Dear Mason Music Family,

Happy New Year! We are pleased to announce our Spring 2024 Dewberry Faculty Artist Series (free Sunday concerts in Harris Theater) and Spring 2024 Dewberry School of Music Concert Series featuring our outstanding student ensembles.  

We hope to see you this weekend at a wonderful Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra Concert "Carnival Celebration" this Saturday night at 8 pm at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. Purchase your tickets now!

We are excited to begin our Dewberry Faculty Artist Series this Sunday at 7 pm in Harris Theater (free admission) with a marvelous concert performed by Prof. Julianna Nickel, flute, and guest harpist, Melissa Dvorak in a beautiful program of music by female composers.  

We invite you to join us for Clarinet Day this Sunday afternoon on our Fairfax campus. How pleased we were to host our Double Reed Day last weekend with our wonderful oboe and bassoon faculty!  

Mark your calendars now for the opening of our Spring 2024 Concert Series on Wednesday, February 21 featuring our Mason Symphony Orchestra with a special tribute to Prof. Anthony Maiello. We hope our Mason Music alumni will be able to join us for this memorable musical tribute to our beloved Professor Maiello! 

We are thrilled to welcome two new adjunct professors in Music Theater Voice for our spring 2024 semester: Prof. Ian McEuen and Prof. Edrie Means Weekly. How happy we are to welcome these exceptional artist-faculty members to our Mason family!

We are so proud of our Dewberry School of Music students and faculty who have been performing and presenting their research throughout the country during the month of January! Kudos to our Mason Jazz Vocal Ensemble (Dr. Darden Purcell, director) for their tremendous performance at the Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference in New Orleans earlier this month. Congratulations to Mason faculty members Dr. Charles Ciorba and Prof. John Kocur on terrific research presentations on Jazz Improvisation at JEN and at the International Saxophone Symposium. Kudos to Rita Gigliotti, Dr. Tina Beveridge, and Dr. Angela Ammerman for their outstanding research presentations at the Florida Music Education Association in January. 

With warmest wishes for a new year filled with good health and with beautiful music to inspire and uplift,

Dr. Linda A. Monson, Director

Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra: Carnival Celebration

Saturday, January 27 | 8 p.m.

Hylton Performing Arts Center

Free Admission and open to the public

Jim Carroll, artistic director

Celebrate Mardi Gras early with Northern Virginia’s own Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra in Carnival Celebration: Music from New Orleans to Rio to the Islands. Dress up in your Mardi Gras beads, don a mask, and enjoy a lively night of pulsating rhythms, upbeat brass parade, and plenty of improvisational jazz. Our tour guides for this concert will be George Mason University’s very own Dewberry School of Music Jazz Faculty:  Darden Purcell; Graham Breedlove from Lafayette, Louisiana; Argentinian Juan Megna by way of Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Victor Provost, born and raised in St. John, Virgin Islands. Led by Founder, Artistic Director, and virtuoso saxophonist Jim Carroll, the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra comprises the most remarkable jazz performers in the metro region.

This performance is appropriate for all ages.

Tickets: $48, $41, $29; half-price for youth through Grade 12

Dewberry Faculty Artist Series:

Julianna Nickel, flute

with guest harpist Melissa Dvorak

Sunday, January 28 | 7 p.m.

Harris Theatre

Free Admission

Dewberry Faculty Artist Series:

A cincea uşă featuring David Porter, tuba

and Ina Mirtcheva, piano

Sunday, February 4 | 7 p.m.

Harris Theatre

Free Admission

Clarinet Day

Sunday, January 28 | 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

deLaski Performing Arts Building

The day will include master classes, performances, vendors, a wellness seminar, and more. This event will be led by Dr. Kathy Mulcahy, Director of Woodwinds and Clarinet Professor at George Mason University. We are thrilled to have special guest artist Shannon Kiewitt from "The President's Own" United States Marine Band join us for the day. Remember to bring your instrument to play in the Festival Clarinet Choir!

Northern Lights Duo

Wednesday, January 31 | 12:30 p.m.

deLaski 3001

Free Admission

The Northern Lights Duo is an international collaboration between Bente Illevold (Norway) and David Earll (U.S.A.) that brings the euphonium and tuba to concert halls, classrooms, and beyond! The Northern Lights Duo is dedicated to performing vibrant, engaging, and entertaining music for the euphonium and tuba to new audiences and serving as educational and musical ambassadors for students and music enthusiasts around the world.

Masterclass & Recital: Nancy Stagnitta, flute

Sunday, February 4 | 3 p.m.

deLaski 3001

Praised for her "brilliance and beauty of tone" by the Baltimore Sun, Powell Artist Nancy Stagnitta is a leading crossover artist as both classical flutist and jazz artist.

Born in Washington D.C., Ian McEuen has garnered praise for his “focused, warm and consistently clear tenor,” and “vivid characterizations,” in both operatic and theatrical productions. Ian has been serving as a vocalist in the United States Army Chorus since 2020. He holds a BFA in Vocal Performance from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.M. in Voice Performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. recently, Ian portrayed Adolfo Pirelli in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd at Signature Theatre, directed by Sarna Lapine. He has also been seen at Signature Theatre as Sondheim’s two other Italian tenors, Giuseppe Zangara in Assassins and LT. Torasso in Passion. In 2022, Ian created the role of Uncle Rondo in the world premiere of Why I Live at the P.O. with UrbanArias, continuing his long relationship with the innovative company.

Edrie Means Weekly, "rock star of vocal crossover” (The Cultural Feed), is an internationally recognized expert in training singers in all vocal styles and an active professional singer. She is an adjunct associate professor of voice/voice pedagogy and Co-Founder of the Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah Conservatory. She is a reviewer for the Journal of Voice, Plural Publishing, Inc. and currently serves on the Advisory Boards for the Voice Foundation, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Musical Theatre Competition, National Association of Teachers of Singing National Student Auditions, the Pan-American Vocology Association and the Musical Theatre Educator’s Association.

Current and former students have performed on Grammy Award recordings, The Voice, American Idol, Kidz Star USA, Broadway, Off –Broadway, National and International Tours, regional theatre, national television, recordings, cruise ships, theme parks, films, NYC and regional cabaret venues, Army chorus, Sea Chanters, Singing Sergeants, concert halls and Opera Houses worldwide.