Returning Courses

Courses that premiered in 2022 are returning for 2023! Read about them below.

In this seminar, we will explore the intersections of music and travel in the long 19th century. In addition to studying how travel inspired composers and performers, we will also discuss the role of musical tourism in the development of Classical and Romantic styles. Readings include interdisciplinary research in musical travel, mobility theory, and the correspondence of musical tourists. Sessions include the travels of Mozart and Haydn; musical tourism after the fall of Napoleon; the Byronic travels linking Liszt, Berlioz, and Paganini; virtual tourism in opera staging; social and geographic mobility in the careers of Joplin and Gottschalk; the musical travelers at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle; and the transatlantic connections of Dvořák, Burleigh, and Macdowell. Assignments include reading responses, listening journals, and a final project to be presented to the seminar.

Dance accompaniment is a great gateway for pianists to deepen skills in music performance, improvisation, sight-reading, composition, and mastery of collaborations encompassing broader musicianship and interdisciplinary artistry. In this course, pianists will learn methods for preparing piano accompaniment for ballet and contemporary dance classes, using repertoire and improvisation based in Baroque, Romantic, jazz, and contemporary styles.

If you are looking to gain skills needed for professional ballet accompanying jobs, learn an approachable method to start improvising music, develop exquisite listening skill, or find ways of collaborating with artists across diverse disciplines, this program will help you become a more versatile musician and artist. Offered as a one-week in-person institute or a six-week online workshop.

Interested in exploring improvisation and writing your own music? Unsure where to start or ready for some fresh tools and perspectives? This hands-on, highly interactive course for middle school and high school students guides participants through a journey of creative experimentation with improvisation and composition while providing key concepts and tools for development. Class sessions explore topics including sound exploration, musical parameters, motivic development and variation, generating musical form and structure, and musical storytelling. Notes from Scratch emphasizes the interconnectedness of improvisation and composition, and each session includes examples and real-time application of topics to both disciplines.

The Eastman Summer Tuba & Euphonium Institute is a weeklong experience where you will hone your musicianship, strengthen career-building skills, and expand your network of colleagues and mentors. Every participant will have the opportunity to perform in a masterclass, play in small and large tuba/euphonium ensembles, and take a private lesson with one of the faculty members. We will also have daily warm-up classes, special workshops on health and wellness, and a session on how to create a life in music. The institute ends with a Participant Chamber Music Concert.

Experience a weekend chamber music workshop which includes rehearsals, daily coachings by professional musicians, and a chamber music masterclass with a world renowned musician. We will conclude our weekend with an optional recital in Eastman’s beautiful Hatch Recital Hall. What a great opportunity to meet your musical community!

Open to adult musicians (over 18) of all levels who play the violin, viola, cello or piano. Pre-formed groups are welcomed. Applicants will receive the music well ahead of the start of the workshop.

Come experience music from Bali, Indonesia! The Gamelan Workshop is a five-day program for students to gain hands-on training by playing our gamelan angklung – Gamelan Lila Muni (Heavenly Sound). As in Bali, students will learn through the oral/aural tradition without notation. The workshop aims to equip participants with the basic techniques of performing Balinese music, as well as to cultivate the aesthetics of a non-Western music culture. The workshop is for students currently in grades 6 and up, including adults; this is a non-residential in-person program.

This one-week piano intensive program for grades 5-9 will feature piano solo and ensemble workshops; sessions on great pianists; workshops on practice methods, techniques and performance skills; history and historic instruments; as well as daily Dalcroze musicianship classes. Students will be paired into ensemble groups for two pianos or four hands, which they will be assigned in June. In the morning session, students have a group piano lesson, and students will play for and listen to their peers. The program offers important learning opportunities for young pianists to establish their musicianship. This is a non-residential in-person program.