Class Notes

Eastman School of Music

1932
Mitch Miller was the honorary chairman of Rochester’s East High School’s centennial last July. Last September, he presided over the Eastman School ceremony that named Eastman Place, the building at 25 Gibbs Street that houses the Sibley Library, “Miller Center” in honor of his parents, Abram Calmen and Hinda Rosenblum Miller.

1937
Frederick Fennell ’39 (MS), ’88 (HNR) was the guest conductor of the Blossom Festival Band at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, last July (also see ’58).

1947
Ella Vosburg Cripps, organist and choirmaster at the First United Methodist Church in Geneva, N.Y., was honored last summer for her 60 years with the church. Ella has been an organist at the church since she graduated from the Eastman School.

1949
Shirley Graf Durling and her husband, Robert, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last May. Shirley was a charter member of the Syracuse (N.Y.) Symphony and retired after 35 years as a violinist. She also was a string teacher in the West Genesee (N.Y.) School District.

1950
Former music industry executive Jim Foglesong was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on November 9. Jim now teaches at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.

1951
Donald Knaub ’61 (MM), former professor of tuba and trombone at the Eastman School, plays bass trombone and piano with Barry Snyder ’66, ’68 (MM), Eastman professor of piano and cochair of the piano department, on the CD Retread. The CD is a digitally remastered copy of two albums Donald recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Donald is professor emeritus of trombone at the University of Texas–Austin.

1955
Paul (MM) and Helen Bilhorn Baumgartner (MM) presented a classical piano concert at Cross United Church of Christ in Berne, Ga., last August.

1958
Carol Moyer Winkelman ’59 (MM) sang Bernard Rogers’s Three Japanese Dances with the North Carolina School of the Arts wind ensemble, directed by James Kalyn ’92 (DMA), last May. She was the soprano in the original recording of the work with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, directed by Frederick Fennell ’37, ’39 (MS), ’88 (HNR).

1961
Donald Knaub (MM) (see ’51).

1966
Barry Snyder ’68 (MM) (see ’51).

1969
Fred Halgedahl hosted the first annual five-hour Reinbeck (Iowa) Sonata Marathon open house at his home last June. Fred is assistant professor of violin and viola at the University of Northern Iowa School of Music in Cedar Falls.

1970
Geary Larrick (MM) is the author of Theory and Composition of Percussion Music. He also has references in the RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, a comprehensive international guide to writings about music produced by the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale. His composition, Dance to Four Drums, was premiered last August at the Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum. . . . Chris Vadala, director of jazz studies and professor of saxophone at the University of Maryland, is listed in John Laughter’s book, The History of the Top 40 Sax Solos (1955–1998), and Lewis Porter’s Encyclopedia of Jazz. A frequent performer with the National Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony, Chris also has conducted 33 all-state jazz ensembles in the past 10 years.

1972
(Stephanie) Eden Vaning-Rosen (MM) is the author of From Rote to Note, the 19th book in her Step-by-Step Method series for Violin, Viola, and Cello. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Northern Arizona, and the University of Southern California.

1973
John Beall (PhD) (see ’78). . . . Don Freund (DMA) (see ’78). . . . Chief Warrant Officer Kenneth Megan has been appointed director of the United States Coast Guard Band. He has been a musician, arranger, assistant developer, director of public information, and producer of the band’s radio series, as well as supervised the band’s Young People’s Concerts and the Coast Guard Band Recital Series. . . . Jeff Tyzik ’77 (Mas) (see ’58RC undergraduate).

1974
Heidi Lowy (MM) has recorded Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas and Ravel: Das Klavierwerk (Works for Piano Solo).

1975
John Ward passed the associate examination of the American Guild of Organists, winning the Associateship Prize for the highest score on the examination and the S. Lewis Elmer Award for the highest overall score on any of the upper-level exams given by the organization. John is musical director for the First Congregational Church of Blue Hill in Maine.

1978
Pianist Steven Smith (DMA), professor of piano and piano literature at Penn State, recently returned from a concert tour of Australia and New Zealand. The repertoire included works by Don Freund ’73 (DMA) and John Beall ’73 (PhD). He also gave recitals and master classes at the University of Melbourne in Australia and the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. Earlier in the 2003–04 season, he performed Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with the Nittany Valley Symphony in State College, Pa., and recitals with his wife, Theresa, a soprano, at West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va., and in Interlochen, Mich., as well as several recitals at universities in Illinois and Ohio with tenor Richard Kennedy.

1979
Jeff and Deborah Plutzik-Briggs ’80 write that Deborah was named one of Maryland’s “top 100 women” by The Daily Record, and Jeff was named the 2003 Ernst and Young Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year for software. Jeff is founder of Firaxis Games, and Deborah is community relations manager and recruiter for the company. . . . Elizabeth Bankhead Buccheri (DMA) received an honorary doctor of fine arts degree from North Park University in Chicago last May. She continues her associations with the Lyric Opera in Chicago, where she is an assistant conductor, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where she is an accompanist and soloist coach. Elizabeth also is senior lecturer and director of the collaborative piano program at Northwestern University School of Music. . . . Robert Jesselson (MM), professor of cello at the University of South Carolina, spent two months teaching and performing in South Korea and Taiwan. Robert taught at the Killington Music Festival and at the North Carolina School of the Arts last summer. In December 2003, his USC String Project was featured in the New York Times. His organization is the model for 36 other “string projects” at universities across the country.

