Manhattan School of Music
Encyclopedia
The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...

 of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The school offers degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...

s on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 performance and composition. With a faculty of 275 and over 800 students from 40 countries, the school also has a pre-college division which trains 500 students per academic year. Manhattan School of Music is considered one of the most prestigious conservatories of the study of music in the world.

Founded in 1917, the school is located on Claremont Avenue
Claremont Avenue
Claremont Avenue is a relatively short street in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. It begins at 116th Street and runs north for a length of eleven blocks until Tiemann Place . The eastern side of Claremont Avenue features the heavily fortified backside of the Barnard College campus...

 in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, adjacent to Broadway and W. 122nd Street. The MSM campus was originally the home to The Juilliard School, until Juilliard migrated to the Lincoln Center area of Midtown Manhattan. The campus of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 resides close by, where it has been since 1895. Many of the students live in the school's residence hall, Andersen Hall. At the present time, 75 percent of the students come from outside New York State and 31 percent from outside the United States.

Admission to MSM is based primarily on a live audition. In 2005, MSM received 863 total applications, and admitted 287, for an overall acceptance rate of 33%.

History

The School was founded in 1917–1918 by Janet D. Schenck, pianist and philanthropist, as the Neighborhood Music School. It was located in a brownstone building on New York City's Upper East Side. Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...

 and Harold Bauer
Harold Bauer
Harold Bauer was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.Harold Bauer was born in London; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in...

 were among the first of many distinguished artists who offered guidance to the School. Eventually, its reputation for excellence extended throughout the greater metropolitan area, and its name was changed to Manhattan School of Music.

In 1943, the artistic and academic growth of the School resulted in a charter amendment to grant the bachelor of music degree. Two subsequent amendments authorized the offering in 1947 of the master of music degree and, in 1974, the degree of doctor of musical arts. In 1956, Dr. Schenck retired and John Brownlee, noted Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 baritone, was appointed director, a title later revised to president. President Brownlee initiated the idea of relocating the School to the Morningside Heights neighborhood; his death occurred only months before his efforts were realized. In 1969, George Schick, Metropolitan Opera conductor, accompanist, and distinguished opera coach, succeeded Brownlee as president and led the School's move to its present location. He created a wonderful opera program, while all other major school functions are managed by Senior Director Stanley Bednar.

John O. Crosby, founder and general director of the Santa Fe Opera, was appointed president in 1976. He was followed by Gideon W. Waldrop, who was appointed in 1986, and Peter C. Simon in 1989. On July 1, 1992, Marta Casals Istomin
Marta Casals Istomin
Marta Casals Istomin , is the former president of Manhattan School of Music.- Early years :She was born Marta Montañez Martínez on November 2, 1936 in Humacao, Puerto Rico to a family of amateur musicians. As a child she was influenced by surroundings which were instrumental in the development of...

 was named President, a position which she held until October 2005 when she retired.

As of October 2005, Dr. Robert Sirota, former director of the Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...

 of the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, took over the presidency of the Manhattan School.

Instrumental Performing Ensembles at MSM

Manhattan School of Music offers a wide variety of live audience performance experiences for its students. There are three major orchestras: The MSM Symphony, the Philharmonia, and the Chamber Sinfonia. In addition, many smaller ensembles are assembled for orchestral chamber music. The MSM Wind Ensemble also performs throughout the year. The Jazz Arts Program also contains various ensembles, such as the Jazz Philharmonic (full jazz big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

 with full orchestra), the Jazz Orchestra, Concert Jazz Band, Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and Chamber Jazz Ensemble. Tactus, the ensemble for contemporary chamber music, is made up of graduate students in the school's Contemporary Performance Program (CPP). The school also holds an annual concerto competition with which the winner is offered the opportunity to perform with the Symphony Orchestra.

Performance Venues

The Manhattan School contains multiple performance spaces, each dedicated to separate ensemble requirements. The largest is the John C. Borden Auditorium, where all orchestral and large jazz ensemble concerts are held. The smaller Greenfield Recital Hall and Miller Recital Hall are used for solo and small ensemble recitals, especially for graduation-required recitals. The Ades Performance Space is the newest of MSM's venues, and is dedicated more toward small jazz ensemble performances and contemporary music. Additionally, the Mitzi Newhouse Pavilion (the school's cafeteria) is the chosen performance venue for the school's jazz combos.

