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Dance
2010s
Billy Barry (BFA ’11) and Bret Easterling (BFA ’10) have been promoted from the Batsheva Ensemble to the Batsheva Dance Company.
Norbert De La Cruz III (BFA ’10) choreographed a new dance for Lustig Dance Theater; it was premiered in February as part of a program at Middlesex County (N.J.) College.
2000s
Carlye Eckert (BFA ’09) and John Sorensen-Jolink co-curated Stuffed: Dinner and Dance With Bailout Theater on February 1 at New York City’s Judson Memorial Church; the evening included original works by Annika
Sheaff (BFA ’06) and others.
When Keigwin + Company presents its annual weeklong residency at the Joyce—this year from June 12 to 17—five alums will be performing. They are Aaron Carr (BFA ’09), Brandon Cournay (BFA ’09), Ariel Freedman (BFA ’05), Kristina Hanna (BFA ’09), and Emily Oldak (BFA ’05).The program includes three world premieres.
Following his residency with choreographer/media artist Jonah Bokaer in Paris, Adam Weinert (BFA ’08) assisted with the choreography and performed in Mars, a new work by the eco-theater company Superhero Clubhouse, which showed at New York City’s Dixon Place in March. In April, Weinert performed in a new Bokaer work inspired by the seminal opera Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass (Diploma ’60, M.S. ’62, composition); the production was at New York City’s Baryshnikov Arts Center. Weinert was featured in an April Dance Magazine article called “When the Camera Is Your Partner” that looked at six choreographers who are making dance works for film. And fourth-year dancer Victoria Bek commissioned Weinert to create a solo for her senior showcase, which takes place in Peter Jay Sharp Theater on May 21.
Caroline Fermin (BFA ’07), Troy Ogilvie (BFA ’07), and Arika Yamada (BFA ’09), dancers with Gallim Dance, performed Gallim founder and artistic director Andrea Miller’s (BFA ’04) Blush at the Vancouver (British Columbia) Playhouse in March. The company will perform Mama Call and Pupil Suite on May 11 at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach as part of the Virginia Arts Festival. And from June 8 to 10 at New York City ’s Joyce Theater, Gallim Dance will present the world premiere of Miller’s Sit, Kneel, Stand.
Doug Letheren (BFA ’07), Shamel Pitts (BFA ’07), and Bobbi Smith (BFA ’06), dancers with Batsheva Dance Company, performed Hora with the company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March. Hora was choreographed by Ohad Naharin (’77), the artistic director of Batsheva.
In April, Annika Sheaff (BFA ’06) presented her duet L-O-V-E at Brooklyn’s Triskelion Arts Comedy in Dance festival with dancers Navarra Novy-Williams (BFA ’06) and John Sorensen-Jolink. In February, she presented her piece In My Head to a record audience at Dixon Place. It was choreographed to music created and performed by Christina Courtin (BM ’05, violin) with dancers Laura Mead (BFA ’06), Lucie Baker (BFA ’08), and Abbey Roesner (BFA ’06).
1990s
In March, Sandra Stanton (BFA ’96) and Jeremy Raia (BFA ’96) presented work at Hamilton College’s annual dance and movement spring concert. Stanton is a lecturer in dance and movement at Hamilton and Raia was a guest choreographer for this concert.
Heather DeLussa (BFA ’93), who is the rehearsal director and a dancer for Nicholas Andre Dance, toured with the company to Colorado, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, and New York City in February and March.
Mark Morris Dance Group, whose members include John Heginbotham (BFA ’93), Aaron Loux (BFA ’09), Amber Star Merkens (BFA ’99), and Spencer Ramirez (’10), performed Morris’s setting of the Virgil Thomson-Gertrude Stein opera Four Saints in Three Acts as well as in the world premiere of Morris’s A Choral Fantasy, set to Beethoven’s piece by the same name, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March.
Elizabeth McPherson (BFA ’90), who is an associate professor of theater and dance at Montclair State University, received an American Fellowship Grant from the American Association of University Women to work on her book Voices From the Bennington School of the Dance (1934-1942), which is to be published by Cambria Press.
