Success Stories

MSM alumna Melissa Westgate (MM ’98) is the Principal Cello in the Tony Award-winning production of Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway. Her previous Broadway credits include Mrs. Doubtfire, New York New York, Pal Joey, and How to Dance in Ohio.

She joined the Greenwich Symphony in 2019 and was previously the Principal Cellist of the Ridgefield Symphony and Assistant Principal of the Springfield Symphony (MA). Melissa has been a member of the New Haven Symphony and Radio City Christmas Spectacular Orchestra, as well as the Principal Cellist of the Radio City Music Hall Spring Spectacular.

Another MSM alumna, Alexa Smith (MM ’10), is a producer on Hell’s Kitchen through her work on the production at The Public Theater

Learn more about Melissa Westgate here.
Learn more about Hell’s Kitchen here.

Violinist Robert Zubrycki (MM ’86) is the concertmaster for  Once Upon a Mattress which opened on Aug 12, 2024.

Robert Zubrycki is also the concertmaster of the New York City Chamber Orchestra, a member of the Stamford Symphony Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Concertmaster of Orchestra Moderne NYC, and principal violin and frequent soloist with the Amici New York Orchestra.

A veteran of dozens of Broadway shows, Bob performs in the orchestra of Carousel, and formerly in She Loves Me and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. He can be heard on the recent cast recordings of She Loves Me, An American in Paris, and Paint Your Wagon (violin and mandolin). He has won an Emmy Award for his musical contribution to the documentary The Curse of the Bambino.

He is currently the director for Concerts Around the Corner and the Cultural Arts Coalition in Brewster, NY.

In October, Jim Griffith (BM ’85) will assume the role of Executive Director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico. He is stepping down from his position as CEO and founder of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in Fort Myers, Florida that he founded in 1997 and grew into a multi-million dollar non-profit organization.

An accomplished violist, Jim continued to perform in Florida orchestras in addition to his work as an arts administrator.

Read more about Jim and his new position here.

MSM classical violin alumnus Alexander “Sasha” Velinzon (’93), longtime member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has been promoted to First Associate Concertmaster as well as Concertmaster of the Boston Pops. Velinzon joined the Symphony in 2000 as a section violinist, first promoted to assistant concertmaster in 2005 and then to associate concertmaster in 2015.

From St. Petersburg, Russia, Velinzon made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and made his New York soloist debut with the Jupiter Symphony playing Paganini’s Concerto No. 1. Velinzon’s other solo engagements in the United States have included appearances with the Seattle Symphony, Absolute Ensemble, and Rondo Chamber Orchestra.

To read more about Sasha and his promotion, click here.

The first exhibit with compositions by MSM alumnus Niles Luther as the composer in residence at The Brooklyn Museum is on display at the museum through August 4th. In the photo above, the cellist (on left) poses with MSM President James Gandre earlier this month.

For the exhibition called Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (feat. Takashi Murakami), Luther wrote compositions that respond to three prints by Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige:  Chiyogaike Pond, Meguro; Kinryuzan Temple, Asakusa; and New Year’s Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Oji. The recordings feature an ensemble of musicians on the violin, viola, koto, shakuhachi, and traditional Japanese percussion, with Luther on the cello.

To hear the compositions, download the free Bloomberg Connects app and navigate to the Brooklyn Museum’s digital guide. Or enjoy the music while viewing the prints in person at the Museum.

More information here.

Dr. James Kim (DMA 2023) who studied at MSM with Philippe Muller, was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Cello, tenure-track, at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. His appointment will begin in fall 2024.

“James Kim brings an exceptionally high levels of artistry and teaching to the Hugh Hodgson School of Music faculty, and we look forward to welcoming him to the Hodgson school and UGA,” said Hugh Hodgson School of Music Director Pete Jutras in a statement. “We are excited to see the impact he will have on our students and programs.”

Kim holds an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he served as Studio Teaching Assistant to Joel Krosnick, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Manhattan School of Music, where he was a Teaching Fellow.

“I am proud to join the incredible faculty of Hugh Hodgson School of Music and the vibrant campus of University of Georgia,” said Kim. “It is my honor to be part of a community that not only achieves excellence but also participates in society within and beyond its state borders. I look forward to guiding students toward their goals and sharing the lessons I’ve learned in the process.”