Prominent faculty

Current and former prominent faculty include:

  • Rose Bampton
    Rose Bampton
    Rose Bampton was a celebrated American opera singer who had an active international career during the 1930s and 1940s. She began her professional career performing mostly minor roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire in 1929 but later switched to singing primarily leading soprano roles in 1937...

  • Paul Cohen
    Paul Cohen
    Paul Cohen is the name of:*Paul Cohen , Australian industrial designer*Paul Cohen , renowned historian of China*Paul Cohen , Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender...

  • Theo Bleckmann
    Theo Bleckmann
    Theo Bleckmann is a vocalist and composer.-Biography:Theo Bleckmann is a jazz singer and new music composer, he was GRAMMY NOMINATED and received the ECHO award in 2010...

  • Cecil Bridgewater
    Cecil Bridgewater
    -Biography:Bridgewater was born in Urbana, Illinois and studied at the University of Illinois. He and brother Ron formed the Bridgewater Brothers Band in 1969, and in the 1970s he was married to Dee Dee Bridgewater. In 1970 he played with Horace Silver, and following this with Thad Jones and Mel...

  • Luis Bonilla
    Luis Bonilla
    Luis Bonilla is an American Afro-Cuban jazz and Latin jazz trombonist born in Los Angeles, California of Costa Rican descent. He is a Grammy Award- winning performer, composer, and Music Professor, about whom the New York Times has described as the artist who "explodes the usual musical structures...

  • Gabor Carelli
    Gabor Carelli
    Gabor Carelli was a Hungarian classical tenor who had an important career in operas and concerts in North America during the mid 20th century. He was notably committed to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1951 to 1974 where he gave a total of 1,079 performances...

  • Tim Cobb
    Tim Cobb
    Timothy Cobb is the current principal double bassist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. He previously taught at the Peabody Institute of Music, and joined the Manhattan School of Music faculty in 1992...

  • Jeffrey Cohen
  • Paul Cohen
    Paul Cohen
    Paul Cohen is the name of:*Paul Cohen , Australian industrial designer*Paul Cohen , renowned historian of China*Paul Cohen , Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender...

  • Richard Danielpour
    Richard Danielpour
    Richard Danielpour is an American composer.-Biography:Danielpour is born of Persian/Jewish descent. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986...

  • Glenn Dicterow
    Glenn Dicterow
    Glenn Dicterow , is an American violinist and is currently concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.Mr. Dicterow's musical gifts became apparent when, at age 11, he made his solo debut with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra...

  • Mark Delpriora
    Mark Delpriora
    Mark Delpriora is an American classical guitarist and composer.Delpriora is Co-Chair of the Guitar Department at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has been on the faculty since 1989. Beginning in 2007, Mark will also be on the faculty of The Juilliard School, where he will teach guitar...

  • Karen Dreyfus
    Karen Dreyfus
    Karen Dreyfus is world-renowned violist who currently teaches at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Dreyfus has distinguished herself as a recipient of many prizes, including the Naumburg Viola Competition , the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition , the Washington International...

  • David Dubal
    David Dubal
    David Dubal is an American pianist, teacher, author, broadcaster and painter.Dubal has taught at the Juilliard School in New York since 1983 and the Manhattan School of Music since 1994. Mr. Dubal is the host of "The Piano Matters" a program of comparative piano performances that can be heard on ...

  • Roy Eaton
  • Daniel Epstein
    Daniel Epstein
    Daniel Epstein is an American pianist.-Life:A graduate of the Juilliard School, Epstein was launched into international renown when the conductor, Eugene Ormandy,invited him to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973...

  • George Garzone
    George Garzone
    George Garzone is a saxophonist and jazz educator residing in New York city.Saxophonist George Garzone is a member of The Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Bob Gullotti, that performs regularly in the Boston area and has toured world wide. The...

