordinator of string chamber music. Winner of the 2007 J.B.C. Watkins Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, she appears each season in Canada, the United States and Europe as a soloist and chamber artist. She is a member of CELLO, the Contrasts Quartet and the new music and improvisation group Open End.

  • Dianne Hnatiw, percussion, is a senior percussion performance major at the Setnor School and a member of the SU Symphony Orchestra, SU Wind Ensemble, the Sour Sitrus Society, SU Percussion Ensemble, SU Brazilian Ensemble and the Pride of the Orange Marching Band. She has performed with the SSO, Syracuse Civic Theater and the College Light Opera Company in Cape Cod, Mass.

  • Steven Heyman, piano, is a Setnor faculty member and co-chair of the keyboard department. He has performed numerous solo recitals, chamber music concerts and concerto appearances throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He performed on the CD “Corigliano: Violin Sonata Etude Fantasy” (Black Box Records), which received a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance.

For more information about the concert, contact the composition program in the Setnor School at (315) 443-5892.