We are looking forward with great anticipation to our Mason Opera production this weekend April 24-25 in a magnificent double-bill featuring Dream Lovers by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Act II of Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

We are excited to present our New Sound Collective, Percussion Ensemble, and Wind Symphony Chamber Concert on Monday, April 26th with repertoire by Alfred Reed, Vincent Persichetti, and Gordon Jacob. Join us again on Tuesday, April 27th for our Mason Wind Symphony and Percussion Ensemble concert highlighting works by Dvorak, Ticheli, Arnold, Giannini, and more.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month and culminates with a worldwide celebration of jazz the last day of April. How thrilled we are to feature our Mason jazz students in the International Jazz Day Concert on Friday, April 30 at 8 pm in a virtual celebration that showcases our marvelous vocal jazz, instrumental jazz, and steel pan ensembles! Please purchase tickets for a Tribute to Sonny Rollins featuring members of the Mason Jazz Faculty on Sunday, May 2nd at 3 pm on the Mason Pond lawn.

Kudos to the Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music, ranked the #1 Music School in Virginia by CollegeFactual.com! Thanks to our extraordinary students, faculty, staff, and alumni for exceptional work! Heartfelt gratitude to our Friends of Music at Mason for continued support of our wonderful students.

Dr. Linda A. Monson, Director

Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

Contact [email protected] for Zoom access information.

The Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music’s talented Mason Opera students will present an evening of works featuring Dream Lovers by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Act II of Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  

Dream Lovers by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906) tells the story of a Moroccan prince and his friend finding true love with two sisters.

W.A. Mozart’s comic opera Le nozze di Figaro (with libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte) continues the plot of the popular opera The Barber of Seville several years later, and recounts a single "day of madness" (la folle journée) in the palace of Count Almaviva near Seville, Spain. 

The performance on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET will be livestreamed from the Hylton Center and presented on Mason Arts at Home and Hylton at Home. The performance will be available to watch beginning Saturday, April 24 at 8 p.m. ET simultaneously on this webpage and the Center for the Arts YouTube channel.

Erroll Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. He was considered by many as "one of the most distinctive of all pianists" and a "brilliant virtuoso." Using an "orchestral approach straight from the swing era but open to the innovations of bop," his distinctive style was like no other. Yet some of his best recordings are ballads, such as his best-known composition, "Misty" which has become a jazz standard - and was featured in Clint Eastwood's l971 film Play Misty for Me. This presentation will feature music and DVDs of this brilliant musician in action. 

Share the vibrancy and vitality of jazz music with Mason Jazz students and faculty on April 30 in a new digital performance! International Jazz Day brings together communities, schools, artists, historians, academics, and jazz enthusiasts on all continents to celebrate and learn about jazz and its roots, future, and impact. Watch a short preview here.

This performance will take place on the Mason Pond Lawn.

The Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music closes the semester with a program that celebrates unity and resilience in the face of division and uncertainty. The concert showcases works by Black composers and/or inspired by the African-American experience. The program features two world premieres commissioned by the Dewberry School of Music from renowned composer Evelyn Simpson-Curenton and Mason’s own Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Green Machine Ensembles Michael W. Nickens (Doc Nix). 

Registration for the event is not required, but if you register you will be sent a reminder with details for how to watch prior to the event. Register now.

View the full recital calendar here!

The Dewberry School of Music was ranked as the #1 Music School in Virginia by CollegeFactual.com! This ranking was determined by factors such as quality of education, national accreditation, alumni employment data, and numbers of graduates within our music degree programs (Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees). Read more here.

Director of Woodwinds Dr. Kathy Mulcahy was quoted in the most recent issue of the Mason Spirit magazine, discussing the Dewberry School of Music's effective transition to teaching under COVID-19 circumstances. Read her statement here.