Dance | Drama | Music

Dance

Mary Ellen Beaudreau (BFA ’09) has joined the North Carolina Dance Theater. 

Lydia Bittner-Biard (BFA ’09) spent the first part of the summer in Evergreen, Colo., where she interned as a personal trainer and fitness instructor in conjunction with teaching dance classes and offering private lessons at two studios. In August, Bittner-Biard worked with Yara Travieso in Miami, assisting in putting together an evening of Travieso’s choreography. 

Jamal Rashann Callender (BFA ’09) worked with Darrell Grand Moultrie on a special event in June at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the launch of four new world watches by Vacheron Constantin. In July, Callender performed in the Fire Island Dance Festival/Dancers in Response to AIDS in the premiere of a piece by Christopher Huggins, titled boys will be boys. Callender also participated in the summer Web series Dance212, showing the real lives of dancers in New York City. In August, he moved to Atlanta to join Atlanta Ballet, led by artistic director John McFall, for the 2009-10 season.

Aaron Carr (BFA ’09) has joined Keigwin + Company, which performed in July at the 15th annual Fire Island Dance Festival. That same month, the company completed a two-week residency in Green Mountain Falls, Colo. Carr also performed Bolero NYC with the company during its season at the Joyce Theater in New York City in June. The company will participate in Works and Processes at the Guggenheim, on September 11 and 12. 

Brandon Cournay (BFA ’09) spent the summer working for various dance conventions throughout the country. Cournay is currently freelancing in New York City. 

Carlye Eckert (BFA ’09) began her summer working with choreographer Aszure Barton at the Banff Center in Canada. From Canada, Eckert flew to Tel Aviv to study in the Gaga Technique Intensive, headed by the Batsheva Dance Company. In August, Eckert was in back in New York working with Jonah Bokaer on new works in the upstate town of Hudson. 

Sarah Goldstone (BFA ’09) attended the Gaga Intensive Program in Tel Aviv in July. Upon returning to the United States, she moved to Chicago where she continues to audition, does freelance work, and teaches Gyrotonics, an exercise system. 

Kristina Hanna (BFA ’09) joined Keigwin + Company in June and performed in Bolero NYC at the Joyce that same month. After its season at the Joyce, Keigwin + Company spent two weeks in July in Green Mountains Falls, Colo., for a residency as part of the Green Box Arts Festival. While in Colorado, the company began working on the creation of a new piece that is scheduled to premiere in September at the Guggenheim. 

Leon Kupferschmid (BFA ’09) has joined José Navas/Compagnie Flak, a contemporary dance company based in Montreal. Kupferschmid began working with the company in August in preparation for an October tour of Europe, where the it will be performing in Milan, Oslo, and various cities in Belgium. 

Aaron Loux (BFA ’09) is currently dancing full time with the Metropolitan Opera. He can be seen in the upcoming productions of Aïda, opening in October, and Carmen and Les Contes d’Hoffman, both opening in December. 

Nathan Madden (BFA ’09) spent the first part of his summer at Muny in St. Louis, performing in Meet Me in St. Louis and Camelot. Madden was also a member of the artistic staff on Camelot, taking on the role of assistant choreographer to Gemzie DeLappe. Madden spent August in Sacramento, Calif., performing in Sacramento Music Circus’s production of Cats. In September he heads to Montreal, to begin dancing with Ballet Jazz de Montréal. 

Marla Phelan (BFA ’09) is currently on scholarship at the Martha Graham School and in the beginning stages of working on a choreographic project with Esme Boyce (BFA ’09).  

Rachelle Rafailedes (BFA ’09) went to Montreal this summer to do the professional Springboard Project, where she continued to take class and auditioned for several companies in Canada.  

Amaker Smith (BFA ’09) performed this summer in productions of The Music Man and Hairspray at the Muny in St. Louis. He returns to New York City in September to start rehearsals for the upcoming Broadway revival of Dreamgirls. 

