Dear School of Music Family,

Spring is in full bloom at Mason! Join us for our School of Music Spring Concert Series, masterclasses, and lecture-recitals featuring our marvelous students and faculty.  

Congratulations to Professor Jim Carroll who has been selected as a recipient of the  2018 George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award . This highly prestigious university award brings great honor and recognition to Professor Carroll for his incredible teaching, commitment, and dedication to our Jazz Studies Area.  

We invite you to support our music students with your gifts of scholarship assistance through our  Mason Giving Day on Thursday, April 5th . Your presence at our concerts and your gifts of scholarship support for our students are deeply appreciated by all of us in Mason's School of Music! 

Warm regards,
Dr. Linda Monson
Director, School of Music
Mason's Giving Day, April 5
At Mason, 56 percent of all students receive some form of need-based financial support. Help make something BIG happen for the next generation of musicians and make a student's dreams come true. Support music students by donating to our scholarship fund on Mason's 2nd annual Giving Day, April 5!
Choose "Click here to select other funds". Then, type "music" in the search bar and select "Music Scholarship Fund."
OR
Donate by phone by calling (703) 993-1593
The Impact of the Mason School of Music
"When I found the Mason jazz program, I not only found a place to perform, I found a place to belong."

- Carlehr Swanson ('19)

Make a gift on April 5!
Upcoming Events
Canadian pianist Alan Fraser is best known for his writings on piano technique, which shed new light on the relationship between body organization and musicianship at the keyboard. Join us this Friday, April 6 for the masterclass at 11:30 and lecture at 12:30 on The Inextricable Link between Technique and Musicianship .  Read more.
Sō Percussion is a percussion-based music organization that creates and presents new collaborative works to adventurous and curious audiences and educational initiatives to engaged students, while providing meaningful service to its communities, in order to exemplify the power of music to unite people and forge deep social bonds.  Read more.
Dr. Emily H. Green presents selections of the music of Mozart and Haydn as you may not have heard it: on the harpsichord! Much late eighteenth-century keyboard music was written for either the harpsichord or early piano, yet it is rarely played on anything but the modern piano today. Come hear it in a unique context, alongside some beautifully expressive pieces by Froberger, Couperin, and Scarlatti.
Mason Tuba Euphonium Ensemble Concert
Mason Guitar Ensemble Concert with special guest Lake Braddock Guitar Ensemble
Saturday, April 14 at 5:00 PM
de Laski Performing Arts Bld 3001
Directed by Dr. Dave Porter
FREE

PROGRAM:
Fanfare--Barnes
Friend Like Me--Menken/Liston/Hall
Mia and Sebastia's Theme--Hurwitz/Landry/Thompson
The PC Tuba Quartet--York
Ave Maria--Biebl/Jenkins
Invocation--Halco
O Magnum Mysterium--Lauridsen/Troiano
Saturday, April 14 at 8:00 PM
de Laski Performing Arts Bld 3001
Directed by Prof. Matt Trkula
FREE

The George Mason University Guitar Ensemble is proud to present our Spring Concert featuring music from Granados, Sor, Tedesco, and many others. We will be joined by special guests The Lake Braddock Guitar Ensemble from Lake Braddock Secondary School.
Save the Date: Mason Opera
Albert Herring is a comic opera set in the imaginary East Suffolk town of Loxford at the turn of the 20th century. The score contains some of Britten’s wittiest musical invention and his gifts for parody and caricature are given full reign. However, the work is far from being mere farce: Albert is a sympathetic and credible figure who, tied to his mother’s apron-strings and frustrated by small-town pieties, embarks on a debauched ‘rake’s progress’, a theme fully in keeping with the composer’s favourite subject of the loss of innocence.
Save the Date: Darden Purcell & Mason Jazz Faculty at Blues Alley
Darden Purcell returns to Blues Alley for a very special "Brazilian Tribute" on Wednesday, April 25 . She is joined by George Mason University Jazz faculty Wade Beach (piano), Regan Brough (bass), Matt Niess (trombone) Shawn Purcell (guitar) Harold Summey (drums) and very special guest student performers. Shows are 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM.
Save the Date: Scholarship Benefit Concert with MSO & Soloists
Six of our outstanding student performers were selected by competitive audition to perform as soloists with the Mason Symphony Orchestra (MSO) in the  Scholarship Benefit Concert  on Sunday, May 6 at 7:00 PM in the Center for the Arts. More soloists to be featured soon!
Crystal Golden
Crystal is a Master’s student in Vocal Performance at George Mason University, and is in the voice studio of Professor Patricia Miller, Director of Vocal Studies at GMU. A Virginia native, Crystal also earned her Bachelor of Music degree from George Mason University. Additionally, she was selected to study at the University of Oxford in Spring 2016. Crystal has had leading roles in Mason Opera.
Hakyong Kelly Park
Hakyong is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Piano Performance at George Mason University School of Music and is in the piano studio of Dr. Linda Apple Monson. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Hakyong (Kelly) Park earned a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from The Hartt School and she received an Advanced Performance Certificate from New York University Steinhardt (New York, NY).
Mason Voice Faculty in China
Dr. Mira Yang , voice faculty, recently served as both adjudicator and lecturer at the American Classical Singer International Vocal Competition in Guangzou, China. She presented a lecture on Vocal Science and Health at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, China . Dr. Yang is adjunct professor of voice in Mason's School of Music and Community Advisory Board member for the Kennedy Center. She also directs the Asian-American Music Society programs with performances at George Mason University and the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. 
Songs of World War I Interdisciplinary Project Grant
Mason Music performance of World War I songs: Tuesday, April 24, University of Virginia campus, 5:00 PM

Mason's College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) and The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) received a 4-VA Research Grant to fund the digital project,  ReSounding the Archives . This project is an interdisciplinary collaboration that brings together digital humanities, history, and music. The project’s goal is literally to “re-sound” the archives — to bring  World War I  sheet music to life through recordings and live performances. Students from George Mason University, University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech will work together to select, research, and record music, exploring history from new vantage points.
 
Prof. Nicole Springer, CVPA Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, and Dr. Linda Monson are overseeing the musical project. On April 24, 2018, UVA will host a concert and symposium in Charlottesville for partners from all three institutions to showcase student work as well as create live musical performances that will be recorded and added to the website.  The following Mason Musicians are performing: Crystal Golden (soprano), Jimmy Stevens (tenor), Estrella Hong (piano), and Faith Ellen Lam (piano). Thank you to the Mason Music Technology area for professional recording assistance.
University Scholarship Dinner
We are grateful for the support of our many donors to help make scholarships possible for our Mason Music students. We were thrilled to recognize and honor four of our outstanding scholarship recipients at the recent University Scholarship Dinner on March 22. These undergraduate music students represent our various degrees and performance areas.
Left to right: Sophie Smith, soprano (BA Music, Psychology Minor); Madeline Espigh, saxophone (BM Music Education); Dr. Linda Monson, Director; Kays Ishaq, percussion (BM Performance, Jazz Studies Minor); and Faith Ellen Lam, piano (Double major in BM Performance and BA English, Honors College).
Recent Musicale in Honor of
Bob & Pat Warakomsky
We were thrilled to host a Musicale on March 19 in honor of Bob and Pat Warakomsky, donors to our School of Music. We are profoundly grateful for their recent extraordinary gift of scholarship support for our students. Bob is a former President of our Friends of Music at Mason.
Left to right: Barbara Warakomsky Myers, Pat & Bob Warakomsky, Dr. Linda Monson
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