As part of its current “Arts Across America” online performance series, the Kennedy Center will present UMass Department of Music & Dance professor Felipe Salles in a performance titled “Revisiting The New Immigrant Experience” on Monday, October 26 at 4 p.m.  Fine Arts Center event page

“I also believe one should seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. With that kind of inquisitiveness, one discovers things that were unknown before.” – Yusef Lateef (1920-2013)

Yusef Lateef, whose 100th birthday anniversary falls on October 9, lived those words to their fullest by engaging a myriad of intellectual, spiritual, and musical pursuits throughout his life. Lateef taught jazz and music education at UMass from 1987 until his retirement in 2002.

Information for music & dance students on classes, ensembles, and expectations of students for fall 2020. Music students, also see Building Protocols & Procedures page.

Assistant Professor of Horn Joshua Michal has just released his first solo CD, titled Ekphrasis, on MSR Classics. The CD’s title is taken from a work of the same name composed by Music and Dance Department Chair Salvatore Macchia that is featured on the new release.

Instrumental jazz faculty members Jeff Holmes (piano/trumpet), Tom Giampietro (drums), Fumi Tomita (bass) and Felipe Salles (saxophones) have released a new CD of their original music on Summit Records. The group is called HGTS, an acronym of their last names, and the title is taken from one of the Holmes tunes, “..and then they played...”.

Flute Professor Cobus du Toit has released 3 CDs of the complete flute chamber works by French composer Jacques Castérède, on Naxos.
Voice Professor Jamie-Rose Guarrine’s debut CD of songs set to poems by Dickinson, Whitman & Emerson was released on Navona.
Music faculty Eric Berlin (trumpet), Greg Spiridopoulos (trombone), and Ludmila Krasin (piano) are featured on a new CD on MSR Classics, Along the Continuum.