Spenser Theberge (BFA ’09) began dancing with Nederlands Dans Theater II in August, performing the repertory of Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, and Lightfoot Leon. To celebrate its 50th season, NDT II is going on an extensive tour (sites include London, Italy, Madrid, China, Germany, Austria, and France). Performances begin in September and continue through July 2010. 

Yara Travieso (BFA ’09) has been organizing a night of short films after having received a grant to commission new films in Miami for the Borscht Film Festival. In Miami, Travieso has also been working on putting together an evening of her choreography. This fall, she can be seen dancing in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Carmen. 

Allison Ulrich (BFA ’09) has moved to Montreal to create and dance in the new Cirque du Soleil show, which pays tribute to Elvis’s music and life, scheduled to open in December 2009. In August, Cirque du Soleil took the show to the stage in Las Vegas to prepare for its December opening in the ARIA Resort & Casino at CityCenter theater, a new performance space with more than 2,000 seats and a 90-foot stage, built specifically for Cirque productions. 

Adam Weinert (BFA ’08), a dancer with Shen Wei Dance Arts, appeared in June with the American Dance Festival when it presented Shen Wei’s complete Re- (I, II, III). The entire Re- cycle was performed together for the very first time as the festival’s inaugural performance in the new Durham (N.C.) Performing Arts Center. In July, Shen Wei performed the Re- cycle at the Lincoln Center Festival, becoming the first dance company to perform in Alice Tully Hall after it reopened in February. Also in July, Weinert shot his own choreography with filmmaker Philippe Tremblay. 

Danspace@BRIC presented Home, a series of three dances that answers the question, “Is home where you’re from or where you are?” One of the pieces, Match Box Dance, choreographed by Adam Weinert (BFA ’08), featured current students Charlotte Bydwell and Nathan Madden, and current student on leave of absence Isaac Winokur, along with Logan Frances Kruger (BFA ’07) and Michelle Mola (BFA ’07). Home was presented in May at the BRICstudio Theater in Brooklyn.  

Shamel Pitts (BFA ’07) won second place for dance in the 13th annual International Solo Dance Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, in March with Conductivity, choreographed by Sidra Bell. The festival toured Athens during the summer and will continue the tour in Germany in the fall. Pitts performed Conductivity in the Choreographic Competition in Hanover, Germany, in April. He and Navarra Novy-Williams (BFA ’06) will be joining the Batsheva Dance Company this fall. 

Riley Watts (BFA ’07) and Idan Sharabi (Diploma ’06), dancers of the 16-member Nederlands Dans Theater II company, will be on tour in various countries throughout Europe—including Poland, Britain, France, and Germany—during the 2009-10 season.

Austin McCormick (BFA ’06), founder and artistic director of Company XIV, presented Le Serpent Rouge!, a theater-dance hybrid retelling of the story of Adam and Eve. Le Serpent Rouge! was presented at 303 Bond Street—the main rehearsal and performance venue for Company XIV—in Brooklyn. The show ran from mid-May through June 6.  

Beth Konopka (BFA ’05) and Annika Sheaff (BFA ’06) were featured in the article “Can Art End Poverty?” in the May 2009 issue of Dance Magazine. Since 2007, Konopka has headed Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP), a New York-based group that does work in impoverished communities using the arts to help children cope. 

Gallim Dance, a company created and directed by Andrea Miller (BFA ’04), performed at the AWARD (Artists With Audiences Responding to Dance) Show 2009 in June at the Joyce Soho in New York City, and performed again that same month at the Jacob’s Pillow gala in Becket, Mass. The company  participated in the Jacob’s Pillow dance festival July 8-12, performing Blush in the Doris Duke Theater. At the College at Brockport (N.Y.), Gallim Dance offered a three-week summer residency and intensive that featured open adult classes. Miller’s Dust was performed by Hedwig Dances in June at the Joyce Theater in New York City. 

Doorknob Company, with members Elisabeth Motley (BFA ’03) and Shannon Gillen (BFA ’03), performed their latest work, The Waiting Room, in the AWARD Show 2009 in June at the Joyce Soho in New York City. During the show, the audience votes to send a choreographer from each night of the festival to the finals, for a chance to win $10,000. The Waiting Room will be presented as a full-length work in 2010. Gillen taught at Dance New Amsterdam in New York City in June and July.  