1980s
Ann Westhoff Sorvino’s (BFA ’80) dance company, the Sorvino Dance Project, and the Pioneer Consort trio represented the U.S. in the Surin (Thailand) International Folkloric Festival in January. The troupe and the consort reprised their performance in March at the Academy of Music in Northampton, Mass.
Drama
2010s
Justine Lupe (Group 40) is now a regular on David E. Kelley’s NBC crime dramedy Harry’s Law.
Aaron Clifton Moten (Group 40) is the Young Collector in a revival of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire that was directed by Emily Mann and began previews in April at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theater.
Gayle Rankin (Group 40) plays the sister of a deaf man in Tribes by Nina Raine. The production was directed by David Cromer and has been extended to run through September 2 at the Barrow Street Theater.
Melissa Ross (Playwrights ’11) was selected for the Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif. It took place in April and included the fully produced world premiere of her play You Are Here.
Frankie Alvarez (Group 39) has the title role in Hamlet: Prince of Cuba, adapted by Michael Donald Edwards from Shakespeare’s play. Performances take place in English and Spanish (translation by Nilo Cruz) at the Asolo Rep Theater in Sarasota, Fla., through May 6. The production will travel to the South Miami-Dade Cultural Center from May 11 to 13.
In March, Nick Choksi (Group 39) starred in CollaborationTown’s production of The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos at New York City’s New Ohio Theater. Directed by Jordan Seavey and Lee Sunday Evans, it was written by Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell with music by Michael Wells and lyrics by O’Donnell, Wells, and Seavey.
The world premiere of Chimichangas and Zoloft by current Juilliard writer-in-residence Fernanda Coppel (Playwrights ’10) takes place May 23. Directed by Jaime Castañeda at New York City’s Atlantic Theater, the production is schedule to run through June 24.
2000s
Robert Eli (Group 37) co-starred in John Van Druten’s romantic comedy Bell, Book and Candle at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theater in March and early April. The production was directed by Darko Tresnjak and produced in association with Hartford Stage.
The American Theater Critics Association announced Darren M. Canady (Playwrights ’07) as recipient of its M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright. The award will be presented at A.T.C.A.’s June conference in Chicago.
Rising Phoenix Repertory’s Cino Nights series at New York City’s Seventh Street Small Stage will feature several Juilliard alums in the near future. Break Your Face on My Hand by Rising Phoenix artistic director Daniel Talbott (Group 31) will be shown on June 10, and a new play by Cusi Cram (Playwrights ’00) will be seen on June 17. In March, Jimmy Davis (Group 36), Seth Numrich (Group 36), and Amelia Pedlow (Group 39) performed in in Favorites, a new play by Charlotte Miller that was directed by John Michael DiResta, as part of Cino Nights. And in April, there was a play in the series by Brooke Berman (Playwrights ’98).
3C by David Adjmi (Playwrights ’02) will be performed at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater from June 6 through July 15. The co-production with Rising Phoenix Repertory will be directed by Jackson Gay.
Nick Westrate (Group 35) appeared in Brecht’s Galileo (translation by Charles Laughton) at New York City’s Classic Stage Company in New York City. Directed by Brian Kulick, the production ran from February through mid-March.
In March and April, Matt D’Amico (Group 31) made his Broadway debut at the Brooks Atkinson Theater in Peter and the Starcatcher, which is based on the similarly named novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. The production was directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers with a book by Rick Elice.
Sarah Grace Wilson (Group 31) directed Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll at SUNY-Purchase in April.
The Playwrights Horizons 2012-13 season will include two play by Juilliard alums: The Call by Drama Division literary manager Tanya Barfield (Playwrights ’01) and The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter (Playwrights ’08).
Wes Bentley (Group 29) stars in the Lionsgate film The Hunger Games, which was directed by Gary Ross, written by Ross, Suzanne Collins, and Billy Ray, and based on the novel by Collins.
1990s
In February Anne Bates (Group 27) appeared in the CBS TV show Unforgettable.
