Magdalena Stern-Baczewska gave a virtual lecture "Chopin and the Bel Canto Style" at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music, inaugurating the 2022 Piano International Academic Exchange Week.
Our final newsletter of the academic year includes an interview of graduating senior Maude Latour, updates from our associates, a Spring 2022 event recap, and our best wishes to the graduating Class of 2022.
Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (Director, MPP), together with clarinetist Carol McGonnel and Orchestre de Chambre du Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau, gave a U.S. premiere of Charles Fox's Fantaisie for Clarinet, Piano, and Orchestra, with the composer at the podium.
On Friday, May 6th, the Columbia University Music Performance Program presented United for Peace, a concert in solidarity with Ukraine, in St. Paul's Chapel, featuring the faculty artists of the Music Performance Program, the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, and Barnard College.
The Spring semester in the MPP has been brimming with activity. Our student musicians recently appeared in a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, treating the audience to exhilarating and thoughtfully prepared performances. We are full of gratitude for our terrific Music Associates, who have mentored the MPP students with true dedication.
This semester, our students have made music with particular enthusiasm and passion, and their Columbia friends have come in unprecedented numbers to support them. We had a full house at each concert, and all events were received with great warmth and fervor. The MPP music associates, who have prepared the ensembles for their performances deserve a special word of gratitude for their passion, dedication, and creativity.
We have continued to host online events featuring guest artists, among them masterclasses with cellist Wendy Sutter and violinist Richard Lin. The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, under the new leadership of Ole Mathisen, presented masterclasses with jazz percussionist Clarence Penn and saxophonist Miguel Zenon.
This has also been a semester of new beginnings: we have welcomed new members of the MPP community; Music Associates: Elizabeth Brown (shakuhachi), Yumi Kurosawa (koto), David Krauss (trumpet), Ingrid Laubrock (jazz saxophone), and our new Assistant to Director, Chelsea Wimmer.
We are also staying in touch with MPP alumni and are happy to share their latest news below.
Grateful for your continued interest and support, we wish you a peaceful and restorative Holiday season.
On behalf of all of us in the MPP,
Magdalena Stern-Baczewska
Dear Friends of the Music Performance Program,
Now that life on Columbia campus seems to have returned to its full swing, we are pleased to share the November update with you.
The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program is celebrating its twenty year anniversary with a feature in Columbia Magazine.
Magdalena Stern-Baczewska has received the Culture, Science and Education Initiative Grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
On November 9, 2019, Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (Director, Music Performance Program) gave the Canadian premiere of Tan Dun's Piano Concerto "The Banquet" with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the composer conducting.
The students of the Music Performance Program performed at the annual MPP concert at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on April 15th, having won the opportunity to participate through a live audition earlier this year.
Peter Susser's Early Midsummer, a set of variations for violin and piano has received its world premiere on 4/13/2019 at the Jamesport Meeting House in Jamesport, NY. The performers were MPP music associate Muneko Otani (violin), and MPP director Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (piano).
First Place Winners!
From left to right: Joe Block, pianist; Daniel Mesko, drums; John (Jack) Aylor, bass; Aaron Kranzler, alto sax; Liam Broderick, guitar; James Haddad, trumpet.
Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (Director, Music Performance Program) gave a performance at the Opera House of Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music, celebrating the DVD release of Tan Dun's Martial Arts Cycle for Piano, Violin, and Violoncello.
BalletNext, a New York City-based ballet company led by Artistic Director and former principal ballerina of ABT (American Ballet Theatre), Michele Wiles, is looking for a cellist to perform this season at New York Live Arts!
On September 26th, 2018, Music Performance Program held a special recital of the winners of the Richard and Brooke Kamin Rapaport Summer Music Performance Fellowship.
Our retired Associate in the Music Performance Program, Niels Østbye, died on March 19, 2018, at his home in Grandview-on-Hudson, NY, at the age of 93. He taught at Columbia from 1967 until his retirement in 2016.
Meet our student Annie Nikunen (BC '20)!!