Justin Leaf (BFA ’01) danced in the final performances of Minnesota Dance Theater’s 2008-09 season, including a new duet by Christine Maginnis and Loyce Houlton’s Sacre du Printemps, in April. Performances took place at the LAB Theater in Minneapolis. In July, Junkyard Theater premiered Bedroom Eyes, an old-fashioned cabaret starring Leaf as Mistress Ginger, at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis. 

Works by Darrell Grand Moultrie (BFA ’00), José Limón, and Troy Powell were performed by Gestures Dance Ensemble—a New York City-based pre-professional dance troupe directed by Nina Klyvert-Lawson—in celebration of the group’s 20th anniversary. The performances took place in June at the Ailey Citigroup Theater in New York City. 

Samuel Lee Roberts (’98) was one of four new members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater who made their debuts with the company in a performance in Paris, in July, as part of Ailey’s 2009 international tour. The tour also included performances in Copenhagen and Athens. 

Lorin Latarro (BFA ’97) was featured in the May 2009 issue of Dance Magazine in an article titled “Movin’ Up,” describing Latarro’s beginnings and her continued successes on Broadway. 

Andrea Weber (BFA ’97) performed with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at BAM in Brooklyn, during the company’s spring season celebrating Merce Cunningham at 90.  

Bahiyah Sayyed Gaines (BFA ’95) presented a one-woman show, “Evening of Song,” in March at the Triad in New York City, singing jazz and R & B standards about love and laughter. Gaines is best known for dancing on Broadway in several productions including The Color Purple, The Little Mermaid, and Rock of Ages.  

TAKE Dance Company, led by artistic director and choreographer Takehiro Ueyama (Diploma ’95), presented its fifth annual New York season at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City. The program featured the premiere of Footsteps in the Snow and the New York City premiere of Shabon. TAKE company members include Amy Young (BFA ’96). The program ran July 30-August 2. 

Nancy Bannon (BFA ’90) gave a performance workshop May 25-July 26 at Dance New Amsterdam studio in New York City. The workshop met twice a week for rehearsals with Bannon to create an interdisciplinary-theater work. The fully-produced performance, The Pod Project, was presented in Dance New Amsterdam’s 130-seat theater on July 25 and 26. 

Rebecca Lazier (BFA ’90), her company Terrain, and 11 other choreographers presented an evening of work on the theme “Blues in the Night” for the Dance Sampler at Symphony Space in New York City in April. 

Elizabeth McPherson (BFA ’90) was appointed assistant professor and dance education coordinator at Montclair (N.J.)
State University. 

Choreographers Rebecca Stenn (BFA ’90) and Ben Munisteri collaborated—with their companies—on the project Chopped and Screwed, a shared evening of dance in which both choreographers recomposed each other’s work to “create an alchemy of utterly surprising and unpredictable dance.” Rebecca Stenn Company members include Eric Jackson Bradley (BFA ’91) and Faith Pilger (BFA ’95). Chopped and Screwed was performed at the Joyce Soho in New York City, June 11-14. Stenn is on faculty at the New School University as choreographer in residence. 

Ohad Naharin (’77), artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, received the Samuel H. Scripps Award at the American Dance Festival in June. Past recipients include Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, Pina Bausch, and Mark Morris. 

Helene Cohen Breazeale (BS ’59) retired recently after 32 years at Towson University in Baltimore. She began her tenure there as dance department founder and chair, then associate dean, and lastly as executive director of the World Music Congresses. 

Martha Gallagher Wittman (Diploma ’58) is a dancer/choreographer/teacher with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in Washington, D.C. 

Ilona Hirschl Russell (Diploma ’58), with her husband, Thomas, is in her 43rd year as owner/director of the Russell School of Ballet and Fairfax Ballet in Virginia. 