Learn more here.

Rob Moose (BM ’04) studied violin at MSM with Sylvia Rosenberg and is a Grammy Award-winning arranger and string player based in New York and Los Angeles. He’s written and recorded charts for over 400 albums, including work by Bon Iver, Paul Simon, Taylor Swift, and John Legend. He was an orchestrator on the hit song Flowers by Miley Cyrus.

As an orchestrator, Rob Moose has been repeatedly featured on the Declassified Series at the Kennedy Center alongside artists such as Regina Spektor, Emily King, and Ben Folds.

Says Rob about the profile: “This is the most in depth conversation I’ve ever gotten to have about my career, and I’m really honored to be presented on a site I read every day.”

Read the Pitchfork article here.

Learn more about Rob Moose here.

On January 12, a world premiere will take place with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by MSM Trustee Leonard Slatkin: MSM alumnus Kelly Hall-Tompkins (MM ’95, HonDMA ’16) performs solo violin in the world-premiere of the violin concerto Body in Motion by Jeff Beal, written specifically for Kelly, with whom he collaborated on the composition.

The European premiere with Leonard Slatkin conducting the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria will take place on April 5, 2024.

Watch video preview here.
Purchase tickets here.

Cellist Niles Luther (BM ’20) has been hired as Composer-in-Residence at Brooklyn Museum. For the next year, he will be partnering with the Museum’s art division to produce ‘Art Music’ inspired by pieces in the museum’s collection. This is a new position at the museum and is supported by a fellowship Niles received from the Ford Foundation.

Learn more about Niles Luther here.

MSM alumni and students were prominently featured in the annual concert of Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall on October 20, representing five of the 18 core players, three of whom were principal artists in the performance.

The performers featured are: Thierry de Lucas (BM ’25), second violin;  Maithéna Girault (BM ’20, MM ’22, PPD ’24), second violin; Celia Hatton (MM ’13, PS ’14), principal viola; Christopher Johnson (MM ’08), principal double bass; Tommy Mesa (DMA ’23), principal cello.

Additionally, on the program was a work by MSM alumnus Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (BM ’53, MM ’54). Maithéna Girault introduced the Perkinson work, making mention of the fact that she and Perkinson were both double alumni of MSM.

The Sphinx Virtuosi is an exemplary chamber orchestra and the “flagship performing entity” of the Sphinx Organization.

Learn more about the concert here.

MSM alumnus Jinwoo Lee (AD ’09, DMA ’16) is the newly appointed 2023-2024 concertmaster and lead violinist at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He was most recently the first concertmaster of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen in Germany. He was a violin faculty at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf from 2018 until 2022.

Jinwoo Lee grew up in South Korea, the United States, and Germany and began playing violin at the age of four. He told CBS Sunday Morning in Milwaukee that being a concertmaster is a great responsibility. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra hasn’t had a new concertmaster for more than a quarter century.

“This is not a completely new job for me but it’s a different orchestra, different colleagues, different conductor and of course, it’s a different country, so there are some cultural and traditional differences,” Lee explained.

Watch the CBS Sunday Morning report  here.

Alumnus Caleb van der Swaagh (PS ’13, PS ’14) recently joined the critically acclaimed Aizuri Quartet which is about to launch its 12th season. Caleb studied at MSM with David Geber and is currently a professor of cello at SUNY Purchase. A champion of new music, he is a member of counter)induction and Ensemble Échappé.

Read more here.
Learn more about Caleb here.

Jinwoo Lee (AD ’09, DMA ’16), who studied at MSM with Robert Mann, has been appointed concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony. He was a violin faculty member at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf from 2018 until 2022.

Learn more about Jinwoo Lee here.

Venezuelan violist and MSM alumnus Ramón Carrero-Martinez (BM ’19, MM ’21) has been selected as a 2023-2025 fellow for Ensemble Connect. While at MSM, Ramón studied with Daniel Avshalomov.

Ensemble Connect is a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. This two-year fellowship program prepares extraordinary young professional classical musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Learn more about Ramón here.
Learn more about Ensemble Connect here.

On March 1, cellist and MSM alumnus Tommy Mesa (in photo on right) (DMA ’17) was honored along with soprano Aundi Marie Moore and composer Joel Thompson by the Sphinx Organization for their accomplishments which distinguish them from their peers in the field.

