Learn how Longy best prepares its students to become the musician the world needs them to be as faculty members mentor participants on what it takes to get to the next level of artistry in their craft.
Masterclasses are an inclusive space for all musicians, regardless of instrument—to benefit from the “cross-training” that these opportunities can provide. What can pianists, violists, or percussionists learn from a vocal masterclass—and vice versa? Enjoy watching and find out!
“The goal in my teaching is to search for every single student’s individuality—their personalities in a musical sense. Positive attitude is at the base of my temperament as a teacher and I try to transmit my love for music, and the reasons we all choose to be artists. I encourage listening to, attending, and discussing musical performances of every kind as it all adds to the kind of person and musician students will be. Some will be performers, some teachers, and some will do both, and the future and development of our art depends on all these factors. Lastly, the connection between our heart, our humanity, and our art are vital to ensuring excellence in our lives. We will be kinder artists and spirits—and will build stronger ties with our colleagues, our students and our peers.”
Sergio Pallottelli is equally at home playing and teaching music from the Baroque to the present, including a deep passion for the music of Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela. He frequently collaborates with composers to increase the repertoire for the flute and has premiered several new works for the instrument. This always opens new windows of knowledge, brings great freshness to his playing, and broadens his musical horizons.
Pallottelli holds performance degrees from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Music in Milan, Italy, University of Utah and Yale School of Music. He spent several summers working intensely with French flute legend Maxence Larrieu, who taught with great discipline, style and verve, to make a significant impression on Pallottelli’s playing and musicianship.
Opera singer and stage director Patricia-Maria Weinmann coaches on building a successful audition introduction and performance from the ground up. Whether you are a singer or an instrumentalist, you’ll get practical advice to stand out, ground yourself, and and slam dunk that audition!
Soprano Corrine Byrne and trumpeter Andy Kozar, respective Chairs of Vocal Studies and Winds and Brass at Longy School of Music of Bard College, will be discussing how to develop your own career path through their individual experiences working in the field of contemporary music and collaborating with living composers.
| June 4 | Spencer Myer, piano masterclass |
| June 11 | Eric Hofbauer, jazz improv coaching/masterclass |
| June 18 | Judy Bose, Teaching Artistry workshop |
| June 25 | Alexandra du Bois, composition masterclass |
| July 2 | Ashley Hall, Career Coaching at Longy workshop |
| July 9 | Jesse Mills, violin masterclass |
| July 16 | Anne Azéma, voice Historical Performance masterclass |
| July 23 | Corrine Byrne and Andy Kozar, Careers in Contemporary Music workshop |
| July 30 | Patricia-Maria Weinmann, Audition Techniques coaching |
| Aug 6 | Sergio Pallottelli, flute masterclass |
Anne Azéma of The Boston Camerata leads a voice and historical performance masterclass including a work by Guillaume de Machaut. During the live Q&A, we’ll discuss your questions and explore how performing music from the past is not a static, backward-looking endeavor but entirely engaged with what resonates today for all of us!
A french-born vocalist, scholar and stage director, Anne Azéma has directed The Boston Camerata since 2008 and is intensely engaged with the song repertoire of the Middle Ages. She’s a charismatic solo performer as well as widely admired for her creative skill in building and directing complete musical productions of varied styles and periods, both for her recital programs and for larger ensemble forces in Europe and the U.S.
Two-time Grammy nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention. He is a founding member of the Horszowski Trio, as well as Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo with Rieko Aizawa. Mills is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann, and Itzhak Perlman.
“All violinists need a pair of ears besides their own, to give them objective advice and to increase and expand what they hear when listening to themselves. Some may need to focus on some technical aspects of playing (shifting, bow control, intonation, vibrato, sound production); others, the more musical (phrasing, refining the articulation in a piece, or expanding the color palette). I always think about the whole person I am teaching; we all need to feel positive and inspired in order to make the most improvement.”