Joel Schnee (BS ’58), choreographer/producer/director, has lived and worked in Germany and Europe for more than 45 years. 

Hazel Chung Hood (Diploma ’55) is a Certified Ohashiatsu instructor in Ellicott City, Md., and in Bali. Ohashiatsu is a healing technique combining shiatsu, excercises, and meditation. 

Drama

Katori Hall (Playwrights ’09) has been named the 2009-10 recipient of the Playwrights of New York Fellowship, the Lark Play Development Center’s annual award that provides financial support and housing for a year of full time writing as well as creative support from the Lark’s Playwrights Workshop. In addition, her play The Mountaintop runs at Trafalgar Studios in London’s West End through September 5. The production, which was previously at London’s Theatre503, was directed by James Dacre.  

In May, Yusef Miller’s (Playwrights ’08) screenplay, DING-DONG!, directed by Daniel Aukin, premiered in Ripfest Collaborative Film Project.  

In July, Beau Willimon’s (Playwrights ’08) play Farragut North, directed by Ed Herendeen, was produced at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

In May and June, Francois Battiste (Group 35) and Tracie Thoms (Group 30) appeared in 10 Things to Do Before I Die, written by Zakiyyah Alexander and directed by Jackson Gay, at Second Stage Theater Uptown in New York City.

In May, Steve Harper (Playwrights ’04) was named one of the writers at the 2009 New Professional Theater Writers Festival in New York City for his play The Escape Artist’s Children.

David Adjmi’s (Playwrights ’03) play Stunning, featuring Danny Mastrogiorgio (Group 23), was produced at the Duke on 42nd Street in New York City as part of LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater’s program that produces new work by emerging artists. The production, directed by Anne Kauffman, ran in June and was extended to July 11.

In July and August, Michael Urie (Group 32) appeared in The Temperamentals, by Jon Marans. The new play, directed by Jonathan Silverstein, was produced by the Barrow Group Theater in New York City.

Matt D’Amico (Group 31) appeared in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s productions of Othello, directed by Geoffrey Sherman, and Charles Morey’s adaptation of The Three Musketeers. D’Amico also appeared in the O’Neill Playwrights Conference’s reading of Gregory Moss’s House of Gold, directed by Sarah Benson, in July.

Frank Harts (Group 31) appeared in the film Gigantic, directed by Matt Aselton, who co-wrote the screenplay with Adam Nagata. The film, released by First Independent Pictures, premiered in April.

Last fall, Jeffrey Carlson (Group 30) appeared in the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, directed by Sean Graney. In January, Carlson performed in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by David Schweizer, at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.

In May, Michael Goldstrom (Group 30) directed Mozart’s last opera, The Clemency of Titus, at the Opera Institute at California State University, Long Beach. The production was conducted by Johannes Müller-Stosch with musical direction by David Anglin.

In August, Anthony Mackie (Group 30) performed in the Public Theater’s production of The Bacchae, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, at Shakespeare in the Park in New York City. Mackie also appeared in Summit Entertainment’s film The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and released in June.

In June, Playwrights Horizons’ production of Theresa Rebeck’s Our House, directed by Michael Mayer, featured several alumni: Morena Baccarin (Group 29), Katie Kreisler (Group 30), Stephen Kunken (Group 26), and Haynes Thigpen (Group 23).

Michael Barakiva (Directing ’00) served as the associate director for the Berlin production of Dirty Dancing, which runs through October. In May, he directed Meredith Willson’s The Music Man for the Nevada Conservatory Theater.

Sean McNall (Group 29) appeared in a production of Tennessee Williams’s Vieux Carre, directed by Austin Pendleton at the Pearl Theater Company in New York City. The show ran May 27-June 14.

Michael Chernus (Group 28) and Patch Darragh (Group 28) recently wrapped principal production on the NBC Universal television pilot Mercy. In February, Chernus wrapped filming of Michael Matzdorff’s feature film Feed the Fish, which also
features Tony Shaloub, Barry Corbin, and Ross Partridge.

