What's New: Early Spring 2022
News from NEC students, alumni, and faculty members including Andreia Pinto Correa, Billy Hart, Jenny Ahn, Jonathan Swensen, Geneva Lewis, Zlatomir Fung, Olivia Wilkins-Becker, Anthony Coleman, Katherine Balch, and Roberto Poli, plus other recent wins.
The New York Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City, premiered a new commissioned piece by Andreia Pinto Correa ‘06 MM, ‘13 DMA: “Os pássaros da noite – The Birds of Night,” which explored the legacies and relationship of Robert and Clara Schumann.
Congratulations to Jazz Percussion faculty member Billy Hart, who will be honored this spring by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master, their highest honor in Jazz. On March 31, Hart and the other 2022 Jazz Masters will perform in a special concert in San Francisco that audiences will also be able to watch via livestream.
Violinist Jenny Ahn ‘11 MM has been appointed as a First Violin at the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Cellist Jonathan Swensen ‘22 AD is the recipient of a 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant, a $25,000 prize awarded to exceptional young musicians to further their careers – a distinction which has been enjoyed in previous years by other NEC alumni.
Two NEC alumni are among this year's recipients of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust grants for string players. Congratulations to violinist Geneva Lewis '20, '22 AD for winning a BBT Award, and NEC Prep alumnus, cellist Zlatomir Fung '16, for winning a BBT Fellowship!
Contemporary Improvisation student and guitarist Olivia Wilkins-Becker ‘22 was interviewed at Boston Hassle about FIND OUT, a new community concert series in Jamaica Plain: a project which previously won an Entrepreneurial Musicianship grant at NEC in fall 2021. Olivia says of the project: “FIND OUT is an attempt at rebuilding some of the artistic communities that were decimated by the pandemic…so music scenes can start sparking again.”
Jazz Piano, Composition, and Contemporary Improvisation faculty member Anthony Coleman ‘77 has released a new album, Arcades, in collaboration with percussionist Brian Chase. The album was reviewed at Boston’s The Arts Fuse.
Composer Katherine Balch ‘14 NEC/Tufts is a 2022 recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Music Awards, winning the Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award in Music. This award for composition came with a $10,000 prize.
At The Boston Musical Intelligencer, NEC Prep faculty member in Piano Roberto Poli ‘00 MM, ‘02 AD wrote a fascinating, in-depth review of recent concerts by NEC Piano students, which also traced 150 years of piano history at our institution.
NEC has recently shared other exciting wins for members of the NEC community. At the links, learn more about these highlights, including Vocal Pedagogy Director and Voice faculty member Dr. Ian Howell ‘16 DMA winning the 2022 Van Lawrence Fellowship for interdisciplinary work in Voice Science and Applied Voice, Composition faculty member Kati Agócs’ Juno Award nomination (which also featured Faculty Emeritus Frank Epstein ‘69 MM with the NEC Percussion Ensemble, and Violin faculty member Nicholas Kitchen ‘92 AD), and the signing of two recent NEC alumni to Opus 3 Artists.