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Class Notes

Eastman School of Music

Reunion News

Eastman School classes celebrating reunions

October 20–22, 2006

70th Reunion: 1935 and 1936
65th Reunion: 1940 and 1941
60th Reunion: 1945 and 1946
55th Reunion: 1950 and 1951
50th Reunion: 1955 and 1956
45th Reunion: 1960 and 1961
40th Reunion: 1965 and 1966
35th Reunion: 1970 and 1971
30th Reunion: 1975 and 1976
25th Reunion: 1980 and 1981
20th Reunion: 1985 and 1986
15th Reunion: 1990 and 1991
10th Reunion: 1995 and 1996

For more about Alumni Weekend, visit the Eastman School’s office of Alumni Relations

1947
Elizabeth Artman Hagenah ’49 (MA) is the founder and president of Stockbridge Chamber Concerts in Massachusetts.

1952
Joseph Henry ’66 (DMA) will be retiring as music director and conductor of the Missoula (Mont.) Symphony Orchestra and Chorale after the 2005–06 season, his 21st.

1956
Ronald Bishop has retired as tubist from the Cleveland Orchestra after 38 years.

1959
Bassist Ron Carter was the guest of honor at the 29th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration last summer. . . . Trumpeter Jon Hassell ’60 (MM) released a new album, Maarifa Street: Magic Realism 2, last spring.

1963
Mitzie Collins gave a concert of folk music from around the world at the Eastman School last summer.

1965
Drew Frech (see ’66).

1966
Joseph Henry (DMA) (see ’52). . . . Johnny Russo writes, “I’ve released a new jazz/pop CD, Bluebird from the Sky, with seven originals and six covers. The band, the East Hill Classic Jazz Group, includes banjo virtuoso Drew Frech ’65.” . . . L. Rexford Whiddon ’69 (MM) received the Music Teachers National Association’s Distinguished Service Award last spring. He is the director of major gifts for the Columbus (Ga.) State University Foundation.

1968
Percussion group Nexus, featuring Bill Cahn and Bob Becker ’69, ’71 (MM), presented the European premiere of the film score to the classic 1926 Japanese silent film A Page of Madness, composed by Bill, in Hamburg, Germany, last July. . . . Verne Windham is the music director of the Spokane Youth Symphony and the program director and morning classical host for KPBX-FM in Spokane, Wash.

1970
Percussionist Geary Larrick (MM) writes, “My composition, Scott’s Tune, has been recorded in Germany by marimbist Cornelia Monske. I am listed in the 2005 America’s Registry of Outstanding Professionals, and I have 11 compositions cited in the reference book String Music in Print.

1972
Eden Vaning-Rosen (MM) sends a note that her 16-year-old violin student, Vibha Agarwala, received the Volunteer of the Year award from the High Point (N.C.) YMCA for her work in the YMCA Musical Alternatives Program. Eden created the program for teaching music to underprivileged children in 1998. She also attended the American String Teachers 2005 national conference in Reno, Nev., where she presented her research in a talk entitled “The Tension-Free Bow Hand.”

1973
Sandra Dackow ’87 (PhD), president-elect of the Conductors Guild, was a guest conductor for the Spartanburg (S.C.) Philharmonic, the All-Southern California Honors Orchestra, and the New Jersey All-State Intermediate Orchestra. She also spent time in February conducting orchestras at the Singapore American School. . . . Lt. Kenneth Megan conducted the U.S. Coast Guard Band in a Labor Day concert at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., which included Chief Warrant Officer Richard Wyman ’92 conducting Forged in Fire by Mark Watters.

1975
John Ward, music director of the First Congregational Church in Blue Hill, Maine, has been named a fellow of the American Guild of Organists.

1976
Christopher Gekker has released the CD Winter, featuring the compositions of his former classmates, Eric Ewazen and David Snow. Chris is professor of trumpet at the University of Maryland.

1979
Jessica Suchy-Pilalis (MM), ’82 (MA) gave a presentation, “The Use of the Harp in the Chamber Music of Arnold Bax,” at the ninth World Harp Congress in Dublin last July, was a featured soloist performing Debussy’s Danse Sacree et Danse Profane on the Orchestra of Northern New York’s latest CD, Invitation to the Dance, and is on the artist roster of “Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour.” Jessica is chair of the music theory, history, and composition department at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, where she also teaches guitar and harp.

1981
Kari Ravnan is a cellist with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

1982
Jessica Suchy-Pilalis (MA) (see ’79). . . . Eleanore Dill Taylor is a bassoonist with the Granite State Symphony and the Granite State Symphony Chamber Players in Concord, N.H., as well as an artist-in-residence at the Mill Pond Center in Durham, N.H.

1983
Bradley Ellingboe ’84 (MM) conducted the Chancel Choir of the First United Methodist Church and the Koinonia Choir of the Trinity United Presbyterian Church of Modesto, Calif., in a concert last June. Bradley is music director at St. Paul Lutheran Church as well as professor of music and coordinator of vocal studies at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. . . . Renée Fleming (Mas) (see ’88). . . . David Evan Thomas (MM) (see ’90).

1984
Patricia Martin writes, “I am associate professor of woodwinds at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., and have been principal clarinet with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra for 10 years.” . . . Fred Sturm (MM), Kimberly-Clark Professor of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., was presented with the school’s Award for Excellence in Teaching last spring. Fred is one of only five faculty members to receive both the Excellence in Teaching Award and the Young Teacher Award, which he won in 1983. . . . Jeffrey Turner is principal bass player for the Pittsburgh Symphony. He also is music director for the City Music Center Chamber Orchestra at Duquesne University’s Community Music School and is a part-time music instructor at Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon University.

