Concerts & Festivals

Festival of Voices

This festival consists of two "All-State" quality honors choruses comprised of high school students, nominated by their choir directors, from public and private high schools through the State of Florida. Students work closely with the Festival directors in intense rehearsals focusing on musicianship skills, voice building, and ensemble performance. The choirs also rehearse and perform ‘side-by-side’ with University of South Florida college choirs and members of The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, one of the nation's foremost symphonic choirs.

Our goal is to provide students with the highest levels of musical achievement through education and performance experiences. Students will experience concerts, masterclasses, and perform with seasoned professionals on traditional and exciting new choral repertoire, hosted by USF's School of Music faculty and The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.

Many thanks to our 2015 Supporting Sponsor, HEADS HOUSE OF MUSIC!

Festival of Winds

The University of South Florida School of Music was proud to present the 45th annual Festival of Winds, December 5-8, 2019. Our festival consists of three concert bands that are comprised of high school students, nominated by their band directors, from public and private high schools throughout the state of Florida.

Each year the festival invites three guest clinicians from prestigious colleges and universities to direct the various bands. This year's conductors are Alex Kaminsky (VanderCook College of Music), Dr. Linda Moorhouse (University of Illinois), and Dr. Shanti Simon (The University of Oklahoma).

Our goal is to provide students with the highest levels of musical achievement through education and performance experiences. Throughout their stay, students will experience a multitude of concerts, master classes, and clinics hosted by USF's School of Music faculty.

Visit Festival of Winds page
Contact Us: Email | Phone: (813) 974-3668

Monday Night Jazz Series

This Semester on Stage

Monday Night Jazz Series: Jazz Ensemble I Concert Live Stream
Tuesday, April 6, 2021 8:00 pm, on YouTube
The next USF Online Jazz Concert in this series will feature USF Guest Faculty Artist, composer/saxophonist --and Grammy nominee --REMY LE BOEUF with the USF JAZZ ENSEMBLE I, on April 6, again sponsored by the USF School of Music and the Tampa Jazz Club.

IMPORTANT UPDATE MARCH 12, 2020

The health and wellness of the USF community is always our first priority. In light of the continuing concerns about COVID-19 (coronavirus), all university-sponsored events on campus scheduled in the next 30 days are postponed or canceled. For the latest information, visit USF's coronavirus website.

About

The USF School of Music and the Tampa Jazz Club are partnering to present the 21st season of Monday Night Jazz, a series of performances by prominent jazz artists with USF faculty and student ensembles. The series includes five evenings in the beautiful USF Concert Hall, with tickets available individually or for the entire series.

“Monday Night Jazz is one of the real jewels in the Bay Area arts scene,” said Tampa Jazz Club president Bob Seymour, “and we’re so excited to be part of it.”

Since its beginning in 1996, Monday Night Jazz has not only brought top-flight performances to area audiences, but enriched the USF experience with clinics and master classes. “One of the valuable aspects of the Monday Night Jazz Series is that our students get to interact with great jazz artists every month,” said USF Jazz Studies Director Jack Wilkins.

Tickets for Monday Night Jazz are available from the Tampa Jazz Club.

Interested in receiving information about future Jazz events at the USF School of Music? Join our mailing list.

View Past MNJS Concerts.

Penneys Piano Festival

The USF School of Music is proud to sponsor the annual Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival for another summer of music instruction, recitals, holistic learning, and more. The festival attracts renowned music educators, speakers, and student pianists from around the world. Festival students also have numerous performance opportunities at venues around the Tampa Bay area.

Rebecca Penneys is a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral soloist, educator, and adjudicator who has performed in the United States, East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Canada. Penneys is Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, Artist-in-Residence at St. Petersburg College, and President of the non-profit Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano Incorporated. She established the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in 2013 in order to give individualized attention to young pianists through a tuition-free festival.

Visit the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival website for full information about applying for the tuition-free summer program and attening the numerous public performances.

By clicking on this link you will be leaving the University of South Florida’s School of Music website and visiting the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, an entity operated independently of the University of South Florida. rebeccapenneyspianofestival.org

Rutenberg Festival

About the Joan & Daniel Rutenberg Chamber Music Series

This series of concerts is made possible through a generous endowment created by Joan and Daniel Rutenberg, their family, and friends.

The Joan and Daniel Rutenberg Chamber Music Series annually brings acclaimed international musicians to the USF School of Music for world-class performances. The Series also provides extraordinary opportunities for USF students and the community at large to hear some of the finest chamber musicians in the world and promotes the appreciation and enjoyment of great classical chamber music.

The USF School of Music, from its very beginning, has endeavored to be a leading cultural resource for the Tampa Bay area, offering some of the first public concerts and bringing in professional guest artists, as well as presenting stellar faculty and student recitals. Today, that legacy for innovation and inspiration continues at an international scale through more than 300 public concerts annually and including, in addition to the Rutenberg Chamber Music Series, performances by bands, jazz bands, orchestras, choruses, ensembles of every imaginable variety, and solo recitals.