In this interactive and self-reflective workshop, Longy career coach and trumpet faculty Ashley Hall works with 11 current and incoming students. Join us live on Facebook to watch these incredible and courageous musicians share deep insights about their lives, career aspirations, and personal struggles with impostor syndrome. Ashley leads them through a coaching experience that is intimate, transformational, and deeply inspiring. You will learn practical tips, tools and strategies for building confidence, owning your story, and approaching auditions and performances with joy and deeper purpose.
The music of Alexandra du Bois is often propelled by issues of indifference and inequality throughout the United States and the world. Traveling to the countries that inform and inspire her work, her music has been performed in concert halls across five continents. With commissions from Kronos Quartet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Music Teachers National Association, she’s served as composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall and Southwest Chamber Music Festival with whom she toured throughout Los Angeles and Vietnam.
The current world presents unprecedented challenges, but career opportunities in music—beyond the concert stage—have never been more diverse and interesting. We’ll explore several distinct areas of teaching artist work: Healthcare and Healing, Schools and Educational Settings, Social and Community Programs, and Alternative Venues. Dr. Bose will share a vast array of opportunities awaiting the next generation of socially-engaged musicians. And you’ll have a chance to ask plenty of questions and share your own experiences!
As a life-long teaching artist, Dr. Bose helped start up Longy’s own Teaching Artist Program when it first began. Her experience ranges from work with Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic in NYC to international and national teaching artist trainings, as well as local New England projects and the Music for Healing and Transition Program™ (MHTP).
Isolated practice means both new challenges and new opportunities for improvisers. While most interactive skill sets demand the immediate connection of ensemble work, personal style development thrives in the solo practice setting. This masterclass will help you explore under-used music elements in your vocabulary. Through a series of detailed miniature improvised études, start to integrate new sounds and concepts into your style. The broader the personal palette of expressive tools a musician has, the more effective they can be interacting with the world around them.
The study of jazz music is a study of language, of history and culture, and perhaps most importantly, discovery of the self. Individuality and personal style are the building blocks of jazz. I focus on communicating with your instrument and understanding these traditional “vocabularies of jazz”—while developing your own style and voice to push the art form forward.
Keeping students inspired and passionate is at the heart of my adaptive teaching philosophy. I always encourage questions and dialogue. I also pose questions to my students at length to help me develop a deep understanding of their abilities and influences to create an individualized path of study.
I focus my instruction around the three major vocabularies of the jazz language: swing, bebop and free. These were the building blocks of most 20th century jazz styles and are key to synthesizing personal style in today’s post-modern world. Fluency in these vocabularies can be built through transcription, analysis, and repertoire study—alongside technique, scales, ear training, and reading.
Regardless of the method, the important outcome is that students discover and interpret these elements of jazz in their own way. Longy offers a unique environment where open-minded—and open-eared—musicians can continually develop as cross-style/post-genre improvisers and composers.
“Eric Hofbauer has become a significant force in Boston’s improvised-music scene,” declares Stereophile’s David R. Adler. “His aesthetic evokes old blues, Americana, Tin Pan Alley, bebop, and further frontiers. There’s a rule-breaking spirit but also an impeccable rigor, a foundation of sheer chops and knowledge, that put Hofbauer in the top tier of guitarists,” he writes.
Hofbauer has been an integral member of Boston’s jazz scene as a musician, bandleader, organizer and educator for the past twenty years. He has performed and recorded alongside such notable collaborators as Han Bennink, Roy Campbell, Jr., John Tchicai, Garrison Fewell, Cecil McBee, George Garzone, Sean Jones, John Fedchock, Steve Swell and Matt Wilson.
Hofbauer, recognized in the 2017 DownBeat Critics’ Poll for Rising Star, is perhaps best known for his solo guitar work featured in a trilogy of solo guitar recordings (American Vanity, American Fear and American Grace). Of the trilogy, Andrew Gilbert of The Boston Globe writes, “No other guitarist in jazz has developed a solo approach as rigorous, evocative, and thoughtful as Hofbauer.” His most recent solo release Ghost Frets, was described by Chris Haines of The Free Jazz Collective “as a real testament to Hofbauer’s musical style and vision…The playing is virtuosic throughout providing a real masterclass in creative solo performance.”
