Rob Kapilow

For over 30 years, Rob Kapilow has brought the joy and wonder of music – and unraveled some of its mysteries – to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Characterized by his unique ability to create an “aha” moment for his audiences and collaborators, whatever their level of musical sophistication or naiveté; Kapilow’s work brings music into people’s lives: opening new ears to musical experiences and helping people to listen actively rather than just hear.

We hear great classical masterpieces all the time – in the concert hall, at the movies, on television, and on the radio. But what makes these masterpieces so great? Join conductor/composer/author Rob Kapilow and the Kodak String Quartet for an entertaining, enlightening evening that will take you deep inside the world of Antonin Dvorak’s string quartet masterpiece.–The American String Quartet.

VOCES8

The acclaimed British vocal ensemble VOCES8 will work with the MSU students on vocal and ensemble techniques, communication, and listening skills including original MSU student choral compositions. Workshops will include Environmental Music Therapy, Music Education, and Entrepreneurship students. The residency will culminate in a Merkin concert with VOCES8 and MSU Singers. 

Leshowitz Recital Hall
Wednesday, October 13 @ 7:30 pm FREE
Masterful Musings: “A Conversation About the Inner-workings of VOCES8”
Masterful Musings moderated by Prof. Laura Dolp. A conversation about the inner workings of VOCES8. Audience questions welcome.

VOCES8 Website

Kronos Quartet

Recital
Leshowitz Recital Hall
Tuesday, October 19 @ 8 pm FREE

For over 45 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagine the string quartet experience. They will share their vast knowledge with MSU students focusing on the “50 for the Future” commissions in masterclasses and lectures and share the stage at Merkin Hall with a new work by Philip Glass. 

Kronos Quartet Website 

Wynton Marsalis

Internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, and educator Wynton Marsalis will work with MSU students on improvisation, composition, and instrumental techniques. Workshops will include students from Jazz Studies, Composition, Music Education, and Performance areas. Furthermore, Mr. Marsalis will be interviewed by Director Anthony Mazzocchi for the Cali School of music community and patrons. 

Wynton Marsalis Website

Trevor New

The Trevor New residency will allow participants to explore ways to incorporate interactive digital technologies into their musicianship. Through both personal and group experimentation with free and low-cost technologies, participants will be able to meaningfully explore virtual music-making, technologically-mediated composition and improvisation, and collaboration through new approaches to contemporary musicianship. Trevor’s residency will conclude with a collaborative performance at Leshowitz Recital Hall and a performance at Merkin Concert Hall. 

Trevor New Website

Charles Yang + Peter Dugan

This “classical-meets-rockstar duo”, violinist Charles Yang and pianist Peter Dugan will mix things up as they interact with MSU strings and piano students in Spring 2022. Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, the duo will conduct classes on improvising, functional theory, and a round table discussion on paving a career in today’s musical landscape. The residency will culminate in a Merkin Hall “Bridges” performance. 

Charles Yang Website | Peter Dugan Website

Kamala Sankaram

Acclaimed composer, vocalist, playwright and actress, Kamala Sankaram will work with Cali School students on a variety of creative events, including both her compositions and student compositions, culminating in a performance at Merkin. Students and faculty alike are excited to learn about Kamala’s own background, influences, and creative processes in addition to handling notation in an open and improvisatory way. 

Kamala Sankaram Website.

Roomful of Teeth

Roomful of Teeth is a Grammy® winning vocal band dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential of the human voice. By engaging collaboratively with artists, thinkers, and community leaders from around the world, they seek to uplift and amplify voices old and new while creating and performing meaningful and adventurous music. Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, the band was incubated at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Massachusetts, where they studied with some of the world’s top performers and teachers and commissioned composers who were known for breaking molds. They learned that the boundaries of the human voice are never what they seem, that rules can be bent and broken, and perhaps they should be. As the world rapidly changes they are cultivating deeper relationships with technology, continuing to expand the capabilities of the human voice, aiming to be unburdened by their physical limitations. They are excited about new collaborative projects that are focused on the stories of place, home, and community in the diverse environments the planet has provided. They explore these boundaries with passionate curiosity, contagious enthusiasm, and deep gratitude. 