The USF School of Music’s Barness Recital Hall and its main Concert Hall are recognized as among the top acoustically perfect spaces for music performance in the nation. The School of Music also has the added prestige of recently being named an All Steinway School – one of just over 100 in the world – joining renowned institutions such as Juilliard, Oberlin, and USC.

Series Events

Serafin String Quartet

Thursday, February 15, 2018, 7:30pm - Barness Recital Hall - Ticketed

Featuring Haydn String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 74, No.3 “Horseman,” Still Danzas de Panama for string quartet and Mendelssohn e minor Op. 44, No. 2.

Serafin String Quartet has been hailed for "silken finesse and gritty vibrancy" in Gramophone Magazine and for "playing with style and sophistication" by The Strad Magazine. In 2016, the Serafins performed New York premieres of two works by Julia Adolphe in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, where the Quartet debuted in 2004. They have consistently received superlatives in the press and ovations from audiences around the nation. The Quartet's highly acclaimed Naxos (2013) release featuring world premiere recordings of early chamber works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon was listed as “Top 10 Classical Albums in 2013” by Philadelphia’s City Paper. Their debut recording on Centaur (2010 - an "American Tapestry” of works by Barber, Dvorák, Gershwin and William Grant Still) was highly praised in numerous publications, including The Strad.

Featured by Strings Magazine for innovative concert programming, and repeat guests on WRTI’s Crossover, Serafin String Quartet presents traditional formal concert programs as well as innovative “collage concerts,” and they collaborate frequently with artists such as pianist Charles Abramovic, cellist Norman Fischer, and violist Steven Tenenbom. The Serafins serve as Quartet in Residence at the University of Delaware and take their name from master violin maker, Sanctus Serafin, who in 1728 crafted the violin currently played by Kate Ransom. The other members play Testore instruments from the same era, thanks to generous support from Dr. William Stegeman. For more information, please visit the Serafin Quartet website.

South Florida Clarinet Fest

The 2014 South Florida Clarinet Fest held on the campus of the University of South Florida was a success. The Festival featured Guest Artists Dr. Raphael Sanders (Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam), Louis DeMartino (University of Oregon), Mauricio Murcia Bedoya (International Soloist and Composer), and Dr. Tim Phillips (Troy University). Featured vendors include D'Addario Woodwinds, Vandoren, Selmer Paris Clarinets, Buffet Clarinets, and Bringe Music.

The 2014 South Florida Clarinet Fest was made possible through the generous support of D'Addario and Selmer Paris.

For additional information please contact Artistic Director, Calvin Falwell.

Check back for more information about the next South Florida Clarinet Fest.

Steinway Piano Series

About the Steinway Piano Series

Artistic Director: Svetozar Ivanov

Founded and directed by Svetozar Ivanov, USF Music Professor and Director of the Piano Program, the Steinway Piano Series is sponsored by The Music Gallery of Clearwater. This distinguished annual series, currently in its 10th season, brings premier international pianists to perform in the University's new Music Building and Concert Hall, recognized as among the top acoustically perfect spaces for music performance in the nation. The School of Music also has the added prestige of having being named an "All Steinway School," one of just over 100 in the world.

2021 Spring Season

The Steinway Piano Series is pleased to present the 2021 Spring Season through free online concerts. Each program will feature several Steinway Series guests from past seasons. All performances will be recorded at the Artists' homes exclusively for our Steinway Series audience.

Stay tuned for details about each program and links to the streaming platforms. For the latest updates visit the series Facebook page.

View the livestream (the performances will not be available for later online viewing).

Concert Dates

Sunday, January 24, 4pm EST
This first concert will feature Pascal Rogé, John O'Conor, and Rebecca Penneys performing works by Field, Chopin, Brahms, Scriabin, Satie, Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel

Sunday, February 21, 4pm EST
The Steinway Piano Series online concert will take us to Italy, Denmark, The Czech Republic, Georgia, and Michigan. Arthur Greene, Marco Tezza, Søren Rastogi, Raffi Besalyan, and Art Duo (Jana and Philipp Subbotin) will perform from their homes exclusively for the Steinway Series audience. the program will feature works by Franz Liszt, Gabriel Fauré, Leoš Janáček, Keith Jarrett, Aram Khachaturian, George Gershwin, and Nikolai Kapustin.

Sunday, March 14, 4pm EST
The Steinway Piano Series online concert will take us to Russia, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Vermont, and New York. Tatiana Brizhaneva, Natalia Ehwald, Karlo Ivanovic, Elżbieta Bilicka, Paul Orgel, and David Kalhous will perform works by Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Janaček, Szymanowski, Prokofiev, and Medtner.

Sunday, April 11, 4pm EST
This Steinway Piano Series online concert will take us to The Netherlands, Ukraine, UK, Georgia, and Florida. Henry Kelder, Maria Narodytska, Kumi Matsuo, Liza Stepanova, and Jasmin Arakawa will perform works by Couperin, Scarlatti, Bach, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Fauré, Dohnányi, Kelder, and Czernowin.

Sunday, April 18, 4pm EST
Steinway Piano Series presents a gala concert of the winners of the 2021 Steinway Series USF Piano Competition.

School of Music

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