The Sphinx Medal of Excellence is the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization, the social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts, and comes with a $50,000 career grant. The medal recognizes extraordinary Black and Latinx classical musicians. Recipients are artists who, early in their career demonstrate artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a spirit of determination, and an ongoing commitment to leadership and their communities.

More about the Sphinx Organization here.

MSM alumna Lumeng Yang (BM ’20, MM ’22) recently won a violin position with the National Center Orchestra of the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing.

The NCPA is an arts centre known colloquially as “The Giant Egg,” which contains three performance spaces for opera, theatre, and music.

NCPA website here.

Violinist and MSM alumnus I-Jung Huang (PS ’20), who studied at MSM with Lucie Robert, was recently appointed to the New York Philharmonic. Prior to joining the Phil, I-Jung had been a member of the first violin section of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since 2020.

Originally from Taiwan, Huang received First Prize at the 2017 Ima Hogg Concerto Competition and the 2016 Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, and was a laureate of the 2015 Michael Hill International Violin Competition.

Learn more about the New York Philharmonic appointment here.

The GRAMMY Awards take place on Sunday, April 1, with more than 30 MSM alumni and faculty members nominated, including MSM trustees Terence Blanchard (HonDMA ’19) and Anthony Roth Costanzo (MM ’08), as well as J’nai Bridges (BM ’09), and faculty member, Miguel Zenón.

Read the full list of MSM community nominees here.

Violinist Giovanni Andrea Zanon led the Italian national anthem alongside Italian pop singer Malika Ayane at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Their performance accompanied the raising of the Italian flag as a symbolic handing over of hosting duties to Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Giovanni received his Master’s degree at MSM at age 16 where he studied with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec in the Pinchas Zukerman performance program.

Learn more about Giovanni here.

Musical America, the nation’s oldest publication of classical music news and features, has named violist Jesús Rodolfo (PS ’15) as New Artist of the Month for November 2021. About his new album Remembering Russia, Thomas May of Musical America writes:

“His accounts of Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky offer fresh perspectives on well-known pieces. It’s not just a matter of a different sonic lens… but, even more, the sense of urgent confession Rodolfo distills through his passionate, emotionally invested musicianship.”

Read the Musical America feature here.

Learn more about Remembering Russia here.

The fellowship, founded in 2017, is designed to encourage greater diversity in the orchestral field by supporting the career development of outstanding young musicians of African American, Latin American, and Native American descent as they embark on professional orchestral careers.

Esther has performed all over the United States and in Mexico as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician performing at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Riverwalk Center as a fellow with the National Repertory Orchestra, the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts with the Kansas City Symphony, and the Teatro de la Reforma in Matamoros, Mexico. Esther is also a founding member of The Bowery Trio based in New York City.

Read more about Esther here.

The first concert by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra of their Summermusik 2021 festival featured a cello solo by MSM alumnus Sujari Britt (BM ’18).

In a review of the outdoor concert held August 6, the Cincinnati Business Courier describes her as an emerging cellist destined for an important career:

“Sujari Britt, 20, made an impressive debut in Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme” for cello and orchestra. A native of New York, she began cello at age 4, appearing on the radio show “From the Top” at age 10, ” writes critic Janelle Gelfand.

“With mentors such as Marion Feldman at the Manhattan School of Music, the cellist Alisa Weilerstein, with whom she played at the White House in 2009, and her current teacher, Martti Rousi at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, she seems destined for an important musical career,” Janelle concludes.

Read the full review here.

Violinist Yuan Tin (MM ’16) received his second master’s degree from MSM studying with Lucie Robert. He will be one of 300 faculty members at The China Conservatory of Music, a prominent Chinese music conservatory that’s regarded as one of the leading institutions for the study of traditional Chinese music and musical instruments.

Yuan Tian was the First Prize winner of the 2001 China National Young Artist Competition, recipient of the Special Prize in the 2010 Cuellar-Nathan Chamber Music Competition, winner of the 2014 Fuchs Chamber Music Competition, and Second Prize winner in the 2015 Eisenberg-Fried String Concerto Competition.

