November 2025

This semester is ending with a fantastic series of musical events. There are two new additions this semester: the Emory University Chamber Orchestra (EUCO) will be making its debut, which you can read more about below, and there will be a collaborative concert, Electric Currents, with the Emory Wind Ensemble and the Emory Sound Collective. There will also be a chamber ensembles concert, performances by collaborative pianists, an exciting program by the EUSO, and a chance to hear works by our student composers. The long-standing services of Lessons and Carols will welcome back Eric Nelson after a year’s absence, and the performance by the Gamelan Ensemble will be one of the very few opportunities to hear gamelan in the metro area. 

With best wishes,

Gray Crouse

A note about the event entries below. You can click on most of the headings of the events and be taken directly to the Music Calendar listing for that event for additional details. At the time of publication, the programs for many of these events are not yet available but will typically be added to the Calendar entry close to the performance date. You can also click on most of the names of the groups and performers and will be taken to more information about them. There is not enough room in the newsletter to include their bios, but it is well worth reading about them.

This recital has been cancelled and rescheduled for February 27, 2026.

This is the debut performance of the Emory University Chamber Orchestra (EUCO). EUCO fills an important musical and pedagogical role in orchestral studies at Emory. There is a large volume of great music in the orchestral repertoire, particularly from the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, which requires considerably smaller forces than a typical symphony orchestra. EUCO provides for its members a rich encounter with repertoire they are unlikely to perform in their other ensembles, from Bach to Barber and Bartok. EUCO also provides opportunities to develop the stylistic and ensemble skills unique to this repertoire.

Charles Daniel Baldwin (pictured above) serves as artist affiliate conductor of EUCO, as well as artistic director and Symphony Orchestra conductor of the Carolina Youth Symphony (Greenville, SC) and assistant conductor of the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra (Decatur, GA). He holds a bachelor of music (piano performance) degree from Furman University (Greenville, SC) and master of music and doctor of musical arts (orchestral conducting) degrees from the University of North Texas (Denton).  Baldwin has considerable experience conducting opera and musical theater and maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor.

This performance will feature the overture to La clemenza di Tito by Mozart, The Hebrides by Felix Mendelssohn, the Petite Symphonie by Charles Gounod, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 1. The program for this concert can be seen by clicking here.

Emory Artist Affiliate coaches Sarah Dietrich, Michael Moore, and the Vega Quartet—Joseph Skerik, Emily Daggett Smith, Guang Wang, and Jessica Shuang Wu—mentor Emory student musicians for chamber performances, including string quartets, a percussion ensemble, cello ensemble, brass ensemble, and a piano quintet.

If listening to one pianist perform is good, is listening to two at one time twice as good? You can judge for yourself at this program given by some of our amazing piano students who perform some of the best-known pieces in four-hand and two-hand piano repertoire. Certainly the opportunity to hear this literature live is much rarer than for the single repertoire.

Here is the program you will hear:

Nutcracker Suite for Two Pianos Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Danse des Mirlitons

Valse des Fleurs

Elaine See Toh and Sammy Mendez 

~~~

 Rite of Spring Igor Stravisnky (1882–1971)

Part I: Adoration of the Earth

“Introduction”

“Augurs of Spring (Dances of the Young Girls)”

“Ritual of Abduction”

“Spring Rounds”

“The Procession of the Sage” 

“The Dance of the Earth”

Lawrence Wen and Matthew Chung 

~~~

 La Valse Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)

