The Versa Quartet is one of 12 ensembles in the Senior Winds division selected to move on in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association. This year there were 130 ensembles that applied, representing 16 nationalities. Due to the Covid-19 virus, the semifinalists will not be traveling to compete in South Bend in May. The competition will be judged remotely by world-class jurors.

The Versa Quartet (UI Graduate Saxophone Quartet) has won First Prize in the quartet competition at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Quartet Competition in Tempe, AZ, held March 4-9, 2020.

In addition to the quartet success, quartet member Scott Augustine advanced to the semifinal round of the solo competition. Scott will perform with pianist, and UI alumna, Casey Dierlam Tse.

JTE is now a five-time winner of the American Trombone Workshop’s National Jazz Trombone Ensemble Competition.

Students and faculty recently showcased their talents at the eighth annual Prototype Festival in New York. Billed as the premier festival of music-theatre and opera-theatre, PROTOTYPE: Opera | Theatre | Now presented six new works representing 23 composers and libretists. 

Dani Nutting, DMA student in Flute Performance, is one of thirteen Illinois students and recent alumni who have accepted Fulbright Awards for study this fall.

Watch the complete School of Music Convocation from Sunday, May 12, 2019.

The Khroma Saxophone Quartet have won second place in the Senior Division-Winds/Brass at the 46th Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

University of Illinois students swept the recent competition of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Chicago Chapter, the second largest in the nation!

Pictured are:

Back row: Logan Piker, Stasia Kasimos, Colleen Bruton (1st Place Senior College Women), Dane Brandon, Anna Benoit, Sophia Byrd (1st Place Sophomore College Women), Caroline McKinzie (2nd Place Sophomore College Women, Tafadzwa Diener (1st Place Junior College Women), Jacklyn Ovassapian, Nicholas Koch (3rd Place College Men)

The Elara Quartet, consisting of UI music majors, and the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra Honors Quartet were recently treated to a master class by members of the renowned Kronos Quartet. 

The members of the Elara Quartet (pictured top) are violinists Alyssa Tong and Daniel Ostrow, violist Jacqueline Scavetta, and cellist Terence Lo. 

Get the whole story in the News-Gazette. 

Thereza Lituma and Emma Olson are the 2019 winners of the Thomas J. Smith Scholarship in Music Competition.

Thereza Lituma is a senior studying vocal performance and music education. This February, she will make her main stage debut as the title role in LTI’s production of Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. She is from Chicago, IL and is a graduate of Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. Ms. Lituma is a student of Professor Sylvia Stone.