International Panel
Introducing our three Internationally Renowned Panel for this year's Festival.
Rachel Barton Pine
With the release of “Music by Black Composers, Violin Volume I,” the first in a series of pedagogical books of sheet music exclusively by Black classical composers, with additional orchestral instruments to be covered in future volumes. Early in her career, Pine noted that young people learning classical music seldom have the opportunity to study and perform music written by Black composers. Over the past 15 years, the RBP Foundation’s Music by Black Composers initiative has collected more than 900 works by more than 350 Black composers from the 18th-21st Centuries, representing North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Also published are “The Rachel Barton Pine Foundation Coloring Book of Black Composers” and an illustrated timeline poster of 300+ Black classical composers from around the world, and many additional resources on MBC’s website. Coinciding with these publications, Pine released Blues Dialogues: Violin Works by Black Composers (Cedille Records), featuring classical works with a very strong blues flavor written by 20th and 21st Century composers of African descent.
Daniel Bernard Roumain
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a prolific and endlessly collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), DBR has worked with artists from Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones to Lady Gaga; appeared on NPR, American Idol, and ESPN; and has collaborated with the Sydney Opera House and the City of Burlington, Vermont. Acclaimed as a violinist and activist, DBR’s career spans more than two decades, earning commissions by venerable artists and institutions worldwide.
Aaron Dworkin
Named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, President Obama’s first appointment to the National Council on the Arts and Governor Snyder’s appointment to the Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs, Aaron P. Dworkin served as dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD), which is ranked among the top-performing arts schools in the nation. He is currently a tenured full professor of arts leadership and entrepreneurship at SMTD as well as serving as a Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. In addition, Aaron is a successful social entrepreneur having founded The Sphinx Organization, the leading arts organization with the mission of transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. He is also co-founder of SonoGrub.com, a weekly blog pairing great food and music. As a successful writer, Aaron has authored The Entrepreneurial Artist: Lessons from Highly Successful Creatives published by Rowman & Littlefield, a science-fiction novel, Ethos: Rise of Malcolm published by MorganJames, as well as his memoir titled Uncommon Rhythm: A Black, White, Jewish, Jehovah’s Witness, Irish Catholic Adoptee’s Journey to Leadership released through Aquarius Press.
Results of the 17th Annual
Cornell Concerto Competition
Flautist Joy Zhang, '21, won the 17th annual Cornell Concerto Competition on December 15th
for her performance of Georges Hüe's Fantasie for Flute and Orchestra.
Congratulations, Joy!!
Link to the Cornell News coverage
Other finalists include Julie Choe, '20 and Sarah Sun, '23.
Joy Zhang is a Human Biology, Health and Society major who is also an accomplished flautist studying with Elizabeth Shuhan at Cornell. She has been selected as the winner of the Hochstein School of Music Merit Scholarship Competition and the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. She has performed as a soloist with the RPYO, on a live radio broadcast for WXXI-FM, and in Carnegie Hall. She has also played as the principal flautist in the Boston College Symphony Orchestra and the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, which she performed with in Taiwan on tour last winter.
