Yale School of Music

With the first semester behind us, we're reflecting on all the music we made and heard together. Here's to the new year! 🥳 🥳

Here's wishing the YSM community a wonderful holiday season. We've put together a playlist of music for you to enjoy! 🎼 🎼

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0TYaeGaAkpCy174p9nQI1N?si=2409638484014a2c

To the members of the Yale Opera and Yale Philharmonia: 🎶 🎶 Brava tutti! The Winter Gala Concert was magnificent. Here are some photos of what was a wonderful evening of music-making. 👏

📸 by Matt Fried

The Emerson String Quartet, whose cellist is YSM Prof. Paul Watkins, embarked recently on its final concert tour. Here's a preview of the celebrated ensemble's last season of performances.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/12/10/emerson-string-quartet-wolf-trap/

Perspective | Best of classical music in 2022

The Washington Post included the Yale Philharmonia's Oct. 21 performance of Helen Hagan's Piano Concerto, featuring soloist Dr Samantha Ege and a new orchestration by composer Soomin Kim '21MM '22MMA, in its "Best of classical music in 2022" collection. Read more and congrats all! https://bit.ly/3Wsgvpn

Perspective | Best of classical music in 2022 In a powerful comeback year, highlights include a George Floyd requiem, Michael Tilson Thomas at the Kennedy Center and a stunning David Geffen Hall.

The Yale Clarinet Celebration on Sunday. Dec. 4, brought together alumni and current School of Music and Yale College students. Here's to faculty clarinetist David Shifrin & Friends. You all sounded magnificent!

📸 by: Harold Shapiro

James O'Donnell, who'll begin work next semester as Professor in the Practice of Organ at the YSM & ISM, previously served as Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral and Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey. O'Donnell recently directed the musical portions of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. The ISM has this look into that massive responsibility: bit.ly/3ASLUIX

Applications for enrollment in 2023-2024 are due TOMORROW Dec. 1! Get your YSM application in today and join us here at Yale! —> music.yale.edu/apply

It's Giving Tuesday, a day on which we're all encouraged to give back—whether through service, a financial gift, or a selfless act. We asked our Alumni Fund volunteers why they choose to give back to YSM. Here's what they had to say.

Read about the Dec. 4 Yale Clarinet Celebration, a concert organized by faculty clarinetist David Shifrin that will feature Yale clarinetists past and present. We hope to see you at the performance! *Free admission*

https://music.yale.edu/news/david-shifrin-friends-celebrate-clarinet

Artwork by: Nikki Pet '23MM

Our Admissions Office invites prospective students to join a livestream of a master class with Professor in the Practice of Piano Boris Berman on Dec. 8 at 10:30 a.m. (EST). Register today! https://apply.music.yale.edu/register/pianoberman

Here's wishing you all a safe and restful holiday break! 🍂

In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, we’re showcasing the Heartbeat Music Project, an organization that was created in 2016 by violinist and YSM alum Ariel Horowitz ’19MM ’20MMA to provide free music and cross-cultural education to Diné youth on the Navajo Reservation in Crownpoint, New Mexico. Earlier this year, the Project, whose assistant director is violinist and current YSM student Gregory Lewis '19MM '27DMA, received a $500,000 Accelerator Award from The Lewis Prize for Music. The award was established to “provide multi-year support to enable leaders and organizations to make sustained progress toward ambitious community change initiatives.” Read more about the Project here:

https://music.yale.edu/news/heartbeat-music-project-receives-500000-lewis-prize-accelerator-award

Prospective students: Join a livestream of a master class with Robert Blocker, the Henry and Lucy Moses Dean of Music at Yale and Professor of Piano at YSM, on Dec. 1 at 10:30 a.m. (EST). Register now! https://apply.music.yale.edu/register/pianoblocker

Congrats 🙌 🙌 to our colleagues who've received GRAMMY nominations! Here's who's in the running for the prestigious award. The 65th GRAMMY Awards will take place on Feb. 5, 2023. Link here: bit.ly/3Xd7AsU

Courtesy of the Recording Academy® / Getty Images © 2020

Meet violinist 🎻 Emma Meinrenken ’24MM, who spoke with us about studying with faculty violinist Augustin Hadelich, learning and performing new music, taking advantage of all that the University has to offer, and more.

