Dear Mason Music Family,

You are invited to an alumni concert on August 27^th showcasing compositions of Juan Megna (DMA 2021) and his upcoming album, funded in part by Dr. Megna’s win of the 2023 Young Alumni Commissioning Award from Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Young Alumni Commissioning Project.

Join us for a spectacular opening of our 2023 Fall Concert season with a Grand Piano Celebration on Sunday, September 10 at 3 p.m. in Mason's Center for the Arts. This concert honors Mason's All-Steinway School. Exciting and dramatic solo piano, duo-piano, and collaborative piano masterworks will be performed by faculty and student artists. Mason's faculty piano ensemble (8 hands) will also be showcased! In addition, Prof. Jennifer Casey Cabot, soprano; Dr. Kathleen Mulcahy, clarinet; and Dr. Dennis Edelbrock, trumpet will be featured. 

Tickets are available August 1^st for our Dewberry School of Music Fall 2023 Concert Series featuring our incredibly talented music students in a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles. Please also purchase your tickets now for the College of Visual and Performing Arts signature event on Saturday, September 30, Arts by George! 

We are very pleased to welcome new adjunct faculty as highlighted in this newsletter. What a wonderful July this has been with our Mason music faculty in collaboration with the Mason Community Arts Academy (MCAA) in marvelous workshops, clinics, and symposiums on our Fairfax campus. 

On a personal note, I was honored to serve as a judge for the International Young Artist Piano Competition held in Washington DC in June. I also performed several lecture-recitals in the Baltic states in July for the College Music Society International Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania; Riga, Latvia; and Tallinn, Estonia.  My lecture recitals focused on the piano works of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (born 1935) and Lithuanian composer Fekliksas Bajoras (born 1934). What a thrill to perform this wonderfully inspiring music in these stunningly beautiful Baltic states!

"Love is the source of all arts. Art will exist for as long as there exists an ability to love." Arvo Pärt

With love and gratitude for the music,

Dr. Linda A. Monson, Director

Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

Join College of Visual and Performing Arts alumnus, Juan Megna (Doctor of Musical Arts, 2021), and the Juan Megna Group for a concert of his upcoming album “Mariwô Project”.

The album consists of five of Juan Megna’s original compositions, an arrangement of Moacir Santos’ “Coisa No2”, and an arrangement of Luis Perez’ “Si Estuvieras”. The music is mainly inspired by traditional melodies and rhythms coming from the Afro-Brazilian religion known as Candomblé, where different cultures from the African Diaspora are syncretized in their ceremonies. In addition, some Argentinian rhythms, such as milonga and chacareras are present in Juan Megna’s compositions and arrangements. Following the performance, Juan and the group will participate in a question-and-answer session with the audience.



This premiere event showcases Megna’s compositions and his upcoming album, funded in part by Megna’s win of the 2023 Young Alumni Commissioning Award from Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts Young Alumni Commissioning Project.

SAVE THE DATE: Grand Piano Celebration

Sunday, September 10 at 3:00 PM

George Mason University, Center for the Arts Concert Hall

Honoring Mason's All-Steinway School and the

Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

Photos by Sierra Guard/Creative Services/George Mason University

Featuring pianists: Dr. Linda Apple Monson, Dr. Anna Balakerskaia,

Dr. John Healey, and Dr. Eunae Ko Han; Dr. Dennis Edelbrock, trumpet;

Prof. Jennifer Casey Cabot, soprano; Dr. Kathleen Mulcahy, clarinet

and outstanding student artists.

Tickets for sale August 1: $20 Adults $15 Seniors, $5 Youth

Save the date for the annual ARTS by George! on Saturday, September 30, 2023! This annual benefit event supports student scholarships at George Mason University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, Mason Community Arts Academy, Green Machine Ensembles, and the Great Performances at Mason season at the Center for the Arts.

The evening begins by showcasing the remarkable talents of Mason arts students amid an array of spectacular food and beverages, and culminates with an exciting headliner performance of Renée Elise Goldsberry, best known for her Tony Award-winning portrayal of Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall.

Clarinetist Kristen Grattan Sheridan is co-teaching Class Woodwinds for the fall 2023 semester in the Dewberry School of Music. Prof. Sheridan earned her Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance at the University of Michigan as a scholarship student of Fred Ormand. She was a member of the Symphony Band under H. Robert Reynolds and was the winner of the University Concerto Competition. She earned her Master of Music in Clarinet Performance at the Manhattan School of Music in New York as a scholarship student of Ricardo Morales and is an alumna of the Sewanee and Aspen Summer Music Festivals. 

The University Libraries is pleased to announce that we have a new Music & Media Librarian, Cindy Badilla-Meléndez. Prof. Badilla-Meléndez joined us from the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library at the University of Saint Thomas, where she has been working as the Head of Music & Media Collections. She has served in a variety of library roles at Winona State University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of Minnesota, and the Library of Congress. She has also played as a cellist in a variety of settings, including the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and Juan Santamaria Orchestra, and taught as a Cello Professor for the Youth Symphony Program of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. She received her Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the Catholic University of America and her BM degree in Cello Performance from the University of Costa Rica.

Congratulations to Megan Slay on winning impressive prizes in international piano competitions this summer. Megan received the Silver Prize in the Glory International Piano Competition in July 2023. She also earned a Platinum Prize in the Franz Schubert International Music Competition for Piano for her performance of Schubert’s Sonata for Piano D. 845. In June 2023, she received an Honorable Mention prize in the Sixth International Online Piano Competition, along with prize winners from nine countries.  



A student of Dr. Linda Apple Monson, Megan Slay is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Mason. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Megan also earned the MM in Piano Performance at Mason. As a Mason graduate teaching assistant, Megan has taught classes in Keyboard Skills and Music Appreciation. 

Last week, 43 conductors and educators participated in the second annual Conducting Symposium. Building upon the success of Summer 2022, this year's collaboration between Mason Community Arts Academy and the Sid and Reva Dewberry Family School of Music featured both an Orchestral Track and a Wind Band Track. Under the expert direction of Dr. Soo Han, Professor Anthony Maiello, Dr. William L. Lake, Jr., and Dr. LaToya Webb, students gained experience on the podium and attended daily group classes in score study and technique.

Photos by Regina Schneider

MCAA partnered with Opera Lafayette to create an opera project at the Mason Strings Camp with Prof. June Huang, Director of Strings and Prof. Gerald Fowkes, cellist. Campers played music and created scenes from Mouret's Les Fetes de Thalie which will receive its modern premiere in Spring 2024.

Musicians and teachers from local school districts and as far away as Ireland have been on campus, attending Orff and Kodaly professional development courses. As those programs come to a close this week, faculty and students will honor Carol Erion, the late founder of the Orff course, at their final concert on Friday, July 28 at 1:00 pm in deLaski 3001. Kodaly participants will present their final sharing on Friday, July 28 at 3:00 pm in Music Theatre Building Room 2013. Photos by Regina Schneider

Dr. Linda Apple Monson performed music of Baltic composers in Tallinn, Estonia on July 10, 2023 as featured lecture-recitalist for the College Music Society International Conference. Dr. Monson's piano lecture-recital was entitled "Fighting, Searching, Finding: Arvo Pärt's Compositional Development." Additionally, Dr. Monson performed in a lecture-recital in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 3^rd entitled: "Cultural Folklore as Protest in Feliksas Bajora's composition Kodel."