Roomful of Teeth Website

Jack Quartet

The “leading new-music foursome” JACK Quartet has maintained an unwavering commitment to its mission of performing and commissioning new works, cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music. During their residency, JACK will work with Cali students on new music techniques, new student compositions and give special insight into their world premieres for a Bridges Concert at Merkin on April 21st. 

Jack Quartet Website

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is a 90-minute nonstop extravaganza of diverse repertoire celebrating the Cali School’s talented faculty and students. The concerts feature the MSU Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, Chorale, University Singers, Jazz Band, Symphony Orchestra, and chamber and solo artists.

Harlem Quartet

The Cali School of Music’s Quartet-in-Residence Harlem Quartet will perform an exciting concert of classical and contemporary chamber music.

MSU Wind Symphony

Thomas McCauley, Conductor
The MSU Wind Symphony will present the first of its three Travelogue concerts in preparation for their appearance at the 2022 International Conference of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), July 20, 2022, in Prague, Czech Republic. The concert will feature the music of Leonard Bernstein, David Maslanka, and Karel Husa.

MSU Symphony Orchestra

Nicholas DeMaison, Conductor
The MSU Symphony Orchestra performs works from the classical and contemporary repertoire.

MSU Jazz Ensemble

Jeffrey Kunkel, Director
The MSUJE is proud to present a concert of music by emerging contemporary jazz composers, including Andrew Jones, Socrates Garcia, Erica Seguine, and two of our own—Oscar Perez and Jeff Kunkel!

As You Like It

By William Shakespeare | Directed by Avery Glymph
As You Like It speaks to us in charming and witty, yet serious and contemplative ways. Strong iconic characters balance the fear and uncertainty of harsh politics and familial rivalries with explorations of human and physical nature, overcoming obstacles and injustices, all in the name of love. Even if people get in the way of it, the power of love can make the most self-aware cynics among us lose themselves in passion and adventure, but it will not be denied.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

By Stephen Adly Guirgis | Directed by Tommy Schrider
Hope Courtroom, Purgatory: 2000 years after he betrayed Jesus, Judas Iscariot finally has his day in court. Is he worthy of God’s divine love and forgiveness or doomed to suffer in infamy and the prison of his guilty conscience? And is it even God who is punishing him, or has Judas sentenced himself to eternal shame? Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis has written a wildly inventive play that is both riotously funny and a provocative meditation on the clash between justice and mercy and the mystery of what it means to be human.

Fall Dance 2021

Directed by Kathleen Kelley | Choreographed by Stefanie Batten Bland, Jessica DiMauro Marks, Larry Keigwin, and Maxine Steinman
This concert presents world premieres by innovative choreographers Larry Keigwin (senior class) collaborating with composer Glen Fittin, Maxine Steinman (sophomore class), and Jessica DiMauro Marks (freshman class). Our junior class performs Stefanie Batten Bland’s WelcomeBienvenue, which interrogates how and to whom we open our arms and invite into our homes, cities, and countries.

RENT

Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson | Directed by Todd Underwood
This year is the 25th anniversary of Rent. When it was first produced Off-Broadway/Broadway it changed the landscape of musical theater. It was bold and innovative. Rent was touted as the beginning of a new era of musical theater. Set in the ’80s during the height of the AIDS pandemic and based on the opera La bohème, it focuses on the struggle of a group of friends trying to find their way with or without each other. As we all move to the post-pandemic phase of our world today, this show is a great reminder to cherish the ones we love and that time waits for no one. Live fully in the Seasons of Love.

MSU Symphonic Band and MSU Campus Band

Thomas McCauley | Theodora Sotiropoulos, Conductors
Please join the MSU Symphonic Band and MSU Campus Band as they combine their efforts to present an evening of both new and standard wind band repertoires.