The award, which is presented every other year, includes a $20,000 prize and two years of NFMC booking engagements with affiliate organizations. It’s open to instrumentalists between the ages of 18 and 30, and vocalists between the ages of 25 and 37.

“I feel extremely grateful and honored to receive this award from such a long-standing and esteemed organization as the National Federation of Music Clubs,” Crawford said. “It will be revitalizing to bring music to concert halls throughout the country after a year as trying as this past one.”

Crawford plays a 200-year-old European cello — that his grandfather smuggled out of Austria — and on the Tourte “L’Ainé” bow from 1790. His extramusical hobbies include reading about astrophysics, running, performing magic tricks, and photography.

His most recent album, Dialogo was released on June 4.

Watch a video of John-Henry Crawford performing here.

Produced over an 18-month period, the EP is the first time the double bassist has added her voice to a recording, reciting poetry over a jazz-fusion score. Some verses she wrote herself, another is written by the 12th-century Persian poet Rumi, and others are written with a Trinidadian poet, Patricia Lashley-Charles. An Israeli jazz vocalist, Gani Tamir, sings on some of the choruses.

Daphna Sadeh-Neu studied double bass at Manhattan School of Music with renowned classical bassist Homer Mensch, whose many students included MSM alumnus and faculty member, Ron Carter. She toured widely with the Israel-based East West Ensemble absorbing Arabic and Middle Eastern music. She also co-led the all-female Eve’s Women playing jazz, klezmer and rock.

“My background is so mixed,” explains Sadeh-Neu,”Arabic music, Jewish music, contemporary music… I studied classical. It’s fusion music. I’m a fusion person.”

Read more and watch a video from the album here.

As Director of Music of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Enrique Márquez will lead music programming, pedagogy, and curricula at Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen Arts Camp, Interlochen Online, and Interlochen College of Creative Arts. Márquez begins his new role June 1.

“I am eager to create impactful pathways and experiences for Interlochen students that will help them become our next generation of creative change makers,” says Enrique, a seasoned violist.

Márquez joins Interlochen from the Harvard Department of Music, where he oversaw Music Department concerts and events and served as the administrator of the Fromm Music Foundation. Márquez has collaborated actively with music institutions including Tanglewood, the American Composers Orchestra, the American Academy in Rome, and Sony Classical.

Learn more about the appointment here.

Bronx Arts Ensemble announced the appointment of MSM alumna Judith Insell (BM ’92, MM ’93, Classical Viola) to Executive Director today in a press release.

Judith has previously served as BAE’s Artistic Director and Director of Curriculum and Artist Development.

“It is my honor to assume the leadership of an organization that was founded nearly 50 years ago through the grit and passion that William “Bill” Scribner had for supporting the arts and culture of the Bronx through music performances and arts education. As a musician born and raised in the Bronx, I am thrilled to be leading BAE’s charge into the future, further lifting up performing arts and arts education in the communities of the Bronx, greater New York City, and worldwide,” says Insell.

Alumnus Jared Bernstein (BM ’78, Classical Double Bass) is a special guest on this week’s episode of The New York Times’s podcast, “The Argument”.

As a member of Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisors, Bernstein talks about the economy and his ideas. Around the 46 minute mark, he mentions his time at Manhattan School of Music and recommends one of his favorite Bach concertos.

You can listen to the full episode here.

AP reports that President-Elect Joe Biden has tapped Manhattan School of Music alumnus Jared Bernstein, who studied double bass at MSM and earned his Bachelor of Music from the School in 1978, for a role on his Council of Economic Advisors (CEA). Learn more about Bernstein’s appointment here.

To read an exclusive MSM Q&A with Mr. Bernstein from May 2018, please visit this Alumni Spotlight page.

Judith Insell (BM ’92, MM ’93, classical viola) previously served as Bronx Art Ensemble (BAE)’s Director of Curriculum and Artist Development. In the role of Artistic Director, Judith will oversee BAE’s artistic programs in Bronx public schools and onstage.

“I am thrilled to be amplifying my level of service to the borough where I was born and raised; the borough that first exposed me to the arts in an educational setting. I look forward to continuing my support of the communities of the Bronx by spearheading the artistic vision of BAE’s Arts Education Programs & Concerts,” said Insell.

Visit the Bronx Arts Ensemble’s website to learn more.