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.
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