Mason Community Arts Academy
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Events Music

Mason Community Arts Academy Students Dazzle at Carnegie Hall!

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, of course! After months of dedicated preparation, nine piano students from the Mason Community Arts Academy (MCAA) performed at the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York on October 21. MCAA students have been participating annually in this international event organized by the Instituto Superior de Artes of Costa Rica since 2019. This year’s participants Kiran Das, Eva Gafurova, Jakin Jordan-Brangman, Ryan Miller, Michael Nguyen, Lucas Schnotala, Nicholas Stavrou, Audrey Tan and Margo Xiao, performed music by a wide variety of composers, ranging from Burgmüller and Clementi to Chopin and Debussy. 

It was a bustling weekend for the students and their teachers, Masha Feygelson and Dr. Misha Tumanov, who traveled to support them in New York. While many students left for New York City after school on Friday (arriving late in the evening), and had a 9 a.m. dress rehearsal ahead of Saturday’s afternoon concert, they were able to spend the rest of the weekend enjoying the city through sight-seeing, visiting museums, or catching a Broadway show. Inspired by the historic venue, our students demonstrated an exceptional level of preparation and musicianship. Congratulations to all the performers on this extraordinary achievement!

Quotes from parents and students:

It has been wonderful to watch our daughter grow as a musician and a person from participating in the Carnegie Hall concerts. Working on a few pieces for a big performance has pushed her to develop her artistry and discipline. While piano is often one of the more solitary instruments, events like this bring together a community of kids at all different levels. We enjoy watching everyone perform and the older students are an inspiration for the younger ones. She is also learning so many skills that go beyond the piano — like persistence, hard work and staying calm under pressure. Plus it’s a lot of fun to spend a weekend in NYC!

Thank you so much for giving me the chance to perform at Carnegie Hall for the first time; I feel so lucky and honored. The piano was amazing and the sound filled the hall beautifully! This is one of the best memories in my student life.

Performing at Carnegie Hall has been an incredibly enriching experience for my daughter. She has done it three times starting when she was just 8 years old. Even though she did not know what Carnegie Hall was during that first trip, she could feel the magnificence and musical importance of the venue. I could see her being inspired to rise to the occasion and do her best with confidence. To this day, her best performance each year is when she is playing at Carnegie. It is as if all the history of musical excellence shared on this esteemed stage, along with the support of a great audience during these recitals promote her music to the next level. It’s always an unforgettable experience for all of us — and we always celebrate by going to a Broadway musical afterwards.

Congratulations to our piano students, faculty, and family!

Written by Masha Feygelson

Edited by Regina Schneider

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Events

Mason Community Arts Academy Students Shine at ARTS by George!

MCAA was proud to participate in the annual ARTS by George! celebration on September 28th, presenting a showcase of student work.

Featured were our Spotlight on the Arts scholarship recipient Camryn Carter, a musical theater student under the direction of Adam Lemos and Emi Eiting, performing “Waiting for Life” from the musical Once on this Island. Jakin Jordan-Brangman, a longtime student in Masha Feygelson’s piano studio and another Spotlight on the Arts scholarship recipient, performed Toccata in E-minor. Closing out the presentation was Victoria Hong, a student in Dr. Seon Gyu Park’s voice studio singing “Journey to the Past” from Anastasia, accompanied by esteemed MCAA piano teaching artist Dr. Estrella Hong.

Academy Voice Teaching Artist, Ashlyn Rock (left), performed “Sempre libera” from Verdi’s La Traviata, prior to Lea Salonga’s performance.

ARTS by George! is an important fundraising event for George Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA). Proceeds from the event are distributed to CVPA’s academic units, MCAA, and the Green Machine, to help fund scholarships. Our heartfelt thanks to those who attended our showcases, and to all of the evening’s attendees for their generous support of student work.

You can view more photos from the event on our Facebook and Instagram.

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Events

Special Opportunity for MCAA Students!

Join us for a free program presented by Mason Artist-in-Residence, Ballet Hispánico

Friday, Oct. 4 at 11 a.m.

Recognized as one of America’s cultural treasures, Ballet Hispánico celebrates the multifaceted Hispanic diasporas through vibrant dance in this Hispanic Heritage Month performance. “Everything about Ballet Hispánico is smashingly theatrical—from the stunning individuality and flamboyant, expressive style of its dancers to its use of sets, lighting, costumes and sound” (Chicago Sun-Times).

Recommended for grades 6-12

The performance is free to students and their chaperones. In addition to complimentary tickets to this performance, MCAA and AFYP students and their families are invited to bring a bag lunch to enjoy with our staff, followed by a workshop specially created for us by Ballet Hispánico!

Program Schedule:

11 am – Noon – Ballet Hispánico matinee performance – complimentary admission

Noon – 1 pm – Lunch on Grand Tier (please bring a nut-free bag lunch and water bottle)

1pm – 2 pm – Latin social dance discovery workshop on the Center for the Arts stage

These discovery workshops are dance sessions that focus on the techniques of traditional, social, contemporary, and urban dance forms of Latin dance. Students will likely recognize elements from the performance in the workshop!

Admission is free, but registration is required for an accurate participant count. Please use the following link to register, and we will send a reminder prior to the event date. Registration deadline is Monday, September 30, 2024.

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Events

Opera Lafayette Presents Pergolesi

Opera Lafayette presents

Pergolesi

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Terrace Theater
Washington, DC
Thursday, February 2, 2023, 7:30pm


Pre-Concert Lecture 6:30-7:00pm in the theatre by scholar Rebecca Harris-Warrick 

This program is dedicated to the music of Pergolesi, whose enormous popularity during the era of Madame de Pompadour inspired the Guerre des Bouffons, an intellectual and artistic battle between partisans of Italian and French music. The performance will feature a semi-staged program of the Italian composer’s extraordinarily popular comedy La Servante maîtresse and a concert rendition of his beloved Stabat Mater, conducted by Patrick Dupré Quigley.  

Opera Lafayette has graciously offered a 55% discount to MCAA students and their families with code Pergolesi23.

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Community Outreach Events Instruments in the Attic

Instruments in the Attic: Instrument Drive

The first Mason Band Concert of the academic year will take place on Monday, October 17th at 7:30pm in Mason’s Center for The Arts Concert Hall, featuring the Mason Symphonic Band and Wind Symphony, conducted by the new Director of Concert Bands, Dr. William L. Lake, Jr.

Dr. Lake has sparked a partnership with MCAA’s Instruments in the Attic Program by initiating an Instrument Drive to be held at each of the Mason band concerts this year, beginning with his inaugural concert as Director of Concert Bands on 10/17. The next concert dates will be Mason Symphonic Band on 11/21 and Mason Wind Symphony on 12/1. Instruments can be dropped off at the MCAA table in the Center for The Arts lobby prior to each of these concerts, beginning at 7pm. A representative from MCAA will be there to facilitate donations and to answer any questions you may have.

Instruments in the Attic works to give donated instruments a new life by getting them into the hands of students and teachers in need. All donations to help us continue this mission are greatly appreciated! Any questions can be directed via email to Samantha Clarke, Coordinator of the Instruments in the Attic program at [email protected]. We hope you can join us at these concerts and that you consider donating any instruments you have that are no longer being used!

Tickets and more information can be found here: https://music.gmu.edu/events/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D670607084

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