MSU Singers and MSU Chorale

Heather J. Buchanan, Conductor | Steven W. Ryan, Pianist
The Chorale will present the regional premiere of The Breath of Life by American composer Dan Forrest. Scored for SATB choir, piano, strings; Katherine Cherbas, solo cello; Taylor Goodson, percussion; and Vincent Carr, organ, this 35-minute work is a reflection on the beauty and joy of new life juxtaposed with the pain of loss. It uses profound and compelling texts from Scripture as well as classic and modern poetry. The emotional arc of the music beautifully mirrors that of life, from the miracle of birth to the bereavement of death, and the love that makes life rich and meaningful. The University Singers will present highlights from Messiah in an exciting collaboration with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Heather J. Buchanan. They will be joined by guest artists Wen, harpsichord; Steven W. Ryan, positive organ; and soloists including Jason Zacher, bass-baritone. Alumni, faculty, and friends of the choir are warmly invited to join the choir on stage to sing the “Hallelujah” Chorus to conclude the concert. This is the NJSO’s debut at Montclair State.

MSU Symphony Orchestra

Nicholas DeMaison, Conductor
Join conductor Nicholas DeMaison and the MSU Symphony Orchestra as they present works from classical and contemporary repertoire.

The Names We Gave Him

Text by Ellen McLaughlin | Music by Peter Foley | Directed by Lisa Rothe
Loosely based on a true story, this is a musical about an amnesiac veteran of the First World War, the doctor who treated him, and the many women who, in denial of their grief, claimed him as their lost beloved. The piece explores the agony of war for both the soldiers and the families they leave behind the distorting power of loss, and the insistence of love. What is a country’s identity in the aftermath of such devastation? What is a self without memory?

MSU Wind Symphony

Thomas McCauley, Conductor
The MSU Wind Symphony will present the second of its three Travelogue concerts in preparation for their appearance at the 2022 International Conference of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), July 20, 2022, in Prague, Czech Republic. The concert will include the music of Leonard Bernstein, David Maslanka, Karel Husa, and will feature the world premiere of composer Bruce Yurko’s “TMCC Fanfare,” written especially for Dr. Thomas McCauley and the MSU Wind Symphony.

MSU Opera Workshop

Jeffrey Gall, Director
The MSU Opera Workshop presents a sneak preview of scenes from classical and contemporary repertoire.

MSU Jazz Ensemble

Jeffrey Kunkel | Aubrey Johnson, Directors
For our fourth Crawford Concert offering, the MSUJE, along with our vocal jazz ensemble, Vocamotion, are proud to present special guests Vertical Voices, a group composed of four of the finest artist/educators in the world of vocal jazz today: Kerry Marsh, Julia Dollison, Jennifer Barnes, and Greg Jasperse.

Beatrice Crawford Memorial Concert: This concert is a free public performance supported by a generous grant from the Keating Crawford Foundation. It is presented at Montclair State University in memory of Beatrice Crawford, a Montclair musician who was the director of two choral groups, the Madrigals and the Choraliers.

MSU Opera with the MSU Symphony Orchestra

Jeffrey Gall, Director | Nicholas DeMaison, Conductor
The MSU Opera with the MSU Symphony Orchestra present an opera from classical repertoire.

Dance Makers

Directed by Maxine Steinman
Come see the next generation of dance makers! In this curated dance concert, Montclair State student choreographers bring their individual and distinct creativity to the Alexander Kasser stage.

Head Over Heels

Directed and Choreographed by Kenney M. Green
Songs by The Go-Go’s | Based on The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney
Conceived and Original Book by Jeff Whitty | Adapted by James Magruder.

Head Over Heels is the bold new musical comedy from the visionaries who rocked Broadway with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Avenue Q, and Spring Awakening. This laugh-out-loud love story is set to the music of the iconic 1980s all-female rock band The Go-Go’s, including the hit songs “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation,” and Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” and “Mad About You.” A hilarious, exuberant celebration of love, Head Over Heels follows the escapades of a royal family on an outrageous journey to save their beloved kingdom from extinction—only to discover the key to their realm’s survival lies within each of their own hearts.

