WHAT WE DO
SPECIAL EVENTS
Throughout the academic year, we hold special events that provide additional opportunities for our students and our community to engage with our faculty and visit our school. These include guest speakers/performers, department or academy-wide performances, children's concerts, workshops, and more! Get on our email list so you don't miss our special events.
piano.night.songs
Guest recital featuring richard valitutto
Wednesday, April 8
7:00p
MANC Performance Hall
Free and open to the public
Described as “a keyboard superstar” with “formidable artistry” and “a crystalline lyricism very much their own” (The New Yorker), and a “spellbinding,” “vigorously virtuosic," “all around go-to new music specialist” (LA Times), richard valitutto is a GRAMMY-nominated piano soloist, chamber musician, vocal accompanist, and composer/arranger. They have collaborated and performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Tiny Desk Concerts, PBS Great Performances, the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin and the Deutsche Oper, and the American Academies in Rome and Berlin, among many others. Their debut solo album of premiere recordings of contemporary works, nocturnes & lullabies (New Focus) was released in March 2020 to critical acclaim.
Since 2010, valitutto has been a founding member of the Los Angeles-based ensemble Wild Up, most notably as “pianist, and resident [Julius] Eastman scholar” (Vogue), contributing their piano artistry, incisive writing, and tenacious research efforts to the ensemble’s ongoing Julius Eastman Anthology, dedicated to the late composer’s music. Released annually on New Amsterdam Records to wide-spread acclaim, Volume 2 (2022) and Volume 3 (2023) were both Grammy-nominated for Best Classical Compendium, and Volume 4 (2024) contained valitutto’s deeply personal, virtuosic rendition of Eastman’s only surviving piano solo composition, Piano 2. Last year, valitutto was the editorial advisor to a new performance score edition of Eastman’s FEMENINE, and author of the foreword and performance notes, now available from G. Schirmer, Inc.
This year, valitutto is completing a DMA in Keyboard Studies at Cornell University, with a dissertation project on performing the works of Julius Eastman. They hold additional degrees from the California Institute of the Arts (MFA) and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (BM, summa cum laude).
socials: @pianotutto
www.richardvalitutto.com
JAZZ WORKSHOPS
Sundays: 4/12, 5/10, 6/14
2:00p - 3:30P
MANC Performance Hall
Free to the public
Our talented and passionate faculty will guide you on a jazz journey. There's no better way to learn technique and improv than jumping right in, so bring your instrument and join us.
April Topic: A drummer's approach to playing jazz
ROCK BAND KARAOKE
Sunday, April 26
2:00p-3:30p
Allen Recital Hall
Free to the public
Want to be in a rock band? Sit-in with members of MANC's faculty 'karaoke' style, but play guitar, bass, drums, or sing! Setlist is coming soon.