Since its inception, Frost Music Live concert season has featured top-name guest artists and alumni performing with Frost School faculty artists and talented students. In order to maintain everyone’s safety during these challenging times, concerts are being live-streamed while performed safely on the school stages, or rebroadcast for a later date. Notable highlights include Frost Bands in the Age of Covid, an ambitious classical concert of music for winds; the Frost Superband a night of music for jazz big band featuring guest conductor Maria Schneider along with members of the Frost Concert Jazz Band and Frost Studio Jazz Band; the Frost Symphony Orchestra conducted by maestro Gerard Schwarz; Rock the Musical with the Frost Theatre Ensemble; and the MSJ Jazz Ensemble directed by three-time GRAMMY winner John Daversa. Strick safety protocols are being followed by faculty and students for all performances.
“We are very excited to present the line-up for our 4th Annual Frost Music Live Concert Series,” stated Dean Shelly Berg. “While this year has presented unique challenges, we have found ways to create opportunities to showcase the extraordinary talented members of our faculty in collaboration with our students in a variety of world-class performances. We are pleased that our students can continue to grow as artists, and to be able to keep our musical community together with the Frost Music Live virtual free concert series until we can present music live in-person again.”
The schedule through the end of November is as follows:
Sunday, October 18, 2020, 4:00p.m.
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
Frost Bands in the Age of COVID-19
Robert M. Carnochan, conductor
Steven Moore, conductor
Tina DiMeglio, graduate conductor
Jack J. Hontz, graduate conductor
Roy McLerran, graduate conductor
This ambitious concert of music for winds includes Richard Strauss’s Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare, Paul Wranitzky (F.J. Haydn) Partita in F Major, Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E-flat for Military Band, the Scherzo alla Marcia movement from Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 8 in D minor, and Paul Hindemith’s Konzertmusik für Blasorchester, op. 41.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA9UyO0ox_M
Monday, October 19, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
Frost Choral Studies—Choralcopia
Amanda Quist, Corin Overland, Kate Reid, Alan Johnson, Raina Murnak, directors
Scott AuCoin, Jamie Bunce, Victoria Nieto-Betancourt, Caroline Player, Liana Salinas, graduate student conductors
The Frost Choral Studies area will showcase vocal ensemble music from the Frost School of Music. Featuring Frost Bella Voce, Symphonic Choir, Frost Opera Theater, JV1, and Biscaydence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR5l66pmmrs
Tuesday, October 20, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Livestream
Frost Superband—Familiar Names, New Sounds
Steve Guerra Jr., conductor
Troy Roberts, saxophone
Maria Schneider, Guest Conductor
A night of music for jazz big band, featuring members of the Frost School’s acclaimed Frost Concert Jazz Band and Frost Studio Jazz Band. The band will perform newly released and/or never recorded music by Maria Schneider, Mary Lou Williams, Manny Albam and students in the band. Special thanks to Rob and Doug Duboff at Ejazzlines for making available historic musical arrangements that have never been recorded. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0UHyQsmNdU
Saturday, October 24, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Livestream
Darker America—Frost Symphony Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz, director
This concert begins with a tone poem by the dean of African American composers, William Grant Still (1895-1978). An extremely accomplished musician, Still played oboe in the pit orchestra for Sissle and Blake's very successful musical, Shuffle Along. In 1926, conductor Eugene Goossens premiered Darker America, which became Still’s first major success. Still wrote, “Darker America is representative of the American Negro, and suggests triumph over sorrow through fervent prayer.”
The W.A. Mozart's (1756-1791) Symphony No. 41, nicknamed the Jupiter Symphony, is the largest and most complex of his symphonies. It is the culmination of the great classical period symphony, paving the way for Beethoven's revolutionary works.
Frost student competition winners Kristin Baird, violin; Tadao Hermida, cello; and Pricila Navarro, piano perform Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) Triple Concerto in celebration of the composer's 250th birthday. This is the only Beethoven concerto for multiple instruments and one of seven works that he wrote that included the piano and an orchestra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FizqSD2vgNY
Sunday, October 25, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
Online Broadcast
Frost Sax Quartets
Dale Underwood, director
This concert will feature members from the Frost Saxophone Studio that range from Freshmen to Doctoral students. The program will include music for saxophone quartets from the 20th and 21st century and run the gamut from folksongs and vaudeville, to classical and modern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE_0JuZm-Ms&feature=youtu.be
Friday, October 30, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
Frost Chorale—The Promise of Living
Amanda Quist, director
The Frost Chorale celebrates the promise of living with choral music that shares our dreams for the future through song. Featuring works by Undine Smith Moore, the "Dean of Black Women Composers," as well as works by composers Ēriks Esenvalds, Eric Whitacre, Aaron Copland, and Bob Chilcott.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmBLHAgrmjo
Sunday, November 8, 2020, 8:00p.m.
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
Frost Music Theater Ensemble—Rock the Musical
Frank Ragsdale, director
The Frost Music Theater Ensemble explores the pop/rock genres used in so many musicals today from Motown to Hip Hop. Join us as we delve into the different eras and discover how the music emerged from the political and social climate of the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6NNu1fEcWg
Monday, November 9, 2020, 6:30 p.m.