  • David Gilbert
    David Gilbert
    David Gilbert is an American radical leftist organizer and activist who is currently imprisoned at Auburn Correctional Facility. Gilbert was a founding member of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weather Underground Organization...

  • Midori Goto
    Midori Goto
    is a Japanese American violinist. She made her debut at the age of 11 in a last-minute change of programming during a concert highlighting young performers by the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. When she was 21, she formed the philanthropic group Midori and Friends to help bring music to...

  • Horacio Gutierrez
    Horacio Gutiérrez
    Horacio Gutiérrez is a Cuban-American virtuoso classical pianist.-Early life and education:Gutiérrez was born in Havana, Cuba, the eldest of four children, to Tomás V. Gutiérrez and Josefina Fernandez Gutiérrez. His mother was his first piano teacher, and was herself, an accomplished pianist. His...

  • Stefon Harris
    Stefon Harris
    Stefon Harris is an American jazz vibraphonist. In 1999, the Los Angeles Times called him "one of the most important young artists in jazz" who is "at the forefront of new New York music" and "much in demand as a star sideman"...

  • Dick Katz
    Dick Katz
    Dick Katz was an American jazz pianist and arranger. He freelanced throughout much of his career, and worked in a number of ensembles. He co-founded Milestone Records in 1966 with Orrin Keepnews....

  • Constance Keene
    Constance Keene
    Constance Keene was an American pianist, who attracted great praise for her 1964 recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Preludes, and also won critical acclaim for her recordings of the works of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn.She was raised in Brooklyn, New York...

  • David Krakauer
    David Krakauer
    David Krakauer is an American clarinetist. He is a graduate of the High School of Music & Art, class of 1974. He is mostly known for his klezmer compositions. He became involved with klezmer music in the late 1980s while working as a classical musician, joining The Klezmatics...

  • Ruth Laredo
    Ruth Laredo
    Ruth Laredo was an American classical pianist.She became known in the 1970s in particular for her premiere recordings of the 10 sonatas of Scriabin and the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff, for her Ravel recordings and in the last 16½ years before her death for her series in the...

  • Joe Locke
    Joe Locke
    Joseph Paul Locke is a US American jazz vibraphonist, composer, recording artist and educator.-Biography:Locke was born in Palo Alto, California, but raised in Rochester, New York...


  • Rhoda Levine
    Rhoda Levine
    Rhoda Levine is an opera-director, choreographer and a faculty-member at several schools of music.Levine was born in New York, NY. She wrote the libretto for Opus Zoo by Luciano Berio and has also written children's books. She is the artistic director of Play It By Ear, an improvisational opera...

  • Dave Liebman
    Dave Liebman
    Dave Liebman is an American saxophonist and flautist. In June 2010, he received a NEA Jazz Masters lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.-Biography:...

  • Catherine Malfitano
    Catherine Malfitano
    Catherine Malfitano is an American operatic soprano. She is generally considered to be one of America's leading operatic sopranos...

  • Ursula Mamlok
    Ursula Mamlok
    Ursula Mamlok is a German-born, American composer and teacher.-Education and influences:Mamlok was born as Ursula Meyer in Berlin, Germany and studied piano and composition with Professor Gustav Ernest and Emily Weissgerber until her family fled Nazi Germany following the nationwide pogrom in 1938...

  • Phil Markowitz
    Phil Markowitz
    Phil Markowitz is a jazz pianist and educator.He graduated from the Eastman School of Music and in 1979 had his "first big break" working with Chet Baker's band. He is most known as a sideman. He made a 1980 recording entitled Sno' Peas with Eddie Gomez and Al Foster. He recorded two live duo...

  • Marya Martin
    Marya Martin
    Marya Martin is an American flautist with an active career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Born in New Zealand, Martin studied at the University of Auckland, where she had lessons with Richard Giese, then principal flute in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. After graduating in...

  • Jim McNeely
    Jim McNeely
    Jim McNeely is a Grammy award winning jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.Jim was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois, and moved to New York City in 1975. In 1978 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band...