The premiere of Daniel Goldfarb’s (Playwrights ’97) play The Retributionists runs at Playwrights Horizons in New York City through September 27. The production features Adam Driver (Group 38) and was directed by Leigh Silverman.

In July, Jeanne Tripplehorn (Group 19) was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a mini-series or movie for her performance in HBO’s Grey Gardens. 

Ken Sawyer (Group 17) received LA Weekly’s award for best direction of a musical for Lovelace: A Rock Opera (written by Anna Waronker, Charlotte Caffey, and Jeffery Leonard Bowman), which completed a six-month run in Los Angeles in March. Sawyer also directed a production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula at the NoHo Arts Center in North Hollywood in March.

In June, Greg Jbara (Group 15) received a Tony Award for best performance by a featured actor in a musical for his role in the musical Billy Elliot.

The Roadside Attractions film Shrink, directed by Jonas Pate, opened in July and features Kevin Spacey (Group 12), Dallas Roberts (Group 23), and Robin Williams (Group 6).

Through May, Katherine Griffith (Group 11) appeared in the critically acclaimed production of Dario Fo’s Devil With Boobs, directed by Tom Quaintance, at the Open Fist Theater in Los Angeles. She also had a recurring role on ABC Family’s new television comedy Roommates.

Janet DeMay (Group 8) is a resident mezzo-soprano with the Casa Italiana Opera Company in Los Angeles, where she sang the title role of the Old Maid in The Old Maid and the Thief, in March. She also performed in Madama Butterfly in June and Aïda in July.  

In July, William Hurt (Group 5) was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for his work in Damages on FX.

Through October 31, Linda Alper (Group 4) can be seen in Clifford Odet’s Paradise Lost at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she is completing her 22nd season. In January, she assisted director Gail Edwards on Macbeth, also at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This fall Alper will teach and perform at Peking University in Beijing.

In July, Christine Baranski (Group 3) was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series for her appearance on the CBS show The Big Bang Theory.

John Michalski (Group 2) appeared in the New York Classical Theater production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed by Stephen Burdman, in Central Park in June.  

In July, Kevin Kline (Group 1) was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding actor in a mini-series or movie for his performance in Cyrano de Bergerac on PBS.

Music

Charles Jason Freeman (BM ’08, voice) was accepted as a young artist with the Virginia Opera Spectrum Young Resident Artist Program, which begins in September. He will be performing Shaunard in La Bohème and touring Virginia in outreach programs for schoolchildren. In May, he performed in Carmen with the Michigan Opera Theater in the Detroit Opera House.

Chad Cygan (MM ’07, voice) and Wei-En Hsu (MM ’06, collaborative piano) were awarded the Sing for Hope Grant for Arts Activism and Community Outreach, in April. They will present a series of concerts this season for patients at the Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center in New York City. 

Jennifer Sheehan (BM ’07, voice), winner of the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Julie Wilson Award, will make her debut performance at the Laurie Beechman Theater in New York on September 18, 20, and 25, with a program celebrating the 100th birthday of the Great American Songbook. Sheehan is entering her third season at Radio City Music Hall, performing as one of six singers in the annual Christmas Spectacular, beginning in November.

Elinor Frey (MM ’05, cello) won a 2009-10 Fulbright for study and research in Italy on Baroque and contemporary Italian unaccompanied cello music. She also won a Canada Council for the Arts Grant for study and research in Italy. Frey is obtaining her D.M.A. at McGill University in Montreal and is a course instructor there, and is the cellist in the Montreal-based Ensemble Kore. In March, Frey gave three performances of Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, Ore. This summer, she served on the faculty of music festivals in Orvieto, Italy; Ithaca, N.Y.; and Lakefield, Ontario.

