Month: November 2021

Curtis Alumni and Faculty Among 2022 Grammy Nominees

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The nominees for the 2022 GRAMMY Awards were announced on November 23. Among those honored are several celebrated faculty and alumni of Curtis who are in the front rank of musicians worldwide.

Jennifer Koh (Violin ’02) is nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her album Alone Together, based on her online performance series of the same name created in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Faculty wind quintet Imani Winds is nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for the album Bruits, part of the group’s ongoing quest to bring diverse viewpoints to the classical music world.

Alumna J’Nai Bridges (Opera ’12) is among those nominated for Best Opera Recording for Philip Glass’s Akhnaten with the Metropolitan Opera.

Alumnus Johnathan McCullough (Voice ’14, Opera ’17) is nominated for Best Opera Recording for his work on David T. Little’s Soldier Songs with Opera Philadelphia.

Mentor conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin received nominations for Best Orchestral Performance (for Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra), Best Opera Recording (for Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites with the Metropolitan Opera), and Best Classical Solo Vocal Album (for Schubert: Winterreise with Joyce DiDonato).

A number of Curtis alumni are also members of the ensembles nominated across many categories.

Congratulations to all of the nominees!

VIEW ALL NOMINEES

Yefim Bronfman to Hold the Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies

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The Curtis Institute of Music is pleased to announce that famed pianist and current faculty member Yefim Bronfman (Piano ’78) now holds the Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies.

A much-revered soloist, Yefim “Fima” Bronfman joined the Curtis faculty in fall 2020 and was a student at the school in the late 1970s.

“We are thrilled to celebrate the incredible work of Fima Bronfman in this way,” said Curtis president and CEO Roberto Díaz. “We are so lucky to have an artist like Fima to work with our students. Not only will he be a consistent, long-term mentor to our students, but his career stands as a great example to which they can aspire.”

Internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman is an artist regularly sought by the world’s leading orchestras, recital series, and festivals. His performances are consistently lauded by the press and audiences alike. Fima will appear with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra this April in Verizon Hall as the soloist in Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto, under the baton of Robert Spano (Conducting ’85). This concert is one component of Curtis’s celebration of the school’s keyboard programs in the spring 2022 semester.

Born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union, Fima immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, where he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States, he studied at the Juilliard School, Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, under Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, he received the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University in 2010 and an honorary doctorate in 2015 from the Manhattan School of Music.

Curtis is extremely grateful to Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer and Joe Neubauer for their generous support of this named chair. The prestigious endowed chairs at Curtis—such as the Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies—honor the school’s enduring legacy, and ensure the consistency and excellence of the faculty and studio for generations to come.

Robert Kahn and WHYY Go Behind the Scenes of MERCY

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A profile of Robert Kahn from WHYY’s On Stage at Curtis explores his preparations as the conductor of MERCY, an opera/film from the Curtis Opera Theatre. With behind-the-scenes photos and footage, the new episode follows Robert’s journey through rehearsals and filming. On Stage at Curtis airs in Philadelphia on WHYY-TV at 7:30 p.m. and episodes are available to watch on demand.

Robert Kahn: The Art of Conducting

MERCY screens at the Philadelphia Film Center on Saturday, November 6 and streams online beginning Sunday, November 7. The opera/film, based on Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, draws on a reorchestrated score and striking cinematography to reimagine an operatic experience. The convergence of two realities—a black and white cinematic mindscape and a real-world recording studio—revolves around Tito: both emperor of Rome and opera singer, he struggles to navigate happiness amid pressures of his authority. Revel in the vocal artistry of our performers, as they transport viewers to the silent film era. Powerful imagery accompanies powerful music in this emotionally interactive experience, filmed by the award-winning Neighborhood Film Company at Rittenhouse Filmworks and Rittenhouse Soundworks.