  • Jeffrey Milarsky
    Jeffrey Milarsky
    Jeffrey Milarsky is one of the leading conductors of contemporary music in New York City.In the United States and abroad, he has premiered and recorded works of many contemporary composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Lasse Thoresen, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe,...

  • Bob Mintzer
    Bob Mintzer
    Bob Mintzer is a jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader based in Los Angeles, California. Mintzer is a member of the jazz rock band the Yellowjackets.-With The Yellowjackets:*Greenhouse, 1991;*Live Wires, 1992;...

  • Jason Moran
    Jason Moran (musician)
    Jason Moran is a jazz pianist and composer who debuted as a band leader with the 1999 album Soundtrack to Human Motion. Since then, he has garnered much critical acclaim and won a number of awards for his playing and compositional skills, which combine elements of stride piano, avant-garde jazz,...

  • David Noon
    David Noon
    David Noon is a contemporary classical composer and educator. He has written over 200 works from opera to chamber music. Noon's composition teachers have included Karl Kohn, Darius Milhaud, Charles Jones, Yehudi Wyner, Mario Davidovsky, and Wlodzimierz Kotonski...

  • Orin O'Brien
    Orin O'Brien
    Orin O'Brien is an American double bassist. She has been a member of the New York Philharmonic since joining in 1966 under the direction of Leonard Bernstein and was the first woman to join the orchestra in its history...

  • John B. Riley
    John B. Riley
    John Bernard Riley is an American jazz drummer, a music educator – at the collegiate and conservatory levels – and a music clinician...

  • Nathaniel Rosen
    Nathaniel Rosen
    Nathaniel "Nick" Rosen is an American cellist, former gold prize winner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and former faculty member at the USC Thornton School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music....

  • Ted Rosenthal
    Ted Rosenthal
    Ted Rosenthal is an American jazz pianist. He has worked with jazz legends such as Gerry Mulligan and was featured on David Sanborn's series Night Music, in addition to releasing several critically acclaimed CDs of his own...

  • Bobby Sanabria
  • Steven Schick
    Steven Schick
    Steven Schick is a percussionist from the USA, specializing in contemporary music. He teaches at UCSD and at the Manhattan School of Music. He is currently the Music Director and Conductor of the La Jolla Symphony Orchestra....

  • Andre-Michel Schub
    Andre-Michel Schub
    -Biography:Schub came to New York City with his family, when he was eight months old. He began his piano studies with his mother when he was four, and later continued his work with Jascha Zayde. He attended Princeton University, and then transferred to the Curtis Institute of Music, where he...

  • Steve Slagle
    Steve Slagle
    Steve Slagle is an American jazz saxophonist.Slagle was born in Los Angeles and grew up in suburban Philadelphia. he received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. He came to New York in 1976, playing with Machito and his Afro-Cuban orchestra, and played successively with Ray Barretto,...

  • Frederick Swann
    Frederick Swann
    Frederick L. Swann is a prominent American church and concert organist, recording artist, choral conductor, and former president of the American Guild of Organists . During his career spanning more than a half-century, he has performed on most of the well-known pipe organs in the world and made...

  • James Tocco
    James Tocco
    James Tocco is an American concert pianist. He is the youngest of thirteen children born to Vincenzo and Rose Tocco, both Sicilian immigrants.-Early life:...

  • Steve Turre
    Steve Turre
    Steve Turre is a trombonist, recording artist, arranger, and educator. In 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006 he won the Down Beat Reader's Poll for best trombonist....

  • John Walker
    John Walker (organist)
    John C. Walker , more familiarly known as John Walker, is an American concert organist, choirmaster, and CD recording artist. Walker has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe...

  • Julia Wolfe
    Julia Wolfe
    Julia Wolfe is an American composer. She was born in Philadelphia, holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Princeton and Yale, and currently works in New York. Wolfe's music is rhythmically vigorous and often clangorously dissonant...

  • Pinchas Zukerman
    Pinchas Zukerman
    Pinchas Zukerman is a world-renowned violinist, violist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his ongoing 45-year career has seen him perform with the world's best-known orchestras and record over 100 works...