Broadcast—Livestream
MSJ Small Jazz Ensemble Concert
John Daversa, director
Featuring student groups, Extensions directed by Kate Reid, Odd Times Ensemble directed by Errol Rackipov, and the Jazz Trumpet Ensemble directed by Michael Dudley and Michael Gutierrez
https://youtu.be/nDwqdv-1WVw
Tuesday, November 10, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
Online Broadcast—Livestream
Beethoven, Mozart, and Prokofiev—Frost Conductor's Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz and Scott Flavin, directors
Matthew Cooperman, Kyle Elgarten, Carlos Lopez, Camilo Tellez, graduate conducting majors
Witness the future of classical music with the next generation of conductors. The program consists of masterpieces of the orchestral literature. Enjoy one of Mozart’s last symphonies, Symphony No. 39; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, which marked Beethoven’s symphonic composing debut; Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, composed during the Napoleonic Wars and later became the unofficial anthem of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution; Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, which was written in connection to Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s play; and Prokofiev Symphony No. 1, which was the first neoclassical composition.
https://youtu.be/VMkWUDbpkWQ
Wednesday, November 11, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
Menotti ReMixed - A New Look at the Operas of Gian Carlo Menotti and Samuel Barber
Frost Opera Theater -- Alan Johnson and Jeffrey Buchman, directors
For Fall 2020, Frost opera students will delve deep into the works of Gian Carlo Menotti and Samuel Barber with self-directed videos they have created to their performances of excerpts from Menotti's Amelia at the Ball, The Medium, The Telephone, Maria Golovin, The Old Maid and the Thief, The Consul, The Saint of Bleecker Street, and Barber's Hand of Bridge, and Vanessa. The program will also feature two scenes by British composers Benjamin Britten (A Midsummer Night's Dream), and Jonathan Dove (Flight).
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POugCP_XOiQ)
Tuesday, November 17, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
Online Broadcast—Livestream
Frost XJB and Frost Septet
Chuck Bergeron, director
Enjoy a night of impressive jazz music and incredible energy. The concert will begin with a set performed by The Frost Septet, featuring a program of original music created by the students for this concert. The XJB then performs arrangements by their musical director, senior Kenton Luck. Selections will include Joe Henderson’s Jenrikisha and the Sammy Fain classic I’ll Be Seeing You.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCcdZA8Z-GU
Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Livestream
Frost Superband—The Big Three meet Studio Jazz Writing
Steve Guerra, Jr., director
The Frost Superband plays the music of Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeyer, and Jim McNeely, three former musical directors of the famed Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, as well as the premiere of compositions by members of the Frost Studio Jazz Writing Program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKTmrorVu7A
Thursday, November 19, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Livestream
Jazz Vocal Ensemble Concert
Kate Reid, director
The award-winning Frost Jazz Vocal ensembles present music from today’s leading jazz composers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJj9TjybFDQ
Friday, November 20, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Livestream
20th Century Masterpieces—Frost Symphony Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz, director
Explore the masterpieces that helped guide so many composers during the musically volatile 20th century. Listen to Alvin Singleton’s (b.1940) After Choice. He is one of our most distinguished composers who will be celebrating his 80th birthday in December.
Enjoy Claude Debussy's (1862-1918) Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, considered a turning point of music. Take delight in Aaron Copland’s (1900-1990) Appalachian Spring Suite, which won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Both pieces were created for dance. Vaslav Nijinsky choreographed Debussy’s piece; while Martha Graham, the most influential American modern dancer, choreographed Copland’s piece.
Finally, take delight in Paul Hindemith’s (1895-1963) Concert Music for Strings and Brass. The German American composer wrote this work for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930. He features the brass section of the orchestra, which created a thrilling tonal pallet that has made this work so special for years to come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-U8yZQwBHU
Saturday, November 21, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
American Modern Band—Video Countdown!
Raina Murnak & Stephen Rucker, directors
Enjoy an exciting evening with members of the Frost School of Music’s American Modern Band as they showcase their original music in a music video format. The group is composed of amazing young songwriters and artists who collaborate and step out of their genre comforts. All videos are student-directed, produced filmed and recorded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hb1j2BYuJk
Sunday, November 22, 2020, 4:00 p.m.
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
Frost Bands
Robert Carnochan, director
Join the Frost Wind Ensemble and Frost Symphonic Winds for an evening of colorful music that explores the rich and exotic timbres of wind band music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STae6A-fMJw
Monday, November 23, 2020, 7:30p.m.
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
American Music Ensemble—The Journey to the Music
Daniel Strange, director
The Frost School of Music’s American Music Ensemble (known around campus as “AME”) brings you on their musical journey through their fall semester in this Rocumentary-inspired presentation. Director Daniel Strange and his 11 Frost student members take you through the creative, rehearsal, recording and performance process all while navigating their daily campus life as well as overcoming the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented for young musicians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyjC8qPnUvM
Friday, November 27, 2020, 8:00 p.m.- https://youtu.be/LdHzWdwdiMM
Friday, December 18, 2020, 8:00 p.m.- https://youtu.be/a9UB2joNd7s
Online Broadcast—Pre-Recorded
Frost Superband—Annual Holiday Concert
A night of Holiday music for jazz big band, featuring members of the Frost School’s acclaimed Frost Concert Jazz Band and Frost Studio Jazz Band.