“I don’t really have any musicians in the family at all. I’m the first one, except for an ancestor maybe six or seven generations back. I’m not sure if I have the math quite right, but he was an organ player and a choir director in Germany. And he knew the Schumanns. So that’s kind of an interesting tidbit.”

Emma’s given much thought to the pursuit of a career in music.

“There always comes a time, I think, in everybody’s journey with their instrument where they have stop thinking about just getting better at what they’re doing and actually start thinking about why they’re doing it. And do they actually love what they’re doing, or are they just doing it because that’s what they’ve always done? And I think I’ve gone through several periods of time like that. And I feel like I’m always rediscovering why I’m continuing to do what I do, because it’s not easy, and it’s not necessarily the path of least resistance.”

It was faculty violinist Augustin Hadelich who inspired Emma to come to Yale.

“My current teacher is Augustin Hadelich. Just a few days after my audition, he reached out to me and my teacher at the time and expressed interest in working with me. And all of a sudden I realized, wait, there’s this really, really inspiring and actively performing musician and this would be my once in a lifetime chance to learn from someone of his caliber.”

YSM’s commitment to new music has fueled Emma’s interest in that area.

“I’m hoping to take advantage of a lot of the opportunities that YSM offers that wouldn’t necessarily be present elsewhere. Being able to give a recital and learn a little bit more about programming and more about contemporary music—I feel like the contemporary music offerings at YSM are very strong, and that seems to be a big part of the School’s DNA, and that’s something that I’m pretty passionate about. So it would be exciting to work in that direction.”

Emma’s curiosity goes beyond music, which makes Yale an excellent fit.

“But I’m also excited to be able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by Yale as a whole. I’m hoping to take a language class or sit in on a few lectures on subjects that have nothing to do with music. I’m just kind of hoping to expand my worldview beyond music because it has been such a huge focus of my life for almost 20 years. So it feels nice to be in a place where I have the opportunity to open up my mind to different aspects of being a person.”

Spotted 👀 Percussion students navigate the New Haven streets to move instruments from one space to another. A classic case of other duties as assigned.

Trumpet players Joshua Bialkin '22MM '23MMA and Shania Cordoba '23MM, trombonist Addison Maye-saxon '23MMA, and tubist Bridget Conley '23MM performed during the Yale Veterans Day Ceremony in Woolsey Hall today.

Please join us in thanking our veterans for their service.

YSM's Office of Admissions invites prospective students to join a livestream of a master class with Professor in the Practice of Piano Melvin Chen on Nov. 17 at 10:30 a.m. (EST). 🎹 Register today!

https://apply.music.yale.edu/register/pianochen

Meet oboist Alec Chai '22BS '24MM, who recently spoke with us about making the transition from Yale College to the School of Music, and more.

“I’m very fortunate to have been able to go to Yale for undergrad and grad. I knew that I wanted to study science and music at some point and I think Yale was one of the best places to go because if I wanted to do both at the same time, I couldn’t get that from a conservatory. But at Yale College, being an undergraduate, you get lots of exposure to the School of Music.

“Being an undergrad also showed me I needed more music in my life than I was getting.”

At YSM, Alec is finding his musical voice in the oboe studio.

“I think one of my favorite things about Professor Stephen Taylor’s oboe studio is that it is one of the most diverse studios in terms of sounds and styles. At a lot of other top institutions, members of a studio typically end up sounding just like their teacher, making similar reeds and playing the same brand of instrument. In the Yale oboe studio, however, none of us sounds remotely the same, nor like Professor Taylor, and I feel like I’ve already been able to internalize a lot of unique ideas from the other oboists.”

After spending his undergraduate years listening to the Yale Philharmonia, Alec has now had the opportunity to perform with YSM's orchestra.

“The Yale Philharmonia is something I'd been watching for the past four years and kind of envied, so it was an amazing experience to finally perform with the Yale Philharmonia, especially on Mahler 1, which has been one of my favorite symphonies for as long as I can remember. The orchestra was fantastic of course, and I’m excited to play all of the other cool repertoire on the docket for our upcoming concerts."