Hofbauer has earned critical acclaim for his work in a variety of musical projects, including his primary ensemble, the Eric Hofbauer Quintet. The EHQ performs his arrangements of groundbreaking 20th century pieces which he describes as “prehistoric jazz.” These arrangements celebrate the common ground between modern jazz and the works of Stravinsky, Messiaen, Ellington, and Ives by using the shared rhythmic and harmonic concepts of the 20th century modernists as a bridge to postmodern jazz improvisation. In November of 2014 the EHQ recordings Prehistoric Jazz Volume 1 (The Rite of Spring) and Volume 2 (Quartet for The End of Time) were featured on NPR’s Fresh Air by noted jazz writer Kevin Whitehead. The 2016 release Prehistoric Jazz Volume 3 (Three Places in New England) was on the Boston Globe’s Top 10 Jazz Album list as well as receiving critical acclaim from Downbeat, The Wire, Tone Audio and other press.
Hofbauer received a Master’s degree from New England Conservatory and a Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory. He directs the big band and combos at Clark University, where he also teaches jazz theory and history. Hofbauer lectures on jazz history at Emerson College, and has for the past 19 years. He has also been visiting professor at Wellesley College and the University of Rhode Island. In 2009, he was honored with the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Music Composition.
In this masterclass we’ll delve into efficiency of motion and how to incorporate your entire upper-body mechanism in piano-playing. We’ll also explore the most stylish, communicative ways to shape phrases—to make the piano as close as possible to the human voice.
Communication gives me the greatest joy in performances! I love making a true connection with the audience, and the wonderful challenge of channeling my own musical voice through the composer’s thoughts and intentions. To “speak” and respond to musical partners through music is also one of the most exciting sensations I can imagine.
I stress studying a breadth of repertoire of all style periods, both at the instrument and away from it—emphasizing both musical knowledge and technique. I will also help you to hone your practice techniques to accommodate varying practice times, and to find efficiency and reliability in technique through complete involvement of the body (as opposed to an unbalanced focus on the fingers alone).
Life as a pianist has meant being a soloist, businessman, chamber musician, publicist, accompanist, manager, teacher, and coach, among many other roles. Because of this, being savvy with social media tools, demo recordings, and other press materials is an indispensable part of any music education.
Aside from becoming the best pianist and musician you can be, it is so important to build a community of colleagues, friends, and collaborators. Longy not only provides this wonderful community, but also all the tools to help you find your own voice and path as a pianist.
Lauded for “superb playing” and “poised, alert musicianship” by the Boston Globe, and labeled “definitely a man to watch” by London’s The Independent, Myer is one of the most respected and sought-after artists on today’s concert stage.
Select Recordings
2017 Bolcom: Piano Rags, by the Steinway & Sons label
2007 Harmonia mundi usa—Busoni, Copland, Debussy, Kohs, acclaimed by Fanfare and Gramophone
2003 Huang Ruo’s Chamber Concerto Cycle, composer-conducted performances of 3 concerti for Naxos
(the concert was hailed by The New York Times as No. 2 of the Top Ten Classical Moments of the year)
Select Competitions
2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition, Gold Medal
2007 William Kapell, 2005 Cleveland, 2005 Busoni international piano competitions, Laureate
2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association
2004 UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa, First Prize
Select Collaborators
Cellist Lynn Harrell, clarinetist David Shifrin, soprano Nicole Cabell, Jupiter and Pacifica String Quartets
Select Teachers
My own education included three influential teachers with very different backgrounds: I studied with Joseph Schwartz (a student of Rosina Lhévinne) and Peter Takács (a student of Leon Fleisher) at Oberlin, and Julian Martin at Julliard (also a student of Fleisher, but with a very different pedagogical approach than Takács). I draw from a combination of these backgrounds in my own teaching.