  • Trish McCaffrey


Prominent alumni

  • Isabelle et Florence Lafitte
  • Stefano Algieri
  • Lila Ammons
    Lila Ammons
    Lila Ammons is a blues and jazz vocalist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Ammons is the granddaughter of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons and the niece of tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons....

  • Angelo Badalamenti
    Angelo Badalamenti
    Angelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive...

  • Judith Bettina
    Judith Bettina
    Judith Bettina is an American soprano particularly noted for her performances of contemporary classical music. Bettina was born in Manhattan to a violinist mother, Lilo Kantorowicz Glick. and a violist father, Jacob Glick, who was noted for his championship of new music...

  • Judith Blazer
  • Angela Bofill
    Angela Bofill
    Angela Bofill is an American R&B vocalist and songwriter.Bofill was born to a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother; one of the first Latina singers to find success in the R&B market.She performed with Ricardo Marrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus prior to her 1978 debut album,...

  • Sara Davis Buechner
    Sara Davis Buechner
    Sara Davis Buechner is an American concert pianist and educator. She has been an assistant professor of piano at the University of British Columbia since 2003, and was formerly a member of the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and New York University.Buechner received her bachelor's and...

  • Donald Byrd
    Donald Byrd
    Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...

  • Ron Carter
    Ron Carter
    Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

  • Paul Cohen
    Paul Cohen
    Paul Cohen is the name of:*Paul Cohen , Australian industrial designer*Paul Cohen , renowned historian of China*Paul Cohen , Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender...

  • Harry Connick, Jr.
    Harry Connick, Jr.
    Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with...

  • Anton Coppola
    Anton Coppola
    Maestro Anton Coppola is an American opera conductor and composer. He is the uncle of film director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, as well as the great-uncle of Nicolas Cage, Sofia Coppola, Gian-Carlo Coppola , Jason Schwartzman and Robert Schwartzman.-Life:Coppola started his...

  • John Corigliano
    John Corigliano
    John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...

  • Joshua Coyne
    Joshua Coyne
    - Personal Biography :Joshua was born in Kansas City, MO. He was adopted at age two and moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Coyne family was involved in the local arts community, participating in community theater and the Cedar Rapids Symphony. Joshua quickly expressed interest and aptitude in music...

  • Kim Crosby
    Kim Crosby (singer)
    Kim Crosby is an American singer and actress, primarily on the stage and in concerts. She was the original Cinderella in the Sondheim-Lapine musical Into the Woods, where she met her now-husband Robert Westenberg. The couple married on June 19, 1991. She currently lives in Springfield, Missouri...

  • Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz
    Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz
    Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz is a classical pianist from the Philippines. He has won several international piano competitions during his competing career and he is in the forefront in a revival of classical music interest in the country.-Biography:...

  • Sebastian Currier
    Sebastian Currier
    Sebastian Currier is an American composer of music for chamber groups and orchestras. He was also a professor of music at Columbia University from 1999 to 2007.-Life:...

  • Mark Delpriora
    Mark Delpriora
    Mark Delpriora is an American classical guitarist and composer.Delpriora is Co-Chair of the Guitar Department at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has been on the faculty since 1989. Beginning in 2007, Mark will also be on the faculty of The Juilliard School, where he will teach guitar...

  • Alondra de la Parra
    Alondra de la Parra
    Alondra de la Parra is a Mexican American conductor. She is also the founder and artistic director of the New York-based Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, an orchestra that promotes young soloists and composers from the Americas....

  • Josu De Solaun Soto
    Josu De Solaun Soto
    Josu De Solaun is a Spanish classical music pianist and winner of both the First Prize at the I European Union Piano Competition held in Prague, and the First Grand Prize at the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition. He is the first pianist from Spain to have ever been awarded the coveted...

  • Clem De Rosa
  • Lukasz Gottwald
  • Ezio Flagello
    Ezio Flagello
    Ezio Flagello was an Italian-American bass, particularly associated with the Italian repertory. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1957 to 1984.- Career :...

