Binghamton University Music Department

10/30/2026

Christina Taylor, a graduate of the Fredonia School of Music, has had a wide variety of musical experiences including performing with the Gregg Smith Singers of New York City, The Woodley Ensemble of Washington, D.C., The Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, and the Southern Tier Singers’ Collective. Christina has been a featured soloist with The Gregg Smith Singers, The Madrigal Choir of Binghamton, The Trinity Choir, The Ithaca Community Chorus, and can also be heard as a soloist on numerous recordings including the Stravinsky Mass on the CBS Masterworks label. She is also active in the theatre, performing locally with SRO Productions, Ti-Ahwaga Community Players, Tri-Cities Opera, EPAC, and The Cidermill Playhouse. Christina was the soprano with the Binghamton based group known as Early On, from which this collaboration with Paul Sweeny stems and has been delighted to again perform this incredible repertoire.

10/29/2026

Paul Sweeny earned a BA in music from Harpur College, presenting the first student classical guitar recital in the history of the school. He later returned to earn his master's in music history.

Sweeny has taught at SUNY Broome more than 30 years and created the school’s guitar program, its sequence of music history classes and a class in the history of popular music. Over the years, Sweeny has taught music history, including 10 years of teaching pop rock and soul music, as well as guitar lessons at Binghamton University and is currently directing the reconstituted Guitar Ensemble.

Sweeny is the president of the Classical Guitar Society of Upstate New York and is a frequent performer in the area, both as a soloist and as a member of the duo Simple Gifts with recorder player Barbara Kaufman. He also maintains a private guitar studio in Binghamton.

Join us this Sunday for A Celebration of Dowland at 4pm in Casadesus Recital Hall.

10/27/2026

Paul Sweeny gives interviews with Bill Snyder about his upcoming faculty recital: A Celebration of Dowland. Sweeny is joined by soprano Christina Taylor and others for an afternoon of songs and solos written for lute. Join us this Sunday, November 1st at 4:00pm for this free concert in Casadesus Recital Hall.

Arts and Culture The Art of Melancholy: Binghamton University celebrates John Dowland’s haunting music WSKG | By Bill Snyder Published October 19, 2026 at 2:37 PM EDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 7:34 Photo credit: Binghamton University Music Department The Binghamton University Mus...

10/22/2026

Described as “insanely clever” (ClassicFM, United Kingdom), “full of crystalline clarity” (Südkurier, Germany) and possessing a “theatrical…ricocheting intensity” (The New York Times), Thomas Giles performs the music of our time with tireless curiosity, imagination, and unwavering conviction. To date Giles has premiered more than 250 new works—many of which are dedicated to him. He has enjoyed working closely with many leading composers e.g., Michael Gordon, Meredith Monk, David Lang, and Charles Wuorinen. Recent premieres include works by Steven Mackey, Chris Dench, Augusta Read Thomas, and choreographer Kyle Abraham. His growing body of solo repertoire hones a fascination with simultaneity and the multilimbic potentials of a single wind performer.

Giles will be performing in the Anderson Center Chamber Hall on Monday, October 26th at 7:30pm

Tickets at: music.binghamton.edu/events.html

10/22/2026

Through sketches, correspondence, and recordings, Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition, Hippocrates Cheng's Toronto fellowship traces how John Beckwith transformed poetry into music. Read more about this story here, and for more news and upcoming events visit: music.binghamton.edu

https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/6545/music-professor-explores-creative-process-behind-canadian-composers-songs

Through sketches, correspondence, and recordings, Hippocrates Cheng’s Toronto fellowship traces how John Beckwith transformed poetry into music.

10/21/2026

Still time to get your tickets!

A contralto and pianist will explore the joys, complications and heartbreak of a woman’s life through art song in an upcoming concert presented by the Binghamton University Music Department.

“Love, Loss and Dreams: A Woman’s Life in Song” features contralto Brenda Iglesias and pianist Curt Pajer in a program that includes music by Robert Schumann, Manuel de Falla and Mexican composer Gustavo Campa.

Schumann’s song cycle, written in 1840, follows a woman through falling in love, marriage and motherhood, before confronting the loss of her husband. Iglesias acknowledges that the work reflects the limited expectations placed on women in the 19th century, but says its musical richness makes it worth revisiting.

“Despite all that situation, I think it’s beautiful musically,” Iglesias said. She particularly admires the way Schumann’s piano writing complements the voice.

Read more at wskg.org/arts

10/20/2026

Listen to Brenda Iglesias and Curt Pajer talk about their upcoming performance: Love, Loss, & Dreams: a woman's life in Song. Join us this Saturday, October 24th at 7:30pm in the Anderson Center Chamber Hall.

Arts and Culture Binghamton University Concert Explores Love, Loss and Dreams Through Song WSKG | By Bill Snyder Published October 16, 2026 at 3:16 PM EDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 9:42 Photo credit: Binghamton University Music Department A contralto and pianist will explore the jo...

10/19/2026

Equally at home on the concert stage, opera podium and coaching studio, Curt Pajer has forged a teaching and performing career that balances collaborative piano, vocal coaching and conducting.
For 15 years, he served as the musical and managing director of opera and musical theater at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; prior to that, he was the head of music staff at both the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the Wexford Festival Opera. He has also served as an assistant conductor and vocal coach at prestigious opera houses and festivals, including New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Colorado, Prague National Theater (Czech Republic), the Nissei Theater (Tokyo), New York Philharmonic, Bard SummerScape, Palm Beach Opera, Toledo Opera and Baltimore Opera. In 2025, he joined the faculty of the Prague Summer Nights festival.
As an operatic conductor, Pajer’s repertoire ranges from Mozart to world premieres, including the Mozart/DaPonte trilogy, La Clemenza di Tito, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Hansel and Gretel, Ariadne auf Naxos, Zanetto, Une education manquée, Docteur Miracle, Les mamelles de Tirésias, Postcard from Morocco and Glory Denied. He also led a complete cycle of Benjamin Britten's chamber operas in San Francisco. A champion of modern opera, Pajer conducted the West Coast premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park and The Enchanted Pig, as well as the world premiere of William Bolcom's orchestrated version of his opera Lucrezia. In 2021, San Francisco's classical radio station KDFC broadcast Pajer's recording of Giancarlo Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief; it was recorded with soloists and orchestra during the COVID-19 lockdown, using state-of-the-art closed-circuit audio and video technology with the singers and orchestral musicians in separate rooms.
Pajer is also an active recitalist, most recently performing with renowned soprano Lisette Oropesa at the opening night concert of Festival Napa Valley

Event link in page bio

05/26/2026