The New School Mannes
| At Mannes School of Music, we’ve transformed the traditional music conservatory by integrating rigorous classical training with boundary-pushing performance experiences and opportunities to collaborate across disciplines. Mentored by world-class artists and educators, Mannes students imbibe an entrepreneurial outlook and prepare to chart their own course in today’s ever-evolving music landscape. While some Mannes graduates work in the world’s premier orchestras, ensembles and opera houses, others launch their own solo or collaborative enterprises, making their unique impact felt as innovative music makers, business leaders, scholars and educators. |
Area of Specialization
| Brass | Our brass faculty includes a preeminent collection of musicians. Study with members of The Metropolitan Opera brass section, including the principal and second trumpet, David Krauss and Ray Riccomini, principal trombones, Demian Austin and Weston Sprott, principal horn, Erik Ralske, retired second horn, Michelle Baker, and former principal trumpet, Mark Gould. Play and learn alongside visionaries like bass trombonist David Taylor who transcends the boundaries between jazz and classic, or prominent orchestral players like bass trombonist Nick Schwartz and tubist Alan Baer from the New York Philharmonic. |
| Collaborative Piano | The students selected for a degree in Collaborative Piano must first have excellent solo piano skills, at the level of a graduate of a conservatory undergraduate piano degree program. The number of students admitted is limited and the atmosphere of the program places an emphasis on intimacy, trust, the ability to listen deeply and develop new language skills and interpersonal skills, in addition to performance and technique. |
| Composition | Hone your skills alongside some of the most preeminent and accomplished composers working today, including David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Huang Ruo, Paul Moravec, and Lowell Liebermann. This wide range of active teaching voices fosters a healthy environment in which you can develop, experiment, and flourish. |
| Conducting | Our conducting faculty includes a preeminent collection of musicians. Study with Mannes Orchestra Director David Hayes, and interact with luminaries like David Fulmer and Alan Pierson, conductors of Mannes American Composers Ensemble. Take Master Classes with outside professionals and explore various non-musical topics, such as the state of the business, public relations and budgeting, and how to survive a conducting career across a range of performing ensembles, including choral conducting and Broadway Musical work. |
| Guitar | Our guitar faculty includes a preeminent collection of musicians. Mannes graduates Frederic Hand and Michael Newman, both of whom are legends in their own right, co-lead the Classical Guitar department. They are joined each semester by guest artists from all over the world who lead students in master classes. Recent visitors include Oscar Ghiglia, Roland Dyens, Benjamin Verdure, Eliot Fisk, and Scott Tennant and William Kanengiser, members of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. These masters are currently joined by our resident artists, the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo. |
| Percussion | Our percussion faculty includes a preeminent collection of musicians, active on the New York music scene. Study under artists like Maya Gunji, a timpani player in the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Or Joseph Tompkins, a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and a champion of new music who has performed with New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and other major ensembles. Or, take courses with Glen Velez, multiple Grammy Award-winner and “founding father” of the modern frame drum movement. Our faculty also includes Michael Werner, percussionist in Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and member of the Metropolitan Chamber Ensemble. |
| Piano | Our piano and harpsichord faculty includes a preeminent collection of artist mentors. In the robust Master Class series, weekly lessons, and piano classes, you’ll study under the guidance of some of the most distinguished artists in the field. Draw inspiration from the students who came before you, including Murray Perahia, world-class pianist Richard Goode, and Yekwon Sunwoo, recent graduate and winner of the 2018 Cliburn Competition. |
| Strings | Our Strings faculty is a preeminent group of musicians. Perform side by side with Mannes’ quartet-in-residence, the JACK Quartet, recently hailed by the New York Times as the “nation’s most important quartet.” Study under veteran double bass teacher Orin O’Brien, the first female member of the New York Philharmonic, or David Grossman, double bass in the New York Philharmonic. Take lessons with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, like concertmaster David Chan or principal harp Emmanuel Ceysson. Study with acclaimed cellists; Jeffrey Zeigler, a former Kronos Quartet member; or Timothy Eddy, an Orion String Quartet member. |
| Voice | Our theory faculty includes distinguished theorists like Carl Schachter and Robert Cuckson. Mannes faculty regularly present papers in major conferences, and many graduates go on to doctoral studies and jobs both in the field and in academia. Professor Lynne Rogers, former president of the Society of Music Theory and an expert on Stravinsky, leads the department. |
| Theory | You’ll receive highly focused technical training in weekly private voice lessons, as well as opera coachings, language and diction classes, and vocal repertory electives such as American, Spanish and Russian Art Song, German lieder, French chanson and the Italian aria. You’ll also benefit from master classes with visiting artists and music professionals, supporting you as you polish your technique and make essential career connections. |
| Woodwinds | Our winds faculty includes a preeminent collection of musicians and active performers on the New York music scene. They hold chairs in top ensembles, including American Ballet Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Mostly Mozart, New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Ensemble, New York Chamber Symphony and many others. Bassoonist Kim Laskowski and Oboist Sherry Sylar play for the New York Philharmonic; Elaine Douvas is principal oboe for the Met, Judith Mendenhall is principal flautist for ABT; Clarinetist David Krakauer, in addition to enjoying a distinguished chamber music career, plays klezmer music all over the world. |
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