Jesús Castro-Balbi (DMA ’04, cello) received tenure and promotion to associate professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, as well as the Dean’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities. In April, he organized a concert on the T.C.U. Faculty and Friends Chamber Music Series in which he and John Owings (MS ’70, piano) performed with the Miró String Quartet, Juilliard’s graduate quartet in residence from 1998 to 2000, whose members are violinists Daniel Ching and Sandy Yamamoto; violist John Largess; and cellist Joshua Gindele. Also in April, Castro-Balbi performed a program of Shostakovich, Schubert, and a New York premiere by Mike Barnett in Weill Recital Hall with the Clavier Trio, which also includes violinist Arkady Fomin and David Korevaar (BM ’82, MM ’83, piano). In March, Castro-Balbi was artistic director for T.C.U.’s Cellofest, with distinguished guests in five concerts and eight master classes.

Ja-Young Theresa Kim (BM ’02, MM ’04, piano) toured North Korea in April, performing the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto in five concerts with the Pyongyang National Orchestra.

Orsolya Korcsolan (MM ’01, violin) will perform on September 3 at the Jewish Summer Festival Budapest, premiering Jonathan Keren’s (BM ’04, MM ’06, composition) new piece for violin and piano in the Budapest Rumbach Synagogue.

Aaron Boyd (BM ’00, violin) will begin his tenure as concertmaster of the Tucson (Ariz.) Symphony Orchestra in October. He will be performing with the orchestra this season on November 1 at the Community Performing Arts Center in Green Valley, Ariz., and on January 24 at the Tucson Symphony Center.

Rossen Milanov (MM ’97, conducting), associate conductor and artistic director of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, was named music director and conductor of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, in July.

Jamée Ard (DMA ’94, voice) was on the program committee for the first biennial Conference on 19th-Century Music that was hosted in July by the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Zara Lawler (MM ’94, flute) has left the ensemble Tales and Scales, after eight years and more than 1,000 performances of music and theater for children and family audiences across the U.S. She now works in New York City as a soloist, interdisciplinary performer, and coach. In April she launched a blog about music practice techniques and strategies at www.thepracticenotebook.com. In August, she opened the National Flute Association’s Annual Convention with Shummu (Dreams of a Spring Evening), a piece for solo flutist-dancer, with music by David Loeb and choreography by C. Neil Parsons; she also presented a performance/workshop on interdisciplinary performing (combining music with dance, story-telling, and theater) titled “The Flute On Its Feet.”

In April, Paul Stetsenko (MM ’94, DMA ’00, organ) conducted the choir of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Va., in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. In January, March, and May, he implemented and led Bach Vespers, a series of weekly liturgies at the church inspired by and featuring organ compositions by J. S. Bach.

In April, Franco Pomponi (’93, voice/opera) sang the lead baritone role of Fritz the Pierrot in Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt at Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy.

Catherine Ransom Karoly (MM ’92, flute) was promoted to associate principal flute of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in March.

Anne Akiko Meyers (Certificate ’90, violin) joins the faculty of the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin this month. She performed as a guest soloist with the Osaka Philharmonic in Japan and the BBC Scottish Symphony in Glasgow, Scotland, in May.

Rita Porfiris (BM ’90, MM’92, viola) begins her new position as assistant professor of viola at the Hartt School in West Hartford, Conn., this month.

Stephen Wyrczynski (BM ’88, viola), a violist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, will be a visiting viola professor at the Jacobs Music School at Indiana University for the 2009-10 school year. He also is on faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and part of the viola faculty at the Peabody Conservatory, in Baltimore.

Maria Andriasova-Esparza (née Andreasian) (BM ’87, piano) composed and performed the original soundtrack for the documentary film Guillermo Esparza, an American Iconographer, which received its premiere on June 7 as part of events celebrating the 200th anniversary of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City.

James Griffith (’87, viola), founder of Florida Arts, Inc., has restored the historic Federal Building in downtown Fort Myers and converted it to the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center, a 23,000-square-foot multipurpose space for concerts, performances, exhibits, theater, outreach, and more. The building reopened last fall, and the first season of performances during the organization’s Fourth Annual Florida Arts Festival featured Peter Winograd (BM ’87, MM ’87, violin), Caterina Szepes, violist and faculty member Toby Appel, Brandt Fredriksen (MM ’87, piano), cellist Andrés Díaz, Curtis president/violist Roberto Díaz, pianist Wendy Chen, principal violist of the New York Philharmonic Cynthia Phelps, cellist Ronald Thomas, jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, and dancer/choreographer Austin Hartel.

