Class Notes

Eastman School of Music

1953
Raymond Gniewek was a guest violinist with the Philadelphia Piano Quartet in last March’s Classic Chamber Concert at Edison Community College in Naples, Fla., where he also lives.

1956
John Perry ’58 (MM) performed Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto with the San Bernardino (Calif.) Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Carlo Ponti in January. John is a professor of music at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.

1957
Martha Stonequist retired after 17 years as city historian of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

1958
John Perry (MM) (see ’56).

1963
Chuck Mangione (see ’70). . . . Jerry Neil Smith (PhD) was commissioned by the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic to compose a work for high school orchestra. His work, “South of the Border,” was performed in Chicago at the 2002 clinic by the combined orchestras of Norman (Okla.) North High School and Wichita (Kan.) East High School. “South of the Border” has been published by Neil Kjos Music. Jerry also was featured clarinet soloist and composer at Southwestern Oklahoma State University at Weatherford in December 2003.

1966
John Russo and his East Hill Classic Jazz Group performed at LeMoyne Manor in Liverpool, N.Y., last February.

1968
Bill Cahn (see ’69). . . . Pianist Tom Worrall (MM) was profiled in the Memphis newspaper The Commercial Appeal last January.

1969
Percussion group Nexus, featuring Bob Becker ’71 (MM) and Bill Cahn ’68, performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra last December.

1970
Vince DiMartino ’78 (MM) performed with his DiMartino/Osland Jazz Orchestra at the 30th annual Pittsburgh State University Jazz Festival in March. . . . Geary Larrick (MM) writes, “My book Bibliographic Analysis of Percussion Literature was published in the fall of 2003.” . . . Tenor saxophonist Gerry Niewood performed with pianist Sara Jane Cion’s quartet at The Cornerstone in Metuchen, N.J., in March. He also was scheduled to perform with Chuck Mangione ’63 and a 30-piece ensemble at Avery Fischer Hall in New York City in April.

1971
Bob Becker (MM) (see ’69).

1973
Rudolph (Sonny) Kompanek (MM) writes, “I have orchestrated more than 60 feature films. My book, From Score to Screen: Sequences, Scores & Second Thoughts, The New Film-Scoring Process, will be published in July. I also teach film scoring classes at New York University.”

1975
Keyboardist John Serry ’91 (MM) performed at the 606 Club in London last February with a group that included U.K. saxophonist Dave O’Higgins. He also appeared in Jazz Legends on BBC 3 (his interview is available on the BBC Web site) and Dick Heath’s Jazz and Fusion radio program on the Loughborough University station in Leicestershire, England. He performed at the Bird’s Eye Jazz Club in Basel, Switzerland, in March, and will remain in Europe throughout 2004.

1976
Percussionist Niel DePonte (MM) was a 2003 Grammy nominee for best instrumental solo performance with orchestra for his performance of Tomas Svoboda’s Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra with the Oregon Symphony, conducted by James DePriest. Niel is the Oregon Ballet Theatre’s music director.

1977
The New York Times profiled Robert Kapilow (MM) last year. The article detailed his audience-participation performances of Beethoven’s piano sonata Les Adieux and Handel’s Messiah.

1978
Vince DiMartino (MM) (see ’70).

1980
Violinist and poet Kate Light ’82 (MM) has written text and poems for Oceanophony, a full-length concert piece for children, in collaboration with composer Bruce Adolphe. Oceanophony was performed in the spring by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, with Kate as narrator, as well as at Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla, Calif., the American Museum of Natural History, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. A CD was scheduled to be released last spring.

1981
Dan Locklair (DMA), professor of music and composer-in-residence at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., writes that his Christmas anthem From East to West was premiered by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir last December; The Five Senses, a suite for piano in five movements commissioned by the Music Teachers National Association, was premiered by pianist Louis Goldstein at the association’s North Carolina convention last October; and O Sing to the Lord a New Song (Psalm 96) was premiered by the Wake Forest University Concert Choir last December. . . . Violinist Madeleine Mitchell (MM) released two CDs in 2003: British Treasures and, as part of the trio Triangulus, an album of Hummel piano sonatas. She was a finalist in the European Women of Achievement Awards for her international performances and her outstanding work as artistic director of her Red Violin Festival. She is a professor at London’s Royal College of Music.

