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Juilliard Welcomes New Faculty Members
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| Mitchell Aboulafia |
New York City native Mitchell Aboulafia joins Juilliard as chair of the Liberal Arts Department. He has been a professor of philosophy at Pennsylvania State University from 2003-06 (heading the department from 2003-04), and professor and chair of the department of philosophy at the University of Colorado at Denver (1995-2003). He is the author of The Cosmopolitan Self: George Herbert Mead and Continental Philosophy (Illinois); The Mediating Self: Mead, Sartre, and Self-Determination (Yale); The Self-Winding Circle: A Study of Hegel's System (W.H. Green); and co-editor of Habermas and Pragmatism (Routledge). Mr. Aboulafia has published articles in social theory, American philosophy, and 19th- and 20th-century European thought. He has served on the executive committee of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy and as a director and as co-director of the ethics centers at the University of Houston and the University of Colorado. His current projects include a book on justice and cosmopolitanism, an article on Du Bois, and a paper on the self in American and European thought. Mr. Aboulafia holds a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY-Stony Brook, and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. from Boston College.
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| Marianne Barrett |
Marianne Barrett, who will teach German diction in the Vocal Arts Department, was born and educated in Germany. She grew up in Munich and studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, where she was a voice major. She also studied German and English literature at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. After immigrating to the United States, Ms. Barrett lived in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, where she taught at the University of New Mexico, sang in recitals and oratorios, and performed many mezzo roles with the Albuquerque Opera Theater. Since coming to New York, she has taught German at Columbia University and Hunter College and has been on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music as a language instructor and diction coach. She holds the same position at Mannes College of Music. She has coached numerous full-scale opera productions in music schools in New York and also has worked with professional opera companies.
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| Yelena Grinberg |
Teaching piano topics is Yelena Grinberg, who was born in Moscow and began her professional piano studies at the Gnessin Academy of Music for Gifted Children at the age of 5. She came to the U.S. in 1992 and entered Juilliard's Pre-College Division. In 1999, having won the Young Virtuosos International Music Competition, she performed Brahms's Paganini Variations at a gala concert in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. As a student in Juilliard's joint program with Barnard College of Columbia University, Ms. Grinberg graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, majoring in English with a minor in philosophy, and received her Master of Music degree from Juilliard. Currently in the doctoral program at Juilliard, studying with Jerome Lowenthal and Oxana Yablonskaya, she serves as a teaching fellow of piano minors at Juilliard, is an avid member of several chamber music groups at the School, and is organizer of the Columbia-Juilliard biannual concert series at Columbia's Miller Theater.
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| James Houghton |
James Houghton is the new Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division at Juilliard. He succeeds Michael Kahn, who completed a 14-year tenure in that position at the end of the 2005-06 academic term (but will continue to teach acting at the School). Mr. Houghton is the founding artistic director of New York's Signature Theater Company, and remains in that position as he assumes leadership of Juilliard's Drama Division. He was responsible for setting the Signature's agenda of single-playwright seasons, with the playwrights themselves in residence during the seasons devoted to their works. At Signature, he directed the world premieres of plays by Bill Irwin, Horton Foote, Romulus Linney, and Adrienne Kennedy, as well as New York premieres by Edward Albee and Lee Blessing and revivals of Lanford Wilson's Burn This (nominated for Lucille Lortel and Drama League awards) and Arthur Miller's The American Clock (his direction nominated for a Drama Desk Award). Mr. Houghton began his career as an actor, performing with several companies including John Houseman's Acting Company, founded with the first group of actors to graduate from Juilliard. He is a guest lecturer at numerous colleges and theater programs, including Yale, N.Y.U., Columbia, and the Actors Studio, and has been a judge and nominator for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, among others. An artistic advisor to the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis since 1998, Mr. Houghton has also served as artistic director of the O'Neill Playwrights Conference (from 1999-2003) and the New Harmony Project (from 1997-99).