Alain Bourguignon (MM ’84, double bass) was a guest teacher and recitalist at the 18th Double Bass Symposium of the University of Georgia.

Bruce Stark (MM ’84, composition) composed music for the Keys to the Future 2009 festival of contemporary piano music in May at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall in New York City.

In May, the Adrian (Michigan) Symphony Orchestra appointed Kenneth Fuchs (MM ’83, DMA ’88, composition) as composer-in-residence through the 2009-10 season. In collaboration with music director John Thomas Dodson, the residency will include premiere performances of five works by Fuchs. The orchestra presented the premieres of his overture Discover the Wild
and American Rhapsody, with violinist Janet Sung (MM ’98, violin) in April, and the premiere of Concerto Grosso for string quartet and string orchestra in May. Scheduled premieres include Atlantic Riband on October 24 and Divinum Mysterium (a concerto for viola and orchestra) on April 10, 2010. The work was composed especially for London Symphony Orchestra principal violist Paul Silverthorne, who will perform the premiere in Adrian. Fuchs’s works are published by Edward B. Marks Music.

Uriel Tsachor (MM ’83, DMA ’87, piano) performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the SAR Philharmonic Orchestra in Hong Kong, in April.

Moises Solomon Knoll (BM ’82, MM ’84, piano) gave a recital in observance of the bicentennial years of Haydn and Mendelssohn at Beit Daniel, a temple in Tel Aviv, in July.

Mary Kathleen Ernst (BM ’77, MM ’78, piano) and Danish violinist Hasse Borup performed “Mythic Dramas,” a program featuring music of Judith Shatin (MM ’74, composition), at the University of Utah, in April. That same month, they performed the program at Colorado State University, Fort Collins; University of Colorado, Denver; and Fort Lewis College. In May, the duo recorded all of Shatin’s violin and piano works for the Innova label. 

Daniel Paul Horn (BM ’78, MM ’79, DMA ’87, piano), professor of piano and chair of keyboard studies at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Illinois, has completed 25 years of service to the institution. The college recently honored him with its 2009 Senior Scholarship Achievement Award for sustained excellence in a scholarly discipline, citing his continuing activities as a performer and his commitment to teaching.

In March, Dominic A. Aquila (BM ’77, percussion) was appointed vice president of academic affairs at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Tex., having served there as dean of arts and sciences since July 2007.

During a June tour in the Phillippines, Cristine Coyiuto (née Lim) (MM ’77, piano) performed Haydn’s Capriccio in G Major and selections from Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. Her 14-year-old daughter, Caitlin Alisa Coyiuto, joined her in Cécile Chaminade’s Flute Concertino and Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio in the Centro Planta Hotel Ballroom in Bacolod, the City Sports Plaza Ballroom in Cebu, and the Luce Auditorium of Silliman University Dumaguete.

Last season, Kathleen Supové (MM ’75, Professional Studies ’76, piano) appeared at BAM in Arjuna’s Dilemma by Douglas Cuomo in November. She also presented many performances of new works for solo piano with electronics and video and participated in the historic performance of In C by Terry Riley in Carnegie Hall in April, curated by the Kronos Quartet, which includes cellist Jeffrey Zeigler (’01, resident quartet). In January, she performed an extended run of the concert theater piece Removable Parts by Corey Dargel. Supové played solo works and duets with violinists Jennifer Choi (MM ’00, violin) and Mary Rowell (BM ’80, MM ’81, violin) in the Tribeca New Music Festival in June.

Douglas Riva (BM ’74, MM ’75, piano) presented a lecture-recital in May for a symposium in Madrid, organized by the Sociedad Española de Musicología. The three-day event commemorated the 100th anniversary of the death of the composer Isaac Albéniz. That same month, Riva performed the final concert of the Catalan Days festival with the Sylvan Winds in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In June, he gave another lecture-recital for the American Matthay Association Piano Festival held at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.

