School Notes: School of Music
July/August 2024

Alumna named dean at Eastman School

Kate Sheeran ’04MusM was named the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. Sheeran has worked as executive director of the Kaufman Music Center in New York City, as provost and dean at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and as assistant dean at the Mannes School of Music at the New School in New York. Sheeran, who studied horn at the Yale School of Music, has performed with such notable ensembles as the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Alarm Will Sound and has taught at several universities. Sheeran serves on the Yale School of Music’s Alumni Advisory Board.

Recent grad wins Met competition

Tenor Daniel Espinal ’24MusM is a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, which has yielded such celebrated winners as Kathleen Battle, Lawrence Brownlee, Renée Fleming, Jessye Norman, and Eric Owens. Espinal and four other competition winners each received a $20,000 cash prize. After graduation, Espinal began an artist apprenticeship at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center.

Percussion group receives grant

Sandbox Percussion—a percussion group that includes Jonny Allen ’13MusM, ’14MusAD; Victor Caccese ’13MusM; Ian Rosenbaum ’10MusM, ’11MusAD; and Terry Sweeney ’15MusM—was awarded a $25,000 Avery Fisher Career Grant, which is “designed to give professional assistance and recognition to talented instrumentalists, as well as chamber ensembles, who . . . have great potential for major careers in classical music,” a press release issued by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which administers the Avery Fisher Artist Program, explained. “This marks the first time a percussion ensemble has been awarded a Career Grant,” the press release said.