  • Nicolas Flagello
    Nicolas Flagello
    Nicolas Flagello , was an American composer of classical music.Flagello was born in New York City, into a very musical family. His brother Ezio Flagello was a bass who sang at the Metropolitan Opera. One of his first music teachers was the composer Vittorio Giannini, and he then studied at the...

  • Kirill Gerstein
    Kirill Gerstein
    Kirill Gerstein , is an American and Russian pianist. He was the First Prize winner at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. He was chosen to receive a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and was selected as Carnegie Hall's "Rising Star" for the 2005–2006 season...

  • Elliot Goldenthal
    Elliot Goldenthal
    Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways...

  • Susan Graham
    Susan Graham
    Susan Graham is an American mezzo-soprano.Raised in Midland, Texas, she is a graduate of Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music. She studied the piano for 13 years...

  • Dave Grusin
    Dave Grusin
    David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...

  • Herbie Hancock
    Herbie Hancock
    Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

  • Shuler Hensley
    Shuler Hensley
    -Early life:Hensley was born in Atlanta, Georgia. The youngest of three children, Hensley grew up in Marietta, Georgia. His father, Sam P. Hensley, Jr., is a former Georgia Tech football star, retired civil engineer and former state senator. His mother, Iris Antley Hensley, was a ballerina and the...

  • Stefon Harris
    Stefon Harris
    Stefon Harris is an American jazz vibraphonist. In 1999, the Los Angeles Times called him "one of the most important young artists in jazz" who is "at the forefront of new New York music" and "much in demand as a star sideman"...

  • Margaret Hillis
    Margaret Hillis
    Margaret Hillis was an American conductor. She was the founder and first director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.-Life:...

  • Rupert Holmes
    Rupert Holmes
    Rupert Holmes is an American-British composer, singer-songwriter, musician and author of plays, novels and stories. He is best known for his number one pop hit "Escape " and the song "Him", which reached the number 6 position on the Hot 100 U.S. pop chart in 1980...

  • Lisa Hopkins
    Lisa Hopkins
    Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller , usually credited as Lisa Hopkins, is an American classical singer and actress from Simi Valley, California. She holds a B.A. in Theater Studies and Acting from Yale University and a M.M...

  • Paul Horn
  • Helen Huang
    Helen Huang
    Helen Huang, born October 1982 is a classical pianist and former musical prodigy. She began studying piano in 1987, performing and touring with major symphony orchestras while still a child.-Musical career:...

  • Richard Hyung-ki Joo
    Richard Hyung-ki Joo
    British-Korean pianist, composer, and creator and star of “Igudesman & Joo: A Little Nightmare Music”. Billy Joel chose Joo to arrange and record his classical piano pieces for the album Fantasies & Delusions. It was recorded at the Mozart-Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, and reached the No...

  • Margaret Juntwait
    Margaret Juntwait
    Margaret Juntwait is an American radio broadcaster who is the voice of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. She debuted in this position on December 11, 2004, replacing Peter Allen upon his retirement after twenty-nine years.-Life and career:...


  • Aaron Jay Kernis
    Aaron Jay Kernis
    Aaron Jay Kernis is an American composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.-Biography:Aaron Jay Kernis is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University .,Notable works include the...

  • Dawn Kotoski
    Dawn Kotoski
    Dawn Kotoski is an American operatic soprano who has a substantial international opera career. She began her career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City during the late 1980s singing lighter lyric soprano and soubrette roles. She joined the Vienna State Opera for the 1993–1994 season...

  • Yusef Lateef
    Yusef Lateef
    Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...

  • John Lewis
    John Lewis (pianist)
    John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.- Early life:...

  • Catherine Malfitano
    Catherine Malfitano
    Catherine Malfitano is an American operatic soprano. She is generally considered to be one of America's leading operatic sopranos...

  • Ursula Mamlok
    Ursula Mamlok
    Ursula Mamlok is a German-born, American composer and teacher.-Education and influences:Mamlok was born as Ursula Meyer in Berlin, Germany and studied piano and composition with Professor Gustav Ernest and Emily Weissgerber until her family fled Nazi Germany following the nationwide pogrom in 1938...