Andreas Klein (Postgraduate Diploma ’74, piano) presented recitals in January and February at Cleveland State University, at Zilkha Hall in Houston, and in Schloss Ettlingen, Germany. In March, he was featured in broadcasts by KUHF Houston, WGBH Boston, and Minnesota Public Radio. In April, he was soloist with the Greenwich (Conn.) Symphony, performing the Liszt Piano Concerto No.1. As director of audio recording at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., he recorded the Jupiter String Quartet and the Adelphi Orchestra in concerts in April.

Judith Shatin’s (MM ’74, composition) Spring Tides, a work for pierrot ensemble (a group that features flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano) and interactive electronics, was given its premiere by the Da Capo Chamber Players in a June concert at Merkin Hall in New York City.

Edmund LeRoy (MM ’73, DMA ’78, voice) was named professor emeritus of music at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., in May after 26 years of service.

William Lieberman (Pre-College ’71, voice) was soloist at the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial’s annual commemoration of Yom HaShoah in April. He is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his investiture as cantor from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Lieberman serves as cantor at congregation B’nai Aviv in Weston, Fla., and was recently elected to the executive council of the Cantors Assembly, an international organization of professional cantors.

Rita Chen Kuo (Diploma ’67, Postgraduate Diploma ’68, piano) performed works by Chopin, Gottschalk, and Liszt in Taipei, Taiwan, in February. Her Dance for One Piano, Four Hands, commissioned for the New York State Music Teachers Association, District 4 (Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam Counties), was premiered at the Ensemble Festival in Bronxville, N.Y., in March.

Susan Alexander-Max (BS ’65, MS ’66, piano) will perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Christian Bach, and Mozart at the Ninth International Clavichord Symposium in Magnano, Italy, this month.

Richard Beeson (BM ’64, double bass), former orchestra member and manager of the New York City Opera orchestra, published a novel in April titled Seduction of a Wanton Dreamer. Details about the book, which he began in 1988, can be found on his Web site, www.richardbeeson.com.

In March, Roman Rudnytsky (BS ’64, MS ’65, piano) played two recitals in Honduras, including a solo recital in Tegucigalpa and a joint recital with Fernando Raudales-Navarra (Diploma ’65, violin) in San Pedro Sula. Also in March, he played three recitals in Britain, then went to West Africa for two recitals each in Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, organized by the U.S. embassies in those countries. He was on tour from May through August, giving five recitals in Britain and then touring Australia for the 16th time, playing almost 40 concerts there. Included were performances of the Mozart Piano Concerto in D Minor, K.466, the Liszt Hungarian Fantasy with the Cairns Youth Orchestra, and the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor with the Penrith Symphony.

Peter Schaaf (BM ’63, MS ’65, piano) performed El Puerto and Malaga from Isaac Albéniz’s Iberia during David Dubal’s lecture for the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City, in July. 

Valerie Capers (BS ’59, MS ’61, piano) was presented with the 2009 Pen and Brush achievement award in June. She was recognized for her outstanding musicianship, scholarship, and performance career as a composer and pianist.

Angus Godwin (Diploma ’59, voice) has retired from Ithaca College, where he was professor of voice for 38 years. He is still active as a teacher and performer; in June he presented a recital in celebration of his 80th birthday.

Romeo Records released a new CD in March by Uri Pianka (Diploma ’58, violin), former concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony, featuring violin sonatas by Franck and Mendelssohn as well as Kreisler pieces. Pianka’s collaborating pianist is University of Houston faculty member Tim Hester.

Lita Grier (née Lipschutz) (BS ’57, composition) released an album in August with Cedille Records. The CD includes works composed while Grier was still a student at Juilliard as well as commissions from Ravinia and the Chicago Children’s Choir.

Wagnerian heldentenor Kenneth Bennett Lane (’51, voice) lectured and performed in May at the New Life Expo at the New Yorker Hotel.

Alumni News Archives