In March, Alan Tudyk (Group 26) and fourth-year Julia Ogilvie performed in That Beautiful Laugh, which was conceived by Orlando Pabotoy (Group 27) with his 5-year-old son, Nicholas. The production, which was directed by Pabotoy, was performed at the Club at New York City’s La MaMa.
In May, Viola Davis (Group 22) is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Providence College; she will also receive an honorary doctorate. She and Oscar Isaac (Group 34) are starring in Won’t Back Down, a film scheduled to be released by Walden Media in September. It was directed by Daniel Barnz and co-written by Barnz and Brin Hill.
In March and April, Michael Hayden (Group 21) appeared in Edward Albee’s The Lady From Dubuque at New York City’s Signature Theater. The production was directed by David Esbjornson.
Laura Linney (Group 19) and Elizabeth Marvel (Group 21) star in the upcoming film Hyde Park on the Hudson by Richard Nelson. Directed by Roger Michell, it’s scheduled to be released by Focus Films in December.
1970s
Boyd Gaines (Group 8), Stephen Kunken (Group 26), and Brian J. Smith (Group 36) are all in the new Broadway drama The Columnist by David Auburn (Playwright ’95). The Manhattan Theater Club production began previews in April at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater and was directed by Daniel Sullivan.
Music
2010s
In February, Andrew Arceci (MM ’11, historical performance) and harpsichordist John McKean presented the paper “Forqueray’s La Portugaise: Aspects of Composition, Transcription, and Performance” at I Encontro Ibero-Americano de Jovens Musicólogos, a meeting for young musicologists, in Lisbon. Also as part of the event, the duo performed at the Museu da Música.
Lauren Snouffer (MM ’11, voice) was one of this year’s Metropolitan Opera National Council finalists and will receive $5,000.
Hanah Stuart (BM ’10, MM ’11, violin) performed in the Off Broadway play The Morini Strad, which is based on the true story of a former child prodigy and the violin maker she hires to restore and sell her Stradivarius.
Flutist Xue Su (Pre-College ’11) won the concerto competition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and will perform Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with the C.C.M. Philharmonia Orchestra on May 16.
Nico Athens (BM ’10, composition) and fourth-year composition student David Hertzberg are two of the six recipients of this year’s Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In April, Teodora Dimitrova (BM ’08, MM ’10, violin) performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the New Amsterdam Symphony at New York’s Peter Norton Symphony Space. The concert was conducted by Guerguan Tsenov (MM ’07, orchestral conducting).
Adam Schoenberg (MM ’05, DMA ’10, composition) recently joined the roster of Opus 3 artists. He will be the Kansas City (Mo.) Symphony’s first ever composer-in-residence, starting with the 2012-13 season. In March, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra gave the premiere of Schoenberg’s La Luna Azul, which was commissioned in honor of Robert Spano’s 10th anniversary as music director of the A.S.O.
2000s
In February, Joseph Arndt (MM ’09, organ) performed with singer Jonathan Hampton at the Grace Church of Newark on a program of songs titled “Negro Spirituals: Songs of Trial and Triumph.”
The Tesla Quartet won third prize in the London International String Quartet Competition, which took place in March and early April. The quartet was formed at Juilliard in 2008 and includes violinists Ross Snyder (MM ’09) and Michelle Lie, violist Megan Mason (MM ’09), and cellist Kimberly Patterson (MM ’09).
Jourdan Urbach (Pre-College ’09) is a 2012 recipient of a Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service. Urbach, who is currently a student at Yale University, is the founder of two nonprofits that have collectively raised $4.8 million in funds to aid research and fight children’s neurological disease.
Noah Geller (BM ’06, MM ’08, violin) has been appointed concertmaster of the Kansas City (Mo.) Symphony. He will begin in the 2012-13 season.
In February, Konstantin Soukhovetski (BM ’03, MM ’05, Artist Diploma ’07, piano) gave a recital of works by Philip Glass (Diploma ’69, MS ’62, composition), Richard Strauss, and Schubert at the Phillips Collection in Washington.