MSU Wind Symphony and MSU Symphonic Band

with special guest artists
Michael Daugherty, Composer | Dame Evelyn Glennie, Percussion
Thomas McCauley, Conductor

The MSU Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band will present the music of composer Michael Daugherty and will feature the world premiere of the wind band version of his composition Dreamachine, which will feature world-renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie as soloist.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Based on a novel by Mark Haddon | Adapted by Simon Stephens
Directed by Heather Benton

When a neighbor’s dog turns up murdered, 15-year-old Christopher (a suspect himself) sets out to solve the mystery and embarks on a terrifying journey that takes him far beyond his familiar street in Swindon, UK. As Christopher navigates the world through a unique neurological lens with a brilliance for math, his journey reveals more than the murderer, as family secrets unravel, bonds of trust are broken, and his once predictable world spins out of control. Based on the award-winning novel by Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time received 7 Olivier Awards, including Best New Play in 2013.

Spring Dance 2022

Directed by Christian von Howard
Spring Dance 2022 features the choreographic works of Paul Taylor, Michelle Manzanales, TweetBoogie, Kathleen Kelley, Bradley Shelver, Christian von Howard, and other guest artists.

The Big Meal

By Dan LaFranc | Directed by Susan Kerner
Somewhere in America, in a typical restaurant on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet. Sparks fly. And so begins the extraordinary tale of five generations of an ordinary family, from first kiss to final good-bye. Packed with humanity and humor, The Big Meal chronicles the loves, trials, and resilience of modern families. Playwright Dan LeFranc won the 2010 NYT Outstanding Playwright Award for this big-hearted, theatrically inventive comedy.

MSU Symphonic Band and MSU Campus Band

Thomas McCauley | Theodora Sotiropoulos, Conductors
Join us for a great evening of eclectic and entertaining music-making by both the MSU Symphonic Band and the MSU Campus Band.

MSU Symphony Orchestra

Nicholas DeMaison, Conductor
Join conductor Nicholas DeMaison and the MSU Symphony Orchestra as they present works from classical and contemporary repertoire.

Into the Woods

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim | Book by James Lapine | Directed by Peter Flynn
“…and they live happily ever after.” So end all of our most beloved fairy tales; but what if there was a different “after” after the “ever after”? Are we always happy with what we get? Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s most acclaimed musical explores what happens when dreams come true, wishes are granted, and spells are broken. With soaring music, funny dialogue, and unexpected twists and turns, Into the Woods at MSU promises a night of mystery, magic, humor, and surprise. At a time when we are beginning to come out of our homes, we invite you Into the Woods.

MSU Wind Symphony

Thomas McCauley, Conductor | Steven W. Ryan, Pianist
The MSU Wind Symphony will present the third of its three Travelogue concerts in preparation for their appearance at the 2022 International Conference of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), July 20, 2022, in Prague, Czech Republic. The concert will feature the music of Aaron Copland, Joan Tower, and a performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Colors of the Celestial City, with piano soloist Steven Ryan.

MSU Singers and MSU Chorale

Heather J. Buchanan, Conductor | Steven W. Ryan, Accompanist
Celebrating the wealth of contemporary choral music and the poetry that inspires it, University Singers will perform a dazzling array of pieces in support of the literary and poetic Circlesong themes. Chorale will give the East Coast Premiere of Circlesong by UK composer Bob Chilcott.
 
Set for SATB and SSA choirs, 2 pianos, and 4 percussion, Circlesong is a musical portrayal of the human life cycle as captured in the indigenous poetry of North America. Based on poetry from the Chinook, Comanche, Dakota, Eskimo, Iroquois, Kwakiutl, Navajo, Ojibwa, Pueblo, Seminole, Sioux, and Yaqui traditions, the thirteen movements, in seven parts, mark the different stages of life, from birth and childhood to adulthood, middle age, and death. With energetic percussion accompaniment, climactic movements for tutti choir, tender unaccompanied passages, and solo song, Circlesong is a work of impressive drama, variety, and depth.

MSU Jazz Ensemble

Oscar Perez, Director
The MSU Jazz Ensemble will be joined by guest artists to perform an exciting concert of classic and contemporary jazz.