1980
Deborah Plutzik-Briggs (see ’79).

1981
Robin Stamper (see ’83). . . . Barrick Stees (see ’83).

1983
Bassoonist Diane Groves Bishop and pianist Robin Stamper ’81 performed an aria from Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio in the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra’s Sounds of Summer Series last June. The work was transcribed for bassoon and piano by Barrick Stees ’81. The executive director of the Orlando Philharmonic is David Schillhammer ’87. Diane is principal bassoonist with the Orlando Philharmonic, and Robin is music supervisor and chorus master of the Orlando Opera.

1984
Clyde Thompson (MM) composed the cantata We Have Spoken—Voices from Native America and directed performances of the piece at the High Desert Museum in Oregon last August.

1985
Jonathan Dubay is in his 11th season as a member of the Oregon Symphony. He released his first CD, Béla Bartók, The 44 Duos for Two Violins. Jonathan says his two children, 2 and 5, inspired him to write, produce, and perform The Wooden Boy with the Tears of Joy Theatre at the Portland (Ore.) Center for the Performing Arts. The show combines Bartók’s violin duos with Hungarian and Romanian folk tales and puppets. . . . Sandra Maile Dudley (Mas) writes that she has been assistant professor of commercial voice at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., since 1995 and recently has produced her first solo recording, Close to You. She is also the featured vocalist on the Jazz Orchestra of the Delta’s Big Band Reflections of Cole Porter. Her Web site is www.sandradudley.com. . . . Jazz composer Maria Schneider (MM) has
released her first CD in four years, Concert in the Garden. Her Web site is www.mariaschneider.com.

1986
Ivan Griffin (MM) played the role of Jim in the Croswell Opera House’s production of Big River in Adrian, Mich. . . . Cellist Mark Lekas, part of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Chamber Trio, performed in the concluding program of the 2003–04 Mercantile Bank Family Concert Series in Hammond, Ind.

1987
Monisa Phillips Angell is the founder of the Nashville Chamber Orchestra’s Historic Franklin Chamber Music Festival in Williamson County, Tenn. Monisa also played the viola in a concert featuring works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dimitri Shostakovich, Walter Leigh, and Libby Larsen. . . . David Schillhammer (see ’83).

1988
Lisa Ferrigno is concertmaster of the Brevard (Fla.) Symphony Orchestra. . . . Pete Mills released the jazz CD, Art & Architecture, last August.

1989
A composition by Gordon Chin (DMA), Wind, the Colliding Sound of Time for cello and percussion, was performed in the Taipei Cultural Center’s annual Taiwan Connection show at Alice Tulley Hall in New York City.

1991
Jazz pianist Jonathan Katz (MM) is a cofounder of the quartet Candela, which combines jazz-based music with Japanese melodies.

1992
James Kalyn (DMA) (see ’58).

1993
Brant Taylor, a cellist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with the lounge jazz group Pink Martini, performed and taught at the Mimir Chamber Music Festival at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth last July.

1994
Cheryl Terwilliger (MM) and Cathy Harris affirmed their partnership in a commitment ceremony in New York City last June. Cheryl is the director of instrumental music and chair of the visual and performing arts department at the Bullis School in Potomac, Md. Cathy is a senior associate with the Washington, D.C.– based law firm Kator, Parks & Weiser and an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University.

1995
Arisa Kusumi and Sean Sullivan were married on August 26 in Asheville, N.C. Arisa is an opera singer based in New York and Orlando, Fla. Sean is a manager at Siemens in Orlando. . . . Singer Jesse Lowry competed in an American Idol–type talent show, Gimme the Mike, in Pittsburgh.

1996
David Holben has formed the brass quintet Long Beach Brassworks. He plays the tuba.

1997
Saxophonist Pat Donaher is the founder of the group No Sale Value. Band members include “DJ Industrial Average,” also known as Joshua Valleau ’00, drummer Chris Vatalaro ’00, and trombonist Tim Albright ’98. Their debut recording is Nu Currency. Their Web site is www.nosalevalue.com. . . . David Hamilton (MM) is the interim principal at Churchville-Chili (N.Y.) Junior High School.

1998
Tim Albright (see ’97). . . . Shizuo (Z) Kuwahara writes, “I have been promoted to associate conductor of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in Norfolk, Va. I was at American University in Washington, D.C., as an assistant professor and music director of the university’s symphony orchestra. I am also an assistant professor and the music director of the symphony orchestra at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. I conducted the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last summer on a tour of the United States and returned to conduct the Buffalo Philharmonic this season.”

1999
Pianist Ramasoon Sitalayan (MM) gave a recital last July at the Chintakarn Music Institute in Bangkok, Thailand. Ramasoon won the Bangkok Chopin Competition and the fourth Piyabhand Sanitwongse Piano Competition.

2000
Assata Alim-Clark and her husband, Paul, announce the birth their son, Morgan Elijah, on April 20. . . . J. Christopher Pardini (MM) is the music director and organist for the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. Previously, he was senior organist at Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. . . . Joshua Valleau (see ’97). . . . Chris Vatalaro (see ’97).

2001
Guitarist Ben Altman opened Mercer University’s concert series last summer in Atlanta, Ga. . . . Eric Dudley has been appointed assistant conductor for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

2002s
Emily Sotherden John is director of Treble Voices of Queens, a choral program for singers between the ages of 10 and 18. Emily also conducts four choirs for children and young adults at the Center for Preparatory Studies.

2003
Violinist Solomiya Soroka (DMA) was featured in the opening concert of the 2004 summer concert series at the Grazhda Music and Art Center of Green County in Jewett, N.Y.