In March, Sasha Cooke (MM ’06, voice), Kelly Markgraf (Artist Diploma ’09, opera studies), and Vocal Arts faculty member Steven Blier performed works by Schumann, Grieg, Brahms, Kurt Weill, and Jerome Kern at New York City’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.
In March, Philip Fisher (MM ’06, piano) performed works by Philip Martin, Lowell Liebermann (BM ’82, MM ’84, DMA ’87, composition), Thomas Ades, John Musto, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Ronald Stevenson at Bargemusic, in Brooklyn.
In February, the Phoenix Chorale, under the direction of Charles Bruffy, released a CD of works by Ola Gjeilo (MM ’06, composition) called Northern Lights: Choral Works by Ola Gjeilo (Chandos).
Reena Esmail (BM ’05, composition) is this year’s recipient of the Walter Hinrichsen Award, presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award was established in 1984 by the C.F. Peters Corporation and is given annually to a composer for the publication of a work.
In March, Erica von Kleist (BM ’04, jazz studies) soloed with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra on its Jazz and Strings series in a tribute concert to alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley.
On May 11 and 12, the Music in May festival will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a commission by Polish composer Polina Nazaykinskaya about Holocaust survivor and former Philadelphia Orchestra associate concertmaster David Arbus. Music in May was founded by Rebecca Jackson (BM ’03, violin). Also performing in the festival will be Konstantin Soukhovetski (BM ’03, MM ’05, Artist Diploma ’07, piano) and Amy Yang (MM ’08, violin). The concerts take place at First Congregational Church in Santa Cruz, Calif., and the Cabrillo College (Calif.) Recital Hall.
Lance Horne (BM ’00, MM ’02, composition) presented Salon for Fools, an evening of music and merriment, on April 1 as part of the Downtown Series at Feinstein’s.
In March, Adam Simonsen (Advanced Certificate ’99, Professional Studies ’02, clarinet) posted an educational video of clarinet faculty member Charles Neidich teaching Brahms’s Sonata in E-Flat Major and an interview with former faculty member Elliott Carter on Simonsen’s Web site PlayWithAPro.com.
In March, Mass Transmission by Mason Bates (Barnard-Columbia-Juilliard Exchange ’99; MM ’01, composition) was premiered by the San Francisco Symphony. The 15-minute work is based on radio-wave communications used in the 1920s by parents in the Netherlands communicating with their children, who had been sent to work in Java by the colonial Dutch government.
In March, Young-Ah Tak (BM ’01, piano) gave a solo recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall that was presented by the Korea Music Foundation and included works by Clementi, Schubert/Liszt, Kirchner, and Schubert along the New York premiere of Judith Zaimont’s Wizards. Tak also preformed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Venice (Fla.) Symphony in February, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Roanoke (Va.) Symphony Orchestra in April.
1990s
In January, the Ardelia Trio, whose members are Janey Choi (Pre-College ’93; BM ’97, MM ’98, violin), Evening Division faculty member Jihea Hong-Park (BM ’01, MM ’03, piano), and Clara Yang (BM ’03, MM ’05, cello), performed works of Sophia Serghi at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. In July, the trio will perform at the Bar Harbor (Me.) Music Festival.
In April, Jessica Meyer (BM ’96, MM ’98, viola) and her husband Benjamin Fingland (BM ’97, MM ’99, clarinet), co-founders of counter)induction, a contemporary music collective, released their first CD, Group Theory, on New Dynamic Records. Their CD release party, at the Tenri Cultural Institute, featured fellow collective members Steven Beck (BM ’01, MM ’03, piano), Miranda Cuckson (Pre-College ’90; BM ’94, MM ’01, DMA ’06, violin), Sumire Kudo (Artist Diploma ’03, resident quartet), and composition forum coordinator Ryan Streber (BM ’01, MM ’03, composition). In January, Meyer, the owner of Chops Beyond the Practice Room, which provides workshops and coachings that empower musicians to be the best advocates for their own careers, led a Career Services Lunch and Learn program and several workshops for Educational Outreach fellows.
