Steven Kemper, interim director of the Music Department and head of music technology, has partnered with NJ Advance Media and the New Jersey Youth Symphony to create the soundtrack for In Memoriam: COVID in New Jersey, an interactive memorial dedicated to the more...
Last July, Julia Baumanis, assistant director of bands and director of pep bands, became the first woman band director at Rutgers University in the school’s 255-year history. According to her research on programs accredited by the National Association of Schools...
Alumni Tom Nazziola (left) and Peter MartinMusic alumni Tom Nazziola and Peter Martin, as well as faculty member and jazz pianist Bill O’Connell, are nominated for Grammy Awards this year.“Cat & Mouse,” written by Nazziola, a composer and...
Photos courtesy of Javier DiazPercussion instructor Javier Diaz originally was tapped just to play rehearsals for one of the most iconic scenes in Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed West Side Story remake.But Diaz – who has wowed audiences of philharmonic...
Aaron Vaders-Collins is a first-year doctoral student at Mason Gross School of the Arts pursuing a degree in music composition and the emerging field of ludomusicology, the scholarly analysis of video game music. A mashup of technology and music theory, engineering, and production, the subject is a perfect blend of Vaders-Collins’s interests.
Composer Tom Nazziola, a 2019 PhD graduate, has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Instrumental Composition category for “Cat and Mouse,” a piece from his 2021 album Distant Places. Nazziola describes the album as “a collection of works...
Music alumni Osiris (Ozzy) Molina and Adonis Gonzalez-Matos have teamed up to create Cuba, Alabama, an album of contemporary Cuban music. The title is both a play on an actual town in Alabama and a reflection of the coincidences that brought them together in a most...
Photo: Victor NechyAfter a historic 15-month shutdown, Broadway shows are steadily reopening throughout September. Mason Gross alumni Ben Jeffrey (The Lion King), Rachel Zatcoff (Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, pictured), musicians John DiSanto and David Ashton, and...
Yerko Difonis is the first student born blind and partially deaf to pursue a master of music in piano performance at Mason Gross School of the Arts. A process developed by Rutgers to transcribe music to braille for the prodigy will open doors for other musicians with disabilities.
Photo: Left – Adrienne Baker, a member of The Broadway Sinfonietta and a doctoral student at Mason Gross, played in Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical’s orchestra. Photo courtesy of Adrienne Baker. Right – Kevin Chamberlin, a three-time Tony Award...