Meet cellist Mafalda Santos ’28DMA, who spoke with us about discovering the instrument, enrolling in YSM’s DMA program, and more.

“My parents tell me that I was watching a commercial on TV when I was two-and-a-half years old, and there was this string quartet playing, and I pointed at the TV and said I wanted to play the big one. I don’t actually remember this moment, but that’s when I fell in love with the cello, I suppose.”

Mafalda started studying violin before taking up the cello.

“Of course, it was too big for me, so I was given a violin instead, and I was stuck with it until I was able to switch when I turned seven. And I actually played both for a whole year because I didn’t want to upset my violin teacher, but I was happier as soon as I was able to just play the cello.”

For Mafalda, the instrument can sing beautifully.

“What I love about the cello is how vocal it is, and the range of expression that you can get that simulates the human voice. It just lives in this gorgeous, rich register. For me, this just gives the cello so much communicative power when it comes to engaging with an audience.”

Mafalda has found the DMA program nourishing.

“There’s just nothing that compares to what YSM offers in terms of the DMA program. It’s very rich on both the performance side and the academic side. For example, there’s this fascinating academic course, a theory elective on the Schumann trios, where you analyze and learn about the pieces, but you also rehearse and perform them at the end of the semester. It just seemed like the perfect place for me in the sense of combining all the things that I want to do—performing, thinking, teaching, talking about music.”

Last weekend, Yale Opera presented two dazzling nights of fully-staged opera scenes. Here are some photos from Saturday's performance, which featured excerpts from "Eugene Onegin," "Werther," and "Le comte Ory." 👏 👏 Bravi tutti!

📷 by Suzi Sakai

🎻 Prospective students: Join us online for a master class with YSM Assistant Professor of Violin Tai Murray on Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (EST). Register today! —>

https://apply.music.yale.edu/register/violinTaiMurray

✨ TONIGHT! Don't miss Yale Opera in the first of two nights of fully-staged excerpts from the operatic repertoire!

Tickets and info—> https://music-tickets.yale.edu/overview/23017

Yale Class of 1957 member Donald M. Roberts is among this year's Yale Medal recipients. Roberts' "generous personal donation to the Class of 1957 Music Endowment," the Yale Alumni Magazine explained, "led many of his fellow classmates to join him in support of music in public schools, helping young Elm City students become musicians and Yale School of Music students become teachers."

Read more –> https://ysm.social/3suqFsq

Midnight Oil Collective turns making art into making money - Yale Daily News

Read more about Midnight Oil Collective and their vision to position artists as entrepreneurs.

Midnight Oil Collective turns making art into making money - Yale Daily News What does it mean to be a working artist and venture capitalist?

Meet bassoonist Winfred Felton ’24MM, who spoke with us about the path he followed to YSM and his experiences thus far.

“In about the sixth grade, I joined band because I wanted to play the saxophone. I originally started on clarinet, and we had to take kind of like a placement test to switch. And I passed the placement, but it turned out there were so many people that auditioned for saxophone that they didn’t need me to be on saxophone. And so my band director ended up putting me on the bassoon. She told me it was a double-reed instrument, and so I went and bought a bunch of reeds because I thought I was going to need two clarinet reeds at that time to be able to play bassoon.”

For Winfred, the path to YSM was charted years ago.

“The first two years of high school, I was at public school in North Carolina. The summer of my ninth grade year of high school, I went to a music camp. While I was there, my roommate told me about a boarding school in North Carolina that had a dedicated music program for high schoolers. This sounded like the perfect opportunity for me, and so my 10th grade year, I auditioned for the North Carolina School of the Arts, and I got in there. While I was there, a YSM alum, his name is Martin Kuuskmann, gave a bassoon master class. And I ended up going to study with him at the University of Denver. And while I was studying there with him, Prof. Morelli, who teaches bassoon here, did a master class there. And that’s how I ended up being introduced to him and his teaching, and eventually coming here.”

Winfred has been impressed with his peers since arriving at YSM. “It’s been really amazing. [The Yale Philharmonia] is the highest-level ensemble I’ve really been able to participate in regularly,” he said. “And everybody comes prepared and everyone’s very serious. The people at the School of Music are very warm and welcoming, so making music with my classmates has been something I’ve really enjoyed since I’ve been here.”