Thanks to all of you who submitted answers to this year’s News of Note puzzle by ACMP pianist and puzzle-master Susan Alexander. This year’s puzzle was tricky – and actually, there were many creative ways to group these 12 composers. So – maybe there was no actual “right” answer, but we chose a winner who best matched the intended answers.

And the winner is….

Jessi Vandagriff from Orem, Utah

Jessi is a professional bassoonist and educator in Orem, Utah – and on occasion she has even received Play-In grants to host chamber music Play-Ins in her home. She is a multifaceted musician with a wide range of interests. Read more about Jessi here.

2025 News of Note Puzzle Answers

To recap – here is the original puzzle:

This year’s puzzle by Susan Alexander is a riff on the NY Times’s Connections. Your job is to sort the composers in the grid into 4 groups of 3 by determining what each group has in common.  For example, if the composers Glass, Field, and Beach were in the grid, you might guess that they were connected by being a word that is often followed by “house.”  But that is just one kind of connection.  It’s not an easy puzzle, so here’s a hint: Two of the categories have connections to ACMP activities from this past year; two are pure wordplay.

And here are the intended answers…

Ireland, Britten, Montgomery: Word-play on place names – with “Britten” standing in for “Britain,” and Montgomery is a popular town name in multiple states – it’s even a town in Wales

Barber, Cooke, Boulanger: Word-play on occupations – “Cooke” being “cook”, and “Boulanger” meaning “baker” in French

Schoenberg, Brahms, Ives: Subjects of ACMP Listening Club and Film Club events

Chopin, Haydn, Bach: Composers with birthdays in March. That was a tricky one! The clue was that ACMP celebrated Haydn’s birthday all throughout the month of March. And actually, ACMP’s Worldwide Play-In Weekend used to be coordinated around Bach’s birthday – but – not everyone agrees on the date: either March 21 or March 31

Meanwhile – if any of you would like to submit a chamber music-themed puzzle for next year’s News of Note, please send it to Joseph at jbrock@acmp.net.