Indiana University Jacobs School of Music – Tierney Sutton
Turning to another style of music, we find ourselves looking at a faculty member long considered one of the foremost jazz vocalists in the country.
With 8 Grammy nominations, her musical credits include headlining Carnegie Hall & the Hollywood Bowl, scoring Clint Eastwood’s film Sully, and performing alongside the likes of jazz’s greatest legends.
Indiana University has long been considered perhaps the midwest’s finest school for jazz performance, and the appointment of Sutton proves to be a major step forward in defining the standard of faculty excellence for a music school.
I imagine that young jazz vocalists looking to attend college for music will now look even more seriously at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music than ever before.
Juilliard School – Carol Rodland
Juilliard has long been considered one of the top 5 schools for viola performance, largely due to the presence of violist Heidi Castleman, widely regarded as one of the top viola teachers whose students have consistently placed into the top orchestras nationally and internationally.
The program became even stronger this year with the appointment of Carol Rodland, previously on the faculty of two other top strings schools, the Eastman School of Music as well as the New England Conservatory.
Carol herself is a disciple of Karen Tuttle, perhaps the most important viola professor of the 2nd half of the 20th century whose viola students are now among today’s most well-known pedagogues and performers.
Carol started her professional career as a teenager soloing with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Since then, she has become not only one of the foremost players of viola, but also a champion of contemporary classical music composition.
Northwestern University Bienen School of Music – Eugene Pokorny
Northwetern has hired Eugene Pokorny, an American tubist who has played with the brass section of the Chicago Symphony for nearly 30 years. His notable credits include playing in the soundtracks of the movies Jurassic Park, The Fugitive, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
One of the top tuba texts is the Tuba Source Book – Pokorny himself wrote a chapter in the book on orchestral auditioning.
Every year, Gene Pokorny hosts the Pokorny Brass Seminar in California’s the University of Redlands. Additionally, he is an experienced pedagogue.
It’s been an exciting year for Northwestern, who also hired Joachim Schamberger, a stage director whose performances have been staged in the United States, Israel, Germany, Italy, France, Czech Republic, and more.