In January, Eddy Malave (BM ’93, MM ’95, viola) and Sheila Browne (BM ’93, viola) performed works by Bridge, Leclair, and Handel-Halvorsen at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York.
In April, Allison Rubin Bitz (Pre-College ’88; BM ’92, oboe) performed Handel’s Oboe Concerto No. 3 with the Woodstock (N.Y.) Chamber Orchestra.
1980s
In April, Renée Fleming (’86, voice) performed Samuel Barber’s Knoxville Summer of 1915, selections from her pop and indie-rock album Dark Hope, and Broadway duets with vocalist Josh Groban on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center telecast.
In March, Joy Cline Phinney (Pre-College ’77; BM ’84, MM ’85, piano) performed with violinists Perez-Espejo Cardenas and Hsin-Lin Tsai at the Tsai Performance Center at Boston University. The concert was part of a series called El Violín Hispano that showcased Spanish-inspired music by Granados, Turina, Halffter, and Zarate.
In April, Jeffrey Biegel (BM ’83, MM ’84, piano) performed Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and the Detroit premiere of William Bolcom’s Prometheus for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the University Musical Society Choral Union.
Hai-Kyung Suh (BM ’83, MM ’84, piano) gave Four Etudes on Songs of Robert Franz, Op. 91, its world premiere in March at Alice Tully Hall. The work is by Lowell Lieberman (BM ’82, MM ’84, DMA ’87, composition); she also performed works by Beethoven, Schubert, Verdi, Rachmaninoff, and Brahms.
In January, Through a Dog’s Ear, a project created by Lisa Spector (BM ’83, piano) to calm pets through the use of music, was featured on Good Morning America as a recommended stress buster for anxious pets.
1970s
Sophia Agranovich’s (BM ’77, MM ’78, piano) CD Romantic Virtuoso Masterpieces was reviewed in January’s Fanfare magazine. In February, she was featured in a piece on Long Island’s all-news Channel 12.
In March, Bridges by Victoria Bond (MM ’75, DMA ’77, orchestral conducting) was performed at the Deering Estate at Cutler in Miami by the estate’s chamber ensemble.
In March, Paul Green (MS ’72, clarinet) performed the South Florida premiere of The Klezmer Concerto by Ofer Ben Amots with the Boca Raton (Fla.) Symphonia and Florida Atlantic University’s klezmer ensemble. Also in March, Green performed chamber music of Mozart, Franck, and Copland with the Boston Chamber Music Society. On May 29, the Summer Celebration of Jewish Music in the Berkshires, of which Green is a co-director, will kick off in Pittsfield with a concert of Jewish and African-American fusion music.
The Moron’s Guide to Global Collapse by Jenna Orkin (’72, piano) was published in March by CreateSpace. It is about the current environmental, political, and economic state of the world.
Craig Sheppard (BM ’70, MS ’71) gave a recital in March at the Nehru Memorial Library in New Delhi, performing the first two books of Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage. His CDs of these works, recorded live in Seattle’s Meany Hall for the Performing Arts last October, was released in April on Roméo Records. Also in April, Sheppard also gave the fourth of five recitals in his Mostly Brahms series at Meany Hall. In July, Sheppard and Robin McCabe (MM ’73, DMA ’78, piano) will host the third annual Seattle Piano Institute at the University of Washington. For information, visit music.washington.edu/pianoinstitute.
1960s
In March, Meredith Music released Gerald Carlyss’s (BM ’64, MS ’65, percussion) comprehensive performance analysis of the timpani parts in Robert Schumann’s four symphonies.
Ellen Stern (BS ’65, piano) is currently working on a biography of the beloved arts caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, which is set to be released in 2015.
1950s
In November, Ben Armato (Diploma ’50, clarinet) was presented with the International Clarinet Association Honorary Membership Award. The award is the highest honor given by the International Clarinet Association and his nomination was unanimously approved after being voted on at the ClarinetFest conference in Los Angeles last August.
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