May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins Passes Away at 95
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
On May, the New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston will celebrates its 131st Commencement at 3:00 p.m.
Young Concert Artists Founder and Director Susan Wadsworth will present this year’s Commencement Address, and will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree. Other 2002 honorary doctorate recipients include: Venezuelan youth orchestra system mastermind José Antonio Abreu, jazz saxophone legend Sonny Rollins, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Perle.
Approximately 250 musicians will receive the Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees as well as undergraduate, graduate, and artist diplomas. NEC will also award its first Professional Certificate in The Art of String Quartet Playing to the Kuss Quartet of Germany. This new program, designed to provide concentrated professional training to very select pre established string quartets, is led by NEC faculty Paul Katz, the founding cellist of the Grammy Award-winning Cleveland Quartet. The Kuss Quartet, the first to enroll in this elite program, has been at NEC for the past year under Katz’s tutelage.
Onstage, Rollins would move about restlessly, thrusting his tenor sax in the air as he blew.
May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
Cécile McLorin Salvant busts out Jelly Roll Morton’s “The Murder Ballad” at Big Ears, here with pianist Sullivan Fortner.
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The scene still sticks with me. I had heard the oddball name of this new group being dropped around town, and…
Ava Preston, a 12-time DownBeat Student Music Award winner, is currently pursuing her master’s degree in jazz voice at Juilliard.
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Ava Preston, from Cleveland, Ohio, was named the winner of the ninth annual Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition on…
