FACULTY

Graduate studies and Evening Division faculty member David Dubal (DIP '61, piano) was awarded an honorary doctorate at the SUNY College at Oneonta's commencement ceremony in May. Last spring, he gave a three-part lecture series at the Metropolitan Museum and presented three lecture-recitals at the Philharmonic Center in Naples, Fla. He also gave master classes and a lecture on Liszt at the Shanghai Conservatory. In June, he curated and hosted a four-program piano series at New York's Instituto Cervantes, In the Gardens of Spain, that involved 43 pianists and was broadcast over WQXR (which continues to broadcast Dubal's Reflections From the Keyboard on Wednesday nights at 10). In July, he gave a lecture titled "What Makes a Masterpiece" at the Aspen Ideas Festival, hosted three concerts and gave a lecture and a master class at the International Keyboard Festival in New York, and gave a lecture on Mozart at the University of Scranton.

Shirley Givens (DIP '53, violin), a member of the Pre-College violin faculty, was presented the 2006 Presidential Scholar Teacher Recognition Award by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings last June in the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington. As Presidential Scholars, three of Givens's former Juilliard students, Joseph Lin (Pre-College, '96), Eva Lopatin Dickerman (Pre-College, '04), and Elizabeth Fayette (Pre-College, '06) nominated her for the award.

Guitar faculty member Sharon Isbin is featured in five songs, including a seven-minute piece entitled Billy's Theme, on the soundtrack composed by Howard Shore for Martin Scorsese's new film The Departed. Ibsin performs on both the song compilation CD, to be released by Warner Sunset/Warner Bros. in November, and the score soundtrack CD, to be released on December 5 by New Line Records.

Itzhak Perlman ('68, violin) will host 13 radio programs in 135 markets on XM Classics' Channel 110 from October 2006-November 2007, marking the 70th anniversary of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Zubin Mehta. The broadcasts will feature guest soloists and conductors, including Juilliard alumni Herbert Blomstedt ('53, orchestral conducting), Yoel Levi, and Pinchas Zukerman (Professional Studies '69, violin). Gil Shaham ('90, violin) and Yefim Bronfman ('81, piano) will be soloists with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at concerts in December 2006.

The Juilliard String Quartet, composed of faculty members violinists Joel Smirnoff (BM '75, MM '76) and Ronald Copes, violist Samuel Rhodes, and cellist Joel Krosnick, is celebrating its 60th anniversary season with a series of concerts and the release of a Sony BMG Masterworks two-CD set of works by Shostakovich which also honors the composer's centennial. The J.S.Q., which played the first Bartok cycle in America at Tanglewood in 1948, will perform seven complete Bartok cycles at concerts throughout the U.S. and Japan. The quartet will also be releasing new and updated podcasts, featured on iTunes, and will be touring the U.S. performing Mozart's Quartets K. 421, 428, and 465 in honor of his 250th birthday.

The Choir and Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola, directed by faculty member Kent Tritle (BM '85, organ; MM '88, organ; MM '88, choral conducting), opened its 18th Sacred Music in a Sacred Space season with a mix of Baroque, Classical, and 20th-Century American repertoire. The arias and duets of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Magnificat will be sung by soprano Serena Benedetti, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (MM '06, voice), tenor Oliver Mercer, and baritone Jesse Blumberg.

STUDENTS

Jazz piano student Aaron Diehl played in a quartet led by Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson, with Kengo Nakamura on bass and E.J. Strickland on drums, that performed on the Jazz at Lincoln Center's series Sings Over Manhattan in October with vocalist Stephanie Jordan.

Violin student Augustin Hadelich won the gold medal at the Seventh Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis in September. Additional special prizes awarded to Hadelich include best performances of a Romantic concerto, Classical concerto, Beethoven sonata, violin sonata other than Beethoven, the commissioned work (Bright Sheng's A Night at the Chinese Opera), a Bach work, an encore piece, and a Paganini caprice.

Elizabeth Meriwether's (Playwrights '08) new play The Mistakes Madeline Made is currently running at Yale Repertory Theater. The production, directed by Mark Rucker, features Group 28 alumni Patch Darragh and Michael Chernus. Meriwether won the 2006 New York Newsday Oppenheimer Award as an emerging playwright in October.

Zhou Tian, a composition master's candidate and winner of the Minnesota Orchestra's Reading Sessions and Composer Institute, had his piece The Palace of Nine Perfections read by the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Osmo Vanska. Zhou has also been appointed composer-in-residence of Music in the Loft in Chicago for its 2007-08 season, a residency that includes a commission for a new work for the Jupiter Quartet to premiere in November 2007 and performances of other recent works by the Fry Street Quartet and the Jupiter Trio.