Lumina Lu and Taye Ziv

~~~

 Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 656. Franz Liszt (1811–1886)

Eric Zhang and Emily Chea

The EUSO concert that features the winner of the previous year’s Concerto and Aria Competition is always a delight, as it showcases the talent of an amazing music student. This year is certainly no exception as it features Kimiko Darcy, who won the competition as a second-year student and will perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto 
No. 1. Here is part of her bio:

Kimiko Darcy is pursuing a double major in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and Music at Emory University. She studies under Dr. Elena Cholakova. Kimiko’s awards include: First Place, 2023-2024 MTNA National Competition; First Place, 2023-2024 MTNA Southern Division Competition, Senior Division; First Place, 2023-2024 MTNA Georgia State Competition, Senior Division; First Place, 2022 Illinois State Music Teachers Association Piano Competition, North, Senior Division; First Place, 2021 MTNA Illinois State Competition, Senior Division; in 2021, and First Place, Piano D, United States International Music Competition, among many more. Kimiko is a 2022 scholarship recipient of the Crain-Maling Foundation Chicago Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and of the Chopin Foundation of the United States Scholarship Program for Young Pianists in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. In 2021, Kimiko and her sister, Eriko, produced and performed “Play for Justice!”, a YouTube livestream concert, to raise funds for social justice causes. Kimiko's non-profit fund-raising efforts include recitals in: Japan; Lesa, Italy; Chicago; and Huletts Landing, New York. The proceeds of her charitable performances support the victims of domestic violence and Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. She is an intern in Dr. Hackney’s Neurokinesiology Lab, and as an Executive Board member of the Caring Chords club at Emory, she volunteers as a piano performer at assisted living facilities throughout Atlanta.

The rest of the EUSO program will be equally compelling, as the orchestra will play Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel with dramatic narration by Arís Theatre’s Rob Shaw-Smith.

The Emory Javanese Gamelan Ensemble aims to disseminate the beauty and knowledge of karawitan, the art of playing the gamelan in an artistic space. The members represent a varied cross-section of Emory students, faculty, and community members. Today’s music is played on Paksi Kencana (Sacred Eagle), the set of Javanese instruments housed at Emory since 1997.

The Fall Composition Showcase will feature new works by student composers as well as performances by students in MUS 235 Improvisation Laboratory and MUS 384 Live Electronics.

Heralding the beginning of the Christmas season, and based on the traditional service at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, England, this candlelit choral concert program was drawn from sources ancient and modern by E. W. Benson, Bishop of Truro in 1880, and has been observed at Emory University since 1935.

Join us as the tradition continues under the direction of Dr. Eric Nelson, with choral music from the Emory Concert Choir and University Chorus, and scripture readings by special guests from the Emory community.

Tickets are required and are available ONLINE, in person, or by calling 404.727.5050 during Box Office Hours.

The Emory Wind Ensemble and Emory Sound Collective join forces for Electric Currents, an evening exploring the vibrant energy of rhythm, color, and connection in music. The program features works by Valerie Coleman, Guillaume Connesson, Marc Mellits, Marshall Gilkes, Julius Eastman, Andy Akiho and more — composers who fuse global influences and rhythmic intensity into exhilarating sound worlds.

Under the direction of Lina Andonovska and Colm O’Hara, this collaborative concert showcases both large and intimate ensemble combinations, celebrating the creativity and versatility of Emory’s musicians.

This is part of the ECMSA Masterclass Series, giving the public an opportunity to observe master musicians working with some of Emory’s finest undergraduate talents.

Edward Arron is co-artistic director of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In 2016, Mr. Arron joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst, after having served on the faculty of New York University from 2009 to 2016.

On Sunday, November 9, he will be playing in an ECMSA concert with the Vega Quartet in the Schwartz Center at 4pm. The program for this concert can be seen by clicking here.

EUSO has a fine online collection of some of their recent performances. Most of their recordings are available on the Media page of their website. EUSO also has a YouTube page, and that includes a few selections not available on their Media page, including the Richard Strauss Four Last Songs from their March 6, 2025 concert. There is hope that it will be possible to expand the student video performances available, but it is a large amount of work to make and edit the videos and there are also complications in navigating various copyright issues. Thanks to Paul Bhasin for the great videos that are posted!

