The all-male a capella group "Cayuga's Waiters" has been permanently banned from Cornell University as a result of hazing activities.  The group had been temporarily suspended pending the investigation, but the ban is now permanent.

Reports are that new members had been required to engage in activities such as sitting naked in an ice bath. 

The Cornell Daily Sun has the whole story here.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Broadway producer Roland Scahall scammed investors out of over $165,000 to produce a play about opera star Kathleen Battle.  Schall claimed to have secured the rights to Battle's life story, and also claimed to have hired Lupita  Nyong'o to play Battle.

The play doesn't exist. Scahall admitted that he had never worked with Battle and pled guilty to larceny and fraud.  He will serve six months in jail, and will be on probation for five years.  In addition he will have to repay investors and submit to psychiatric evaluation or treatment.

You can read the entire story here.

Pianist Yakov Kasman won the silver medal in the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth in 1997.  Since that time he has been recording, touring, and teaching at the University of Alabama Birmingham.

It should come as no surprise that his daughter Aleksandra is following in his footsteps.  She has just finished her studies in music and French at UAB where she studied piano with her father.  Aleksandra will be going to New York this fall to begin her Masters studies at Juillard.  She has also already won a number of awards, and performed both in the US and abroad.

On Thursday evening, Aleksandra will be giving a recital at 7:30 in the Hulsey Recital Hall at UAB.  Brahms, Beethoven, Myaskovsky and Brahms will be on the program.

While I have as yet to hear Aleksandra perform, I'm confident we'll be hearing more from her in the future.

Seven Last Words--a new choral work by composer Michael John Trotta--will premiere at Carnegie Hall on May 27.  The piece reflects the seven last words of Christ as he was being crucified.

The composer is a graduate of Louisiana State University, and currently lives in New York.  He often appears at national conventions, and has had other works performed at Carnegie Hall.

The May concert will also feature Faure's Requiem, and Haydn's Mass in a Time of War.  Choirs from five states will be on stage to perform.