1985
John Fedchock (MM) traveled to South Africa in July to perform in the country’s National Arts Festival. The only American musician invited to perform, John was part of a multinational jazz quintet led by South African trumpeter Marcus Wyatt. He also performed in and contributed arrangements for a big band made up of musicians from more than a dozen countries. While in South Africa, John conducted clinics and workshops at the University of Capetown and the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival. . . . Michael Klein ’87 (MM) is the author of Intertextuality in Western Art Music. He writes, “I am chair of the music theory department at Temple University. I live in Glenside, Pa., with my wife, Yu-Hui Tamae Lee, who freelances as a violinist in Philadelphia, and daughter Michelle.” . . . William Meckley (PhD) received the 2005 State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. William is music director of the Empire Jazz Orchestra, a professional jazz repertory ensemble-in-residence at Schenectady County Community College, where he also is chair of the music department. . . . Bridget-Michaele Reischl is music director of the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra and a visiting associate professor of conducting at Oberlin College’s Conservatory of Music.

1986
Darren Cohen was music coach, director, and conductor of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, the season-opening production of the Barrington Stage Company in Sheffield, Mass., last summer. . . . Roger Nye is a bassoonist with the New York Philharmonic.

1987
Pianist Donna Coleman (DMA) has released a new CD, Havana to Harlem: Rags to Riches Volume II. . . . Sandra Dackow (PhD) (see ’73). . . . Michael Klein (MM) (see ’85).

1988
Derrick Smith (MM), a frequent oratorio and concert soloist, has been performing with symphony orchestras throughout New York State and in Toronto, including a recital with Renée Fleming ’83 (Mas) at the School of the Arts in Rochester, and the concert “Jessye Normans Sings for the Healing of AIDS” at Riverside Church in New York City. Derrick also performed the role of Joe in the 50th anniversary performance of Showboat at the California Musical Theater in Chicago and in June participated in “Songfest” at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. Derrick, who teaches voice at the Eastman Community Music School, ran the vocal segment of the Eastman School’s Music Horizons summer program and collaborated with Eastman staff members on a children’s music recording. Derrick and his wife, Meredith, have four children—Wyatt, 9, Mimi, 5, Lily, 4, and Julia, 1 1/2.

1989
Gene Bradford performed in a blues concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Mo., last July. . . . Master Sgt. Thomas Enokian is the percussion group leader of the U.S. Army’s Concert Band.

1990
Flutist Linda Chatterton completed a nine-state concert tour with harpist Ann Lobotzke and released two CDs: The Romance of Flute and Harp and Gabriel’s Message: Christmas Carols for Flute and Harp, which includes a piece written by David Evan Thomas ’83 (MM).

1992
Ingrid Gordon and Alexander Gelfand send a photo and announce the birth of their first child, Lazar Gordon Gelfand, on May 26. . . . Richard Wyman (see ’73). . . . David Ying (DMA) and his wife, Elinor Freer, are artistic directors of the Skaneateles (N.Y.) Chamber Music Festival.

1995
Pianist Rose Shlyam Grace (DMA), assistant professor of piano at the Eastman School, performed at the Skaneateles (N.Y.) Chamber Music Festival last August. . . . Randall Montgomery is the principal tubist for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. . . . Jacqueline Yost ’02 (DMA) conducted the children’s melody choir and all three choral groups at the Arts Experience in Charlotte, N.C., last summer. Jacqueline also is music director, youth choir director, and organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Concord, N.C., and lectures at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

1997
Shane Endsley (see ’99).

1998
Ben Newhouse is the author of Producing Music with Digital Performer. . . . Derrick (MM) and Heather Steckler Parker (MM) sang with the Spokane–Coeur d’Alene Opera last summer.

1999
Junghwa Lee (DMA) gave a piano recital at the Piyabhand Sanit-wongse Foundation in Bangkok, Thailand, last July. She is an assistant professor of piano at Fort Hays State University in Kansas and visiting assistant professor of piano at Oklahoma State University. . . . Saxophonist Ben Wendel, trumpeter Shane Endsley ’97, keyboardist Adam Benjamin, bassist Kaveh Rastegar ’01, and drummer Nate Woods comprise the band Kneebody, which released its self-titled debut CD last spring. . . . Lori Wike is principal bassoonist with the Utah Symphony.

2001
Nicole Cabell took top prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2005 competition, the first American to win the British contest in 20 years. . . . Violist Amelia Hollander is a member of the Israel Contemporary String Quartet. . . . Organist Jennifer Pascual (DMA) writes, “In the past year, I have performed at the International Bamboo Organ Festival in Manila, the St. John in Lateran Basilica in Rome, and cathedrals in Louisville, Ky., New York City, and Pittsburgh.” . . . Kaveh Rastegar (see ’99).

2002
See Tsai Chan (DMA) is organist and director of the adult choir at the First United Methodist Church in Springfield, Ill. . . . Jacqueline Yost (DMA) (see ’95).

2005
Violinist Kate Carter (MM) performed at her undergraduate alma mater, the University of California at Irvine, last June. . . . Pianist Daniel Pesca performed works by Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms at the National Shrine and Parish of the Cross in the Woods in Indian River, Mich. . . . Pianist Oksana Skidan (DMA) has released a new recording of Lowell Liebermann’s Gargoyles.