There are two relatively recent EUSO videos that are only available on the Schwartz Center Virtual Stage. On January 26, 2024, the Canadian Brass gave a great sold-out concert. For two of their pieces, they invited Emory student musicians to play with them. The video of the Gabrieli Jubilate Deo is on the virtual stage. The second is the EUSO World Premiere of Marejada de los Muertos by Johanny Navarro, performed on the April 26 and 27 2024 concerts.

A big Thank You to those who have contributed during this year, and especially to those of you who have contributed in the past few months and have even increased your level of support or are new or returning supporters! There is no way to thank you enough. It was the strong level of giving last year that enabled us to substantially increase our grants to music students and faculty for this year.

Much of our support for students and faculty is through grants to provide scholarships for students to help pay for required music fees, to help fund undergraduate research projects, and to provide enhancements for classes. You can see the grants for the 2025-2026 year by clicking here.

A special thanks to those of you who are sustaining members, either through payroll deduction, or a continuing contribution on your credit card. On the donations page you can choose to give a one-time gift or a monthly gift. You can click here to donate or visit our FOM page for other ways to give.

The list of members can be seen by clicking here.

Please Note: It is surprisingly difficult to generate a list of members who are current in their giving. Please let us know if you are missing from the list or your donations have not been properly credited. We measure our giving year from the start of our annual campaign, which is usually in July of each year. Some members give through payroll deduction or give more than one gift per year (thank you to both!) and we want to make sure we correctly acknowledge the level of giving. We don't have a set format for how names are listed and depend on member's preference. Sometimes we make mistakes. Please let us know if you find any errors in the list of members above. You can just reply to this newsletter and we will be glad to correct any mistakes. The date that the list was updated is given at the bottom. Among other problems, we are finding that it can take several weeks for us to get news of gifts.

This newsletter focuses on Emory music students and faculty. There is clearly much additional music being performed in Atlanta, including many performances at Emory. There is no space in this newsletter to give specific information about those many performances, and most of them are separately well advertised. All music performances on the Emory campus are listed in the Music At Emory Calendar. Below is information about the separate music organizations with strong Emory ties.

The Schwartz Center is the hub of music at Emory, with the Performing Arts Studio being a major secondary location for many recitals and concerts. In addition to the Box Office that sells tickets for all ticketed events, the Schwartz Center hosts two major concert series, the Candler Concerts and the Schwartz Artists in Residence.

I assume that all of our readers are familiar with ECMSA, whose Artistic Director is Professor William Ransom. All of their concerts are free, which is certainly remarkable given the extremely high quality of their performances with professional musicians. ECMSA has a variety of music series, most of which are at the Schwartz Center. The full array of their concerts can be seen on the ECMSA website.

Of particular note is the Masterclass Series which is an incredible gift for our students. These masterclasses feature outstanding musicians who will teach Emory students in these classes. Moreover, our members are invited to attend these masterclasses. There are ten masterclasses planned for this year, with an impressive array of artists involved.

The Artistic Director of the Atlanta Master Chorale is Professor of Music Eric Nelson, and the chorale is one of the finest in the country. All of their local performances are in the Schwartz Center, and tickets for concerts are available through the Schwartz Center Box Office or online. Last year AMC celebrated its 40th Anniversary Concert Season. This year AMC celebrates the return of Eric Nelson who was out last year on medical leave. The Chorale has an extensive YouTube site with over 250 videos with almost 4,000,000 views!

Not only is the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra a great orchestra, but our students benefit greatly from the ASO, as many of the Music Department Artist Affiliates are ASO musicians. The entire ASO concert series is detailed on the ASO website.

The ASO responded to the pandemic in a very creative way, beginning a series of "Behind the Curtain" performances featuring musicians playing without an audience. The "Behind the Curtain" series has continued, with a very modest yearly charge, featuring a selection of recorded performances from previous weeks.  Even if you can attend the live ASO performances, viewing the Behind the Curtain programs gives an entirely different perspective than you can get from the audience. Unless you are a player, it is rare to get close enough to a player to see the strings vibrate!