1982
Kate Light (MM) (see ’80).

1983
Boston Symphony Orchestra associate principal clarinetist Thomas Martin performed with the Needham (Mass.) Chamber Players in March.

1984
Dave Glasser ’86 (MM) performed with his Dave Glasser Quartet in New York City last February. His latest CD is Begin Again. . . . Jazz pianist Darrell Grant was profiled in Denver’s Rocky Mountain News. Darrell, a Colorado native, performed in Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Denver last January. . . . In February, composer Michael Torke attended the performance of his orchestral work, Ecstatic Orange, by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and gave a presentation of his music. . . . Leslie Umphrey (MM) sang the title role in Opera Southwest’s production of Susannah in Albuquerque, N.M., in February.

1985
John Fedchock (MM) was a 2003 Grammy nominee for best instrumental arrangement, for “Caribbean Fire Dance,” performed by his New York Big Band on the group’s CD, No Nonsense. . . . Jazz composer Maria Schneider (MM), professor and artist-in-residence at Hunter College, and her 17-piece orchestra presented the premiere of a composition commissioned by the school.

1986
Bruce Dudley (MM) and his Trio with Strings performed at the Nashville Jazz Workshop in February. . . . Dave Glasser (MM) (see ’84). . . . Rita Griffith is director of the Buffalo Valley Singers.

1991
Duane Prill (MM), organist for Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester, tunes organs for the Parsons Pipe Organ company in Canandaigua, N.Y. . . . John Serry (see ’75).

1993
Chris Jentsch (MM) (see ’96). . . . David Russell (see ’66RC undergraduate). . . . Valerie Watts (DMA), principal flute for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, member of the Oklahoma Woodwind Quintet, and assistant professor of flute at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Music, performed in the university’s Sutton Artist Series last January. This is her 14th year in the series.

1994
Pianist Mark Flugge (MM) has recorded a jazz CD, Familiarity.

1995
Peter Fletcher (MM) performed a new program, “La Guitare Française,” in Atlanta last February.

1996
Bernadette Diño (DMA) and Chris Jentsch ’93 (MM) were married in November 2003, the same month Bernadette passed the New York State bar exam. Chris has been teaching, performing, and writing a suite for large jazz ensemble on a grant from American Composers Forum. Bernadette and Chris live in Brooklyn. . . . Composer Jeremy Gill, former assistant conductor for the Harrisburg (Pa.) Symphony Orchestra, leads the five-part course, “The Enjoyment of Music,” for Market Square Concerts. . . . David Hagedorn (DMA) writes, “I have a new jazz CD, SolidLiquid, that came out in October 2003. I’m on vibraphone with two different rhythm sections of bass and drums. It’s available from www.artegra.org.”

1998
Jonathan Coo (MM) was accompanist for Belgian tenor Bartholomeus de Kegel at a performance for the Belgian ambassador to the Philippines. . . . Christopher Fensom (MM) and Tara Noval were married on August 2, 2003, at St. Louis Church in Pittsford, N.Y. Christopher and Tara are members of the Charlotte (N.C.) Symphony. . . . Harpist Kwak Jung (MM) is chair of the 2008 World Harp Congress, which will be held in Pusan, Korea.

2001
Pianists Ilan Levin (MM) and Eastman doctoral student Larisa Rozembaigher performed in the concert series, “Classics on Elmwood,” at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo in February. . . . Timothy Olsen (MM), winner of the 2002 American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition, gave a free recital at the St. Lucas United Church of Christ in Evansville, Ind., last January. He played the church’s historic Aeolian-Skinner organ. Tim is Cornell University’s organist and adjunct instructor at SUNY Binghamton. He is pursuing his D.M.A. at Eastman.

2002
Laura Karney is cofounder and comanager of Ardesco, a seven-person nonprofit ensemble. She also owns a reed-making business and gives private oboe lessons. . . . Megan Sesma (see ’02RC undergraduate).