Success Stories

The release of the debut solo album of Brazilian guitarist Gabriele Leite (MM ‘22) in Brazil in late 2023 has been followed by a series of high-profile accomplishments in 2024 and now into 2025. Previously, in 2021, she was the first classical guitarist named in the Forbes magazine annual “Under 30” listing of notable talents.

Gabriele Leite’s album Territórios on the Rocinante label in Brazil, features works by Assad, Krieger, Villa-Lobos, and Walton, and has received high-profile reviews, including from one of Brazil’s leading newspapers, Folha de São Paulo. A tour of Brazil followed the release, and in May 2024 she was selected as the Brazilian artist for the ClassicalNEXT 2024 in Berlin, Germany’s largest contemporary classical music festival, held in May 2024.

In June 2024, Gabriele was named a Young Upcoming Artist at the Brazilian Music Awards, and in August, she joined the Pinuts Music Agency in Europe. In summer 2025, she will have her first European tour;  in November 2025, she will play the Villa-Lobos Concerto with the Porto Alegre Philharmonic Orchestra, and she will also play in the Salvador Bahia Jazz Festival.

Learn more about Gabriele Leite here.
Discover her debut album Territórios here.

Guitarist Steve Cowen (in photo on right) is following up his second prize win as co-member of the CC Duo at the 2023 Guitar Foundation of American Ensemble Competition—the most prestigious guitar competition in the world—with his guitar partner Adam Cicchillitti (on left) with a new album release on the Analekta label. The duo’s album will feature arrangements of piano miniatures by Grieg, Ravel, Mompou, Tailleferre, Satie, and others.

The CC Duo also commissioned six new works for guitar duo and string orchestra by Steve Goss, Harry Stafylakis, Bekah Simms, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Amy Brandon, and Patrick Roux.  These works were recently recorded with the renowned Montreal ensemble collectif9, and will be released on the Leaf Music label in early 2025.

Steve Cowan is also the newest member of the well-established Canadian Guitar Quartet.  They performed at the 2024 Guitar Foundation of American Convention this summer and are about to release a new album on the Atma Musique label next spring, featuring works by current and former members of the group, as well as arrangements of Bach and Mozart.

Finally, Steve and composer Jason Noble will release One Foot in the Past (Centrediscs, 2025), a 65-minute album weaving together Newfoundland speech and traditional folk music with contemporary techniques of speech-based, timbre-based, and textural composition.

Congratulations to classical guitarist and MSM alumnus Rupert Boyd (MM ’06) who is featured as the April 2022 Artist of the Month in the prestigious magazine Musical America.

Later this month, the Australian-born, 40-year-old guitarist is relaunching his respected concert series GatherNYC which will run from April 24 to June 26 at Manhattan’s Museum of Arts and Design, featuring artists such as ETHEL, South Korean guitarist Jiji, and musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Read the Musical America article here.
Learn more about Rupert Boyd here.
Find out about GatherNYC here.

Kirill Gerstein, along with fellow pianist Garrick Ohlsson, will play two-piano show pieces by Ravel, Rachmaninoff, and Thomas Adès on Friday, February 25th at 7:30 pm. 

Pablo Sainz-Villegas will perform “The Soul of the Spanish Guitar” a recital that will feature works by Albéniz, Granados, Rodrigo and others on Saturday, April 2nd at 8 pm.

Along with the Brentano String Quartet, Dawn Upshaw will present An exploration of the mythological Dido –  music by Purcell, Dowland and others; NY premiere of Melinda Wagner’s Dido Reimagined on Sunday, April 3rd at 3 pm.

Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (PC ’98) and guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas (PD ’04, PS ’06, AD ’07) were featured on PBS’s Great Performances at the Met on October 8 in an encore broadcast of “Three Divas in Concert” along with sopranos Nadine Sierra and Ailyn Pérez. The concert was filmed this past May at the Royal Opera of Versailles.

The trio of singers performed a program of classic arias and popular Spanish songs, accompanied by pianist Vlad Iftinca and Pablo Sáinz Villegas who was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award by MSM in 2015.

Learn more here.

MSM alumnus Pablo Sáinz Villegas appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic in the orchestra’s Digital Concert Hall in late December 2020.

The video of him performing Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo, under the baton of the Berlin Philharmonic conductor Kirill Petrenko, can be seen here.

Visit this page to learn more about Pablo.

The newest project from critically-acclaimed guitarist Jake Hertzog, is a unique fusion of the classical and the jazz world.

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