  • George Manahan
  • Herbie Mann
    Herbie Mann
    Herbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...

  • Kit McClure
    Kit McClure
    Kit McClure is a jazz musician and bandleader of the big band Kit McClure Band and founder of the Women in Jazz Project. In 2004, she started a project to revive interest in the all-female big band, International Sweethearts of Rhythm...

  • Bob McGrath
    Bob McGrath
    Robert Emmet "Bob" McGrath is an American singer and actor best known for playing the human character Bob on Sesame Street. He was born in Ottawa, Illinois. McGrath was named for Irish patriot Robert Emmet....

  • Johanna Meier
    Johanna Meier
    Johanna Meier is an American operatic soprano, known as "one of the foremost Wagnerian sopranos of her era". She had an international career, including fourteen years at the Metropolitan Opera and three summers singing the role of Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde for the Bayreuth...

  • Boris Mitchell
  • Jane Monheit
    Jane Monheit
    Jane Monheit is a jazz and adult contemporary vocalist for Concord Records. She has collaborated with artists such as Michael Bublé, Ivan Lins, Terence Blanchard and Tom Harrell, and has received Grammy nominations for two of her recordings.-Early life:Jane Monheit was raised in Oakdale, New York...

  • Jason Moran
    Jason Moran (musician)
    Jason Moran is a jazz pianist and composer who debuted as a band leader with the 1999 album Soundtrack to Human Motion. Since then, he has garnered much critical acclaim and won a number of awards for his playing and compositional skills, which combine elements of stride piano, avant-garde jazz,...

  • Carmen Moral
    Carmen Moral
    Carmen Moral is an orchestra conductor and also teaches conducting at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.She holds master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University and a master's degree and a DEA in Musicology from the Sorbonne...

  • Walter Murphy
    Walter Murphy
    Walter Anthony Murphy, Jr. is an American instrumentalist, songwriter, and arranger. He rose to fame with the hit instrumental "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of passages from the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, in 1976, when disco was at the height of its...

  • Elmar Oliveira
    Elmar Oliveira
    Elmar Oliveira is a contemporary American violinist.The son of Portuguese immigrants, Elmar Oliveira was born on June 28, 1950, in Naugatuck, Connecticut. Mr. Oliveira was nine when he began studying the violin with his brother John. He later continued his studies with Ariana Bronne and Raphael...

  • Simon O'Neill
    Simon O'Neill
    Simon O'Neill is a New Zealand-born operatic tenor.-Biography:O'Neill was born in Ashburton, New Zealand and received his musical training at the University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with an honours degree in music, before receiving scholarships to the Manhattan...

  • William Pell
    William Pell
    William Pell was an American opera singer who had a major international career during the 1980s and 1990s. He began his career as a baritone in the early 1970s before transitioning into the dramatic tenor repertoire in 1975...

  • Tobias Picker
    Tobias Picker
    Tobias Picker is an American composer. Picker began composing at the age of eight and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and Princeton University, where his principal teachers were Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt...

  • Chris Potter
    Chris Potter (jazz saxophonist)
    Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...

  • John B. Riley
    John B. Riley
    John Bernard Riley is an American jazz drummer, a music educator – at the collegiate and conservatory levels – and a music clinician...

  • Max Roach
    Max Roach
    Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...

  • Larry Rosen
    Larry Rosen
    Larry Rosen may refer to:*Lawrence Rosen, lawyer, specialized in technology-related intellectual property issues*Larry Rosen , musician and record producer*Larry Rosen , CEO of Harry Rosen Inc....

  • Don Sebesky
    Don Sebesky
    Don Sebesky is an American jazz trombonist and arranger.-Biography:Sebesky trained in trombone at the Manhattan School of Music; in his early career, he played with Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, Tommy Dorsey, Warren Covington, Maynard Ferguson and Stan Kenton...

  • Evan Tate
  • Natalie Toro
    Natalie Toro
    Natalie Toro is an American singer and stage, television, and film actor.Natalie debuted at the Apollo Theater at age 5. She studied piano and voice at the Manhattan School of Music and the High School of Music and Art until the age of 18...

  • Gordon Turk
    Gordon Turk
    Gordon Turk is a prominent American concert organist. He has played throughout the United States, made two concert tours in Japan, and performed frequently in Europe, including the Ukraine and Russia, both as solo organist and with orchestra....

  • Marilyn Tyler
    Marilyn Tyler
    Marilyn Tyler is an American operatic soprano, former director of Opera Studies and Emeritus Faculty Member at the University of New Mexico. As a soloist, she worked with many notable conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Bernard Haitink, Jean Fournet, Charles Groves, Brian...

  • Dawn Upshaw
    Dawn Upshaw
    Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...

  • Dirk Weiler
    Dirk Weiler
    Dirk Weiler is a German singer, actor and musical theatre actor.- Biography :Dirk Weiler was born in Neunkirchen , Germany. He showed an interest in the performing arts from a very early age on. He participated in school and community theatre productions...

  • Joe Wilder
    Joe Wilder
    Joe Wilder is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He best known for his beautiful tone and lyrical style.Wilder was awarded the Temple University Jazz Master's Hall of Fame Award in 2006...

  • Richard Williams
    Richard Williams
    Richard Williams is a Canadian animator. He is best known for serving as animation director on Disney/Amblin's Who Framed Roger Rabbit and for his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler...

  • Phil Woods
    Phil Woods
    Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...

  • Yung Wook Yoo
    Yung Wook Yoo
    Yung Wook Yoo , is a South Korean pianist, winner of the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition.- Biography :Born in Seoul on December 27, 1977, Yoo started studying piano in South Korea and then moved to the United States to study at Juilliard Pre-College and then at the college section...

  • Dolora Zajick
    Dolora Zajick
    Dolora Zajick is an American mezzo-soprano who specializes in the Verdian repertoire. Zajick is arguably the leading exponent in the dramatic Verdian mezzo-soprano repertoire....

  • Miguel Zenón
    Miguel Zenon
    Miguel Zenón is an alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader.-Biography:Miguel Zenón was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While studying at the Escuela Libre de Musica in San Juan, he won a scholarship to the “Berklee in Puerto Rico” program of the Berklee College of Music and a scholarship to...

  • Ambrose Akinmusire
    Ambrose Akinmusire
    Ambrose Akinmusire is a jazz trumpeter.In 2007 Akinmusire was the winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world.-Biography:By the time the lone standard...



Summer programs

June 2009 was the inaugural summer of the Manhattan School of Music Summer Voice Institute. The program is a total of 4 weeks long. Students from around the world are given the opportunity to work with MSM faculty. The program includes classes in acting, movement and English diction among others. Singers are granted two hours with a voice teacher and two hours with a voice coach each week. The program also includes a daily master class.

Board of trustees

The school's president is Robert Sirota and the Board of Trustees is chaired by Peter Robbins
Peter Robbins
Peter Robbins may refer to:* Peter Robbins , author of Filthy Rich and Stolen Fruit* Peter Robbins , voice of Charlie Brown* Peter M. Robbins, industrialist and builder of the submarine Alicia...

. Other members of the Board of Trustees include such notable persons as:
  • Glenn Dicterow
    Glenn Dicterow
    Glenn Dicterow , is an American violinist and is currently concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.Mr. Dicterow's musical gifts became apparent when, at age 11, he made his solo debut with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra...

  • Thomas Hampson
  • Marta Casals Istomin
    Marta Casals Istomin
    Marta Casals Istomin , is the former president of Manhattan School of Music.- Early years :She was born Marta Montañez Martínez on November 2, 1936 in Humacao, Puerto Rico to a family of amateur musicians. As a child she was influenced by surroundings which were instrumental in the development of...

  • William Miller
    William R. Miller (businessman)
    William Robert Miller CBE , sometimes known as Bill Miller, is a British-born businessman who was Vice-Chairman of Bristol-Myers Squibb until 1990. Subsequently, he has become a philanthropist and supporter of scientific, artistic, educational and ecclesiastical causes.William Robert Miller was...

  • David A. Rahm (Chairman Emeritus)
  • Alan Ades

External links

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