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| Nathan Hughes |
Joining the oboe faculty is Nathan Hughes, principal oboist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He previously served as principal oboist of the Seattle Symphony and as acting associate principal oboist of the San Francisco Symphony. Hughes has also performed as guest principal with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, as well as the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and Baltimore. As soloist, he has been featured with the Met Chamber Ensemble, Seattle Symphony, Savannah Symphony, and Verbier Festival Orchestra, among others. Active at many festivals worldwide, Hughes has performed chamber music at the Marlboro, Santa Fe, and Seattle chamber music festivals, served as principal oboist of the Aspen Chamber Symphony and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and has appeared at the Lucerne, Sarasota, Salzburg, Spoleto, and Tanglewood festivals. Hughes has been on the faculty at the University of Washington and has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory and the Poznan Academy in Poland. He holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Juilliard, and studied with John Mack, Elaine Douvas, and John de Lancie.
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| Albert Laszlo |
Albert Laszlo, who joins the double bass faculty, began his earliest studies on violin, later studying cello with George Neikrug and Stephen Kates. He began bass studies at the age of 12. Mr. Laszlo earned his B.M. and M.M. degrees from Juilliard as a scholarship student of Homer Mensch, and was a fellowship student of Eugene Levinson at Aspen. He served as principal bass of both the National Chamber Orchestra of New York and I Solisti New York. In 1985, he became the principal bass of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as a featured soloist with that orchestra. He is the author of The Double Bass Workbook and has recorded Favorites for Double Bass, a collection of his own transcriptions. Mr. Laszlo frequently appears in recital with his wife, pianist Patricia Wood. He has been a faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival since 1994, where he serves as principal bass of the Aspen Chamber Symphony and performs chamber music with other members of the Aspen artist-faculty. He is an associate professor of double bass at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
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| Roni Mahler |
Roni Mahler will teach ballet and pointe in the Dance Division. She has performed principal roles with the American Ballet Theater and the Washington Ballet, and has appeared as a guest artist with Australia's Sydney Festival Ballet and at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. After training with the renowned Maria Yurieva Swoboda, she began her career in her teens with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Currently the artistic associate of Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, she teaches open adult classes at both the Ailey School and Ballet Academy East in her native New York. A former director of dance at Kansas State University, she initiated the school's dance degree program. She has choreographed for Cynthia Gregory and Fernando Bujones; created Ballet Movement for the Athlete (a program she customized for the Cleveland Browns); and authored numerous ballet CDs, three ballet instruction videos, and a stretch video for flexibility and range of motion.
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| Shafer Mahoney |
Shafer Mahoney, who will teach orchestration, graduated from Princeton University and earned graduate degrees at the Eastman School of Music, where he was a Sproull Fellow. He studied composition with Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, David Liptak, Steven Mackey, Christopher Rouse, and Joseph Schwantner. His compositions have been performed around the world, including at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, and Miller Theater. Commissions include works for the Albany, Seattle, and New York Youth Symphonies; Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Absolute Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Relâche, Cassatt Quartet, Corigliano Quartet, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and Greenwich Choral Society. Mr. Mahoney's music has garnered many awards, including two from BMI, a Morton Gould Award from ASCAP, and the Bearns Prize from Columbia University. The Absolute Ensemble's recording of his music was nominated for a Grammy Award. Mr. Mahoney is an associate professor at Hunter College, CUNY, where he teaches composition and orchestration. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, and is recorded by Enja, Mark, and Summit Records.
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| Banu Ogan |
Joining the Dance Division to teach modern dance is Banu Ogan, who was born in Ankara, Turkey, and grew up in Bloomington, Ind. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Ogan was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1993 to 2000 and originated roles in 10 new works. Since leaving the company, she has performed in pieces by former Cunningham dancers Foofwa d'Imobilite, Ashley Chen, Glen Rumsey, and Jonah Bokaer, and also has danced with the Seldoms, a Chicago-based dance company directed by Carrie Hanson. Ms. Ogan has been a faculty member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio since 1998 and has taught technique class and repertory workshops in Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, and Turkey. She has staged Cunningham's work for the Royal Swedish Ballet; for students at the New World School for the Arts in Miami, Fla.; for ATON/Dino Verga Danza in Rome, Italy; for students at Columbia College Chicago; and for students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She spent 2004-05 and spring 2006 as a full-time faculty member at Columbia College Chicago.
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| J.J. Penna |
J.J. Penna will teach German vocal literature. A pianist, Mr. Penna has performed in recital with Kathleen Battle, Harolyn Blackwell, Amy Burton, David Daniels, Denyce Graves, and Florence Quivar, among others. He has performed in major concert halls in Washington, New York, Mexico City, San Francisco, and London, as well as on concert tours throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, South America, and the former Soviet Union. Mr. Penna has premiered song cycles by William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Hundley, and Lowell Liebermann. He has performed and held fellowships at Tanglewood Music Center, Chautauqua, Banff Center for the Arts, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, and San Francisco Opera Center's Merola Program, where he received the Otto Guth Award. Currently on the faculties of Yale and Westminster Choir College, Mr. Penna has directed the vocal program at the Bowdoin Festival for three summers, and has been on the staff of the Steans Institute of the Ravinia Festival for five summers.
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| Joseph Pereira |
Joining the percussion faculty is Joseph Pereira , who has been the assistant principal timpanist/section percussionist of the New York Philharmonic since January 1998. He received his M.M. in percussion from Juilliard and a double Bachelor of Music degree in performance and composition/theory from Boston University. A native New Yorker, Mr. Pereira is also active as a composer. His Quintet for Winds was premiered in the 2004-05 season as part of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series at Merkin Concert Hall. He has performed with the New York Percussion Quartet, New York New Music Ensemble, Alea III, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw Festival Singers, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra as principal timpanist. He also can be heard on Telarc, Teldec, and Deutsche Grammophon recordings. Mr. Pereira is an alumnus of both the Tanglewood and Pacific (Sapporo, Japan) music festivals.
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| Phil Schaap |
Phil Schaap will teach "The Origins of Jazz" as part of Juilliard's Jazz Studies program. Mr. Schaap has taught jazz at the graduate level at Columbia University and Rutgers University. His undergraduate teaching career was highlighted by his 14 years at Princeton University. He runs Swing University, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Adult Education Program. Since 1970, he has broadcast jazz on the radio (stations WKCR at Columbia University, WNYC in New York, and WBGO in Newark, N.J., as well as for NPR) and is known for his marathon festivals on one artist, birthday broadcasts, and memorials. Most familiar is his daily show, Bird Flight, on Charlie Parker. Upon becoming curator at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Mr. Schaap left a successful career producing, remastering, and writing for record companies, such as Universal, Sony, and Polygram. From 1984-91, he was the archivist for the Savoy Jazz label. His productions have garnered many Grammy Awards, including three for producing, three for historical writing, and two for audio engineering.
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| Steven Tenenbom |
Joining the viola faculty is, Steven Tenenbom, who has appeared as guest artist with the Guarneri and Emerson String Quartets, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson and Beaux Arts Trios, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Chamber Music at the Y. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Rochester Philharmonic and the Brandenburg Ensemble. Mr. Tenenbom is violist of the Orion String Quartet, the quartet-in-residence of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mannes College of Music, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The Orion Quartet has also toured widely with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Mr. Tenenbom has worked closely with such diverse composers as Lukas Foss, John Corigliano, and jazz greats Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis. He is also on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he is the coordinator of string chamber music, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music. He has recorded on RCA with TASHI and the Guarneri String Quartet, on Koch International and Arabesque with the Orion String Quartet, and can also be heard on the Sony Classical, Marlboro Recording Society, Delos, and ECM labels. Born in Phoenix, Ariz., he attended the University of Southern California and Curtis.
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| Robert C. White |
Robert C. White, who joins the voice faculty, earned his B.S. in choral and vocal music education from Susquehanna University and his M.A. and Ed.D. degrees in voice pedagogy from Columbia University. He has performed as baritone soloist in recitals, oratorios, and chamber music in the New York metropolitan area and has given lecture-recitals and master classes throughout the U.S. and in Canada and in Germany. He was professor of music for 31 years at the Queens College Aaron Copland School of Music and at the CUNY Graduate Center. The author of several articles on voice pedagogy and vocal repertory for such publications as the Journal of Voice, the Music Educators Journal, and the American Music Teacher, Mr. White is co-author with Ruth Lakeway of Italian Art Song, a study of contemporary Italian song published by Indiana University Press. He has served on the board of directors of the New York Singing Teachers' Association and New York City Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and is a member of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing, for which he has served as chairman.
Juilliard also welcomes violinist Giora Schmidt (assistant to Itzhak Perlman) and Yves Dharamraj and Dmitry Kouzov (both assistants to Joel Krosnick), and violinist Arnaud Sussman (Starling Fellow). The Pre-College Division welcomes solfège teacher Kyle Blaha and theory teacher Mathew Fuerst.
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