Faculty Draft 01
Full-Time Faculty
A.J. McCaffrey
Associate Professor, Coordinator of Musicianship
A.J. McCaffrey is a songwriter and composer of instrumental, vocal and electronic music. With a background in theater, fine arts and literature, and an upbringing that has fostered a love for a wide variety of musical styles, A.J. writes music that strives to tell a story. His works are theatrical in nature, employing harmonically rich and lyrically striking sound worlds to create moving, dramatic narratives.
Hailed by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as a composer of music “imbued with an extraordinary wit and intelligence”, A.J. received the Academy’s 2014 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship. He has been commissioned to write music for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tanglewood Music Center and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. A.J.’s music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, the New Fromm Players, the Radius Ensemble, the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble and by members of the Chiara Quartet, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Alarm Will Sound, Boston's Firebird Ensemble and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. A fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and Aspen Music Festival and School, A.J. has been a featured composer on BMOP's The Next Next series, Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music and the New Gallery Concert Series. His orchestral work Thank You for Waiting was chosen for the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, and he was subsequently awarded the 2013 Underwood Emerging Composers Commission. Recent collaborations include works for violist Jonah Sirota, HOCKET piano duo, clarinetist Julia Heinen, Project Fusion saxophone quartet, and the Light Matter Trio.
A.J. holds degrees in music from Rice University, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the University of Southern California. He has studied composition with Richard Lavenda, James MacMillan, Donald Crockett and Stephen Hartke. A passionate educator, A.J. was one of the founding instructors for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s groundbreaking Composer Fellowship Program. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music at California State University Northridge. A native of the Boston area, A.J. lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two children.
Education
D.M.A. 2013, University of Southern California M.Mus
1999, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama B.A. 1998, Rice University
Andrew Surmani
Professor of Music Industry Studies and Academic Lead of the Master of Arts in Music Industry Administration Degree Program
Andrew Surmani is Professor of Music Industry Studies and Graduate Coordinator of the CSUN M.A. in Music Industry Administration degree program. He has been working for over 35 years as an executive in the music industry. He is the President & CEO of Surmani Business Coaching, and prior to that served as the CEO of Caleb Chapman’s Soundhouse, and Chief Marketing Officer for Alfred Music, where he oversaw global sales, marketing and product development and helped consolidate company operations following the largest acquisition in print music publishing history, Warner Brothers Publications. He launched and oversaw major product lines and expanded into global markets.
Andrew is co-author of the best-selling series in North America for over two decades, ""Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory,"" as well as the ""Copyright Handbook for Music Educators and Directors,"" 2nd Edition. Andrew also works as a freelance musician, and has performed in the Montreux (Switzerland), Istanbul (Turkey), Juan-les-Pins (France), Jazz à Vienne (France), Umbria (Italy), Lake Biwa (Japan), San Sebastian (Spain), and Wigan (England) international jazz festivals, and in Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. Andrew led a band and played lead trumpet in two shows at Walt Disney World, managed high school groups on tour to Hawaii and Japan, and earned an MBA degree. He was a Founding Board Member and is a Past President of the Jazz Education Network (JEN).
Education
M.B.A. 1992, California State University, Northridge
B.M 1986, California State University, Northridge" of Music and Drama
B.A. 1998, Rice University
Diane Roscetti
Professor of Cello, Chamber Music, and Music Entrepreneurship
Professor Roscetti has been at CSUN for twenty years, and currently teaches Cello, Chamber Music and Entrepreneurship, She is the Director of the CSUN Honors String Quartet Program. Prior to coming to CSUN, she was the Director of the School of Performing Arts at the University of Maine, where she was the Cello Professor for twenty-three years and a member of the Faculty Piano Trio which toured extensively. She started an advanced graduate string quartet program there. She has enjoyed a performance career spanning many years, performing at many international music festivals, and performing twenty-one solo and chamber music television/radio broadcasts throughout New England and the Canadian Maritimes. She has performed chamber music with Jacques Israelievitch, concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony; Victor Danchenko of Peabody Conservatory; Jerry Grossman of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Bill Blossom of the New York Philharmonic; Eugenia Zukerman; Steven Isserlis and many others.
Education
D.M.A. 1999, Eastman School of Music
M.M 1995, Eastman School of Music
B.M 1993, University of Toronto
Dmitry Rachmanov
Coordinator of Keyboard Studies
Professor of Piano
Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov is Chair of Keyboard Studies at California State University, Northridge. A sought-after performer, master class clinician, adjudicator and lecturer, Dr. Rachmanov has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and has been a guest artist/lecturer/clinician at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Shanghai and Beijing Central Conservatories.
Rachmanov has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, London’s Barbican and South Bank Centres, at venues across Europe and Asia, and has collaborated as a soloist with the Ukraine National Symphony, and National Orchestra of Porto, among others. He has recorded for Naxos, Parma, Master Musicians and Vista Vera labels.
An active member of the American Liszt Society, Dmitry Rachmanov is the president of the society’s Southern California chapter. He was the Artistic Director of the ALS 2016 Festival “Liszt and Russia,” hosted by CSUN. His summer festivals include Piano Sicily and InterHarmony in Italy, Corfu Piano Institute in Greece, Montecito in California, Adamant in Vermont; In the summer of 2019 he was a resident at the Brahmshouse in Baden-Baden, Germany. He has served as a Co-Director of the ChamberFest @ CSUN Festival.
A proponent of Russian repertoire, Rachmanov gave the US premiere of Boris Pasternak Piano Sonata, broadcast by the NPR, and he is a founding member and President of the Scriabin Society of America. His April 2014 commemorative all-Scriabin program at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall was described as “a ‘poem of ecstasy’ in every sense: giant in conception, quantity, quality, execution, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity” by the New York Concert Review. His 2022 Cambria 2-CD album release “Alexander Scriabin, the 150th Anniversary Celebration,” was praised as a “distinguished recital[…]full of riveting performances” by Fanfare magazine, adding that “Rachmanov may be considered alongside the great Scriabin interpreters.” He is in the process of recording a video anthology of Alexander Scriabin’s piano works.
Dr. Rachmanov is a recipient of numerous awards, among them “Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar” at CSUN and receiving an “Outstanding CAPMT Member State Recognition Award” by California Association of Professional Music Teachers.
Dmitry Rachmanov is a Steinway Artist.
http://dmitryrachmanov.com/
Edcuation
D.M.A. 1989, Manhattan School of Music
M.M 1982, The Julliard School
B.M 1981, The Julliard School
Hilary Yip
Program Coordinator, Music Therapy
Professor Yip, MM, MT-BC is an Assistant Professor of Music Therapy and Director of the Music Therapy Program. A board-certified music therapist for over a decade, she has provided clinical music therapy services in schools, communities, and hospitals with clients ranging from infants to older adults in Texas, Florida, and California. She has worked with individuals with autism and developmental delays, children with learning and communication disorders, patients receiving psychiatric services, adult oncology patients, and adults with Parkinson's Disease. In addition to music therapy, Professor Yip teaches adaptive piano and guitar lessons.
She earned degrees from the University of the Pacific (B.M. in Music Therapy and B.A. in Psychology) and a Master of Music in Music Therapy from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Professor Yip is currently working on her dissertation to complete a Ph.D. in Music Education with Music Therapy emphasis from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Her research focuses on the impact